had a fantastic day in Hermanus, spotting the whales while enjoying a lovely lunch in the harbour! Will post short video soon!
Archive for September, 2009
Let’s go see the wild flowers near Cape Town
And what a lovely day it was! Together with my friend and her mom we first drove to Riebeeck Kasteel. The weather didn’t look great for the day but road trips in South Africa, I simply LOVE! Afterwards we heard that Cape Town had been quite horrible, pouring down, so we were happy we left the city and drove up north, N7, to see if we could find some wild flowers. August and September (after the rains) are the months to do this trip.
First stop was Riebeeck Kasteel, such a lovely village, about 1.5 hour from Cape Town. It’s quaint, cute and perfect to have a nice lunch with a glass of Sauvignon. YAY! The sun showed herself just a little bit but it was comfortable enough to sit outside on the terrace. Riebeeck Kasteel is also home to some fabulous wine estates like Kloovenburg and Allesverloren (try the Port here, YAM!)
Quaint shops in Riebeeck Kasteel
Anyway, swiftly moving along because we still had to find some wild flowers! Driving back to Malmesbury and then crossed through to Darling. Millions and millions of Arum lilies en route, so beautiful and very tempting to pick a whole bunch but obviously can’t do! A bit further we finally found a field full of colourful flowers. It’s kind of an art to see them when there’s no sun and lots of wind. We only saw the different colours when we turned around. It was in the Tienie Versveld Reserve on the R315 from Darling to Yzerfontein.
After some fun in the flowers we drove through to Yzerfontein to Die Strandkombuis, a wonderful venue right on the Atlantic Ocean, specialised in sea food and only open on Sundays. It was Saturday today so no sea food for us but it was great to see the place and to dream about coming back when the weather is stunning with a whole bunch of friends and just chill, eat and drink wine the whole afternoon. Another one on the to-do-list for Summer!
On the road to Yzerfontein we got a bonus and saw a beautiful tortoise disappear between the yellow flowers.
Tortoise en route!
will be working on t
will be working on travel itineraries for clients in Oct, Nov & Dec. Yahoeoeoe!!
Hiking Silvermine, awesome views of Hout Bay & Noordhoek
This morning my friend Liz and I were actually on our way to the Helderberg Nature Reserve in Somerset Wes, when we found out that THAT hike was not happening. Ok, quickly made a new plan to hike a bit closer and went to the Silvermine Nature Reserve. From Cape Town you take the M3 down to Muizenberg. At the end of the M3 you turn right and then go left up Oue kaapse weg, direction Fish Hoek. You will have spectacular views of Muizenberg Beach, Tokai Forest, False Bay, the back of Table Mountain and the city. Once you drove up all the way and turn around the bend, the entrance to the Silvermine nature reserve is on your right hand side. You pay an entrance fee of ZAR 20 pp if you don’t have a wild card (which I had forgotten..). There’s a beautiful dam so for those who just want to relax, take your picnic basket or braai kit and relax. It’s really beautiful! The flowers were amazing today as well. We keep smelling these lovely purple flowers and we don’t know what they are. Anyone?? They smell like very nice soap.
The directions in the park are not really super clear but there are friendly parking guards to point you in the right direction. You can’t really get lost because all paths go around. We first hiked towards Elephant’s Eye Cave from where you have, again, a beautiful view. Sorry, but we’re really fortunate to live in such an amazing place and enjoy all the natural beauty so close to home. We felt very privileged again today. WoW! After Elephant’s Cave, we moved back to the gravel road and hiked until we came to the look out point over Hout Bay. It must be one of the most beautiful sightings in the world. I’ve been around the globe quite a bit but nothing beats this!
View of Hout Bay from Silvermine look out point
And this picture was taken with a Blackberry!! Sure Liz has better pics as well. After resting a bit and taking in all this incredible beauty we moved on to we didn’t know exactly where but we took our time to explore the whole area. And then we found another great spot to relax and overlook Noordhoek beach.
Noordhoek Beach from Silvermine Reserve
We hiked for about 4 hours and felt ready for the week ahead again. The hikes are moderate, not too much climbing and scrambling, because you start already very high. So enjoy great views without tooo much of an effort!
had a fantastic hike
had a fantastic hike in the Silvermine Reserve, spectacular views of Hout Bay & Noordhoek!
