Now, as a spoilt bleedin’ Aussie I don’t like queues (even the spelling is weird), so when I saw the interminably long lines of people waiting to purchase tickets so that they could join the even longer queue for the cable car to ascend the admittedly impressive Table Mt, I got into a bit of a sulk.
To her credit the long-suffering Georgie convinced me to stick it out, and by golly I’m glad she did!
Table Mt is stunning. Even with all those other people there. The ecology on that misty, rocky, wind-blown, 1000 metre tall monolith is utterly unique. The plants, lizards and mammals that live there are fascinating and fabulous. The views too are incredibly impressive, out over the coast line and to the mountain ranges in the misty distance. We were lucky because we struck a day when the mountain’s ‘table cloth’ was not there and we could see for ever in a 360 degree view. Mind-blowing is probably an apt description.
I will let the pictures say what I couldn’t possibly put into words:
Day 2
After the splendours of Table Mt one might think that all else would be just ho hum, but no, today’s adventure managed to continue the magnificence of yesterday.
In our hire car we drove slowly down the spectacular coast road that leads to the Cape of Good Hope. The road is an engineering wonder that is cut into the high rocky cliffs that plummet down into the blue waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Awe-inspiring views were around nearly every corner and we stopped whenever there was a space big enough for our titchy hire car to pull off so we could take photos.
The day was full of fabulous protea scrubland and impressive cliffs reaching into the sea. Wildflowers of weird and wonderful shapes abounded, and we even got up close to a family of baboons (windows closed of course) that had a few cutsie little bubbies.
The Cape of Good Hope was pretty busy, tourist-wise, but not nearly as jam packed as the Twelve Apostles was in Australia.
Later in the day we came to a coastal stretch that is a protected reserve for the unique South African Penguin, where hundreds of the little critters were busy nesting, feeding chicks, braying in their funny way and just sunning themselves on the beach.
A lovely day in all.
Day 3
We continued down the coast road, marvelling at the dramatic rocky coast line, stopping regularly for photo opportunities.
At Betty’s Bay we called in on another penguin reserve, paid our 20 Rand ($2) and wandered around looking at not only the nesting penguins but the lizards, birds and dassies too. We tootled down the road further to find a nice spot to bung together a sanger. Sure enough we found a botanical gardens that we figured might have a shady bench somewhere.
Well, we were pleasantly surprised to discover that the gardens were a fabulous creation, chock-a-block full of interesting native plants and set out in separate wetland, woodland and fynbos areas as well as other SW Cape ecological biospheres. We spent a very long time wandering from one plant to another, oohing and aahing. Then we discovered that there were trails that led up into the valley behind and even a very enticing 4 hour circuit walk up into the rugged mountain behind.
As it was getting a bit late in the arvo we decided to find a place locally to sleep the night and come back again in the morning. We found a nice B&B and I took myself off for a bit of a wander up ‘Rod’s Trail’ (yes, that’s what its called) into the hills behind. The flowers up there nearly blew my mind, proteas the size of bread plates and all different shapes and colours. Then a long tailed Cape Sugar Bird posed for me, its tail three times its body length. Beautiful.
I wondered what the next day’s adventure would bring me as I walked up the tall dry mountain, the home of leopards, baboons and boks of all descriptions.
Day 4
I don’t get it. How can it just keep getting better?
My walk up to Leopard’s Kloof Waterfall was utterly splendid. The fynbos at Betty’s Bay kept surprising me every few metres with yet another weird and wonderful wildflower. I thought Western Australia’s wildflowers look like they come from another planet, well South Africa’s wildflowers look like they come from another UNIVERSE! The diversity of proteas themselves was enough to blow me away, varying from tiny little things to enormous great flowers, and all the other plants of different shapes and forms, including terrestrial orchids, were totally amazing. I loved it.
Georgie declined to undertake the rather strenuous uphill clamber, and instead spent a few hours in utter peace and tranquility in the gardens whilst I explored the mountainside.
Georgie wants to move to Betty’s Bay, but I’d have to learn Africaans to work in the schools, and we’d probably never get work permits anyway.
But all good things must come to an end, and by midday we had pushed on further along the coast. The quality of the scenery took a bit of a dip, although the glorious dry and rocky mountains continued to hug the horizon. We turned inland and came into wine country that looked to be in the grip of a drought, everything was deathly dry and brown, and there were signs heralding that the dams were down to only 17%.
My eyes began to get tired so we stopped in a dusty little town and sought out what might have been its only cafe for a shot of caffeine. The lady serving provided us each with a huge slab of orange cake that was simply oozing with syrup and juice and was utterly delicious.
We then progressed on to Stellenbosch, a rather pretty tree lined town with lovely architecture that is in the heart of South Africa’s premier plonk growing district. We managed to wangle an utterly sumptuous room in a rather palatial guest house for a price that was only just outside our budget. All rather posh really.
We planned to explore the botanical gardens that were just across the road the very next morning.
