Left Kei at about 9am to go to East London airport, dropped off the car, flight on time and arrived Jo’burg airport at 1.30. Couldn’t check in until 4pm. Put our luggage in storage and went across the road (20 meters) to the Intercontinental Hotel and had lunch on the terrace.
Checked-in and went to the lounge to update blog.
Took a little drive around Kei, had a cuppa at Yellowwood , a very interesting campsite and coffee house. Walked the beach at Morgan’s Bay and had lunch on the Deck, part of the hotel. Last day with Jeff and Cheryl. Great stay.
Took a trip via the ferry across the river and took the gravel road cross country through the spread out villages of the Transkei. Had lunch at Trennery’s a small hotel on the coast, very pleasant. Went for a drink at the Bush Pig pub before dinner.
Chilled most of the morning, Irene and Cheryl shopped a little and I helped Jeff with a little gate problem. Jeff suggested we take the two canoes down to the river, the tide was coming in so we started at the mouth and canoed upstream towards the ferry. It was a lot more windy than expected and Irene struggled to get to the other side as the wind kept blowing her to the shore. Made it eventually. Brai in the evening with four other local friends of Jeff & Cheryl.
Left Hout Bay at 8am to Cape Town airport for our flight to East London and on to Kei Mouth up the Wild Coast to visit Jeff & Cheryl. Another smallish 40 seater jet and this time we were charged for 3 kilos excess baggage. Bit of a cheek as there was only 16 or so passengers on board.
Picked up the hire car and went to Woolies to do a little shopping for Cheryl and arrived at Kei about 2pm. Chilled the rest of the day
Went into CT via our favourite shop Weylandts and drooled over some of the furniture etc. Bought a couple of packable nick knacks.
Spent a few hours at the new Silo Musuem on six floors of the old grain silos converted to a fab hotel and contemporary gallery.
Went to a local Italien Resto in the evening that served a great gluten free pizza, Irene really chuffed, the first pizza she has had for ages
Woke to a beautiful view over Hout Bay. Today we met Dave and Renate. They came here for coffee then we took a trip to the weekend market at the end of the bay. We remembered more stalls last visit two years ago, today there were more food stalls. People seem to go for breakfast or lunch. Quite eclectic. We wondered for about an hour then took the car nearer our lunch venue. We first took a look at stalls along the Quay side. We were early for our table, but it didn’t matter they were ready for us. Brendon our waiter from a previous visit had prepared all the staff for us, we felt like celebs! Great lunch of fish, Rock shandies and a bottle of red. We got back to the apartment about 3.30/4pm and have soaked up the sun on our balcony and read books for the rest of the afternoon. A very pleasant day.
We left Monte Bello in Windhoek at 7.15am for the airport. Our flight to Cape Town was at 9.20am. The airports about 40km out of town, looking for a flat place for an airport!
We arrived in CT at 11.20 am, good flight in a small 44 seater jet, bit bumpy landing! Long, long queues for passport control, but it meant we chatted to a man who had been president of Namibian rugby until recently. By his size, obviously a rugby player! Picked up our hire car and hot footed it to Hout Bay. Our studio apartment is great. Spacious, great views over the sea, huge balcony with plunge pool. A little too cold for us, but great in warmer weather! CT is about 20/22, a bit cool after being in 38/40 for the past four weeks!
We shopped in the local mall, by the beach for a bit of breakfast food, and wandered around the port. After looking at the menu we decided to book the Warfside Grill for supper. We’re just back from there. We had a bottle of La Motte, a favourite of the Butt/Harris/Kelly days here, with a huge seafood platter of prawns, calamari, mussels and line fish on a bed of savoury rice and smothered in lemon butter with peri peri on the side. Delicious and totally stuffed! Cost about £25 for two! for the fish, £12 for the La Motte.
Now back at the apartment to get some sleep!
13th November
Blog posts will be intermittent for a while as internet/WiFi not available in the middle of nowhere!!
Another longish day driving to reach the Kgalagadi National Park. It is a long drive for most people as they probably live in Jo’burg or Cape Town and it is 1000 km. Arrived about 5 pm, we probably took the wrong route from Kuruman, it was the least mileage but the last 150 km was on gravel Ugh ! We stayed at a camp called Two Rivers which is on the Botswana side. The whole Park borders Botswana. Only 4 camp spots at this site and we were one of two campers so nice and quiet. No light pollution and lots of night sounds. Steak on the barbie with a little veg plus the obvious bottle of red
Wednesday 14th November
Woke at dawn about 5.30. Quite cool at this time. Had to do some immigration formalities (complicated) On the road at 9.00 am for drive to Nossob Camp about 140 km. Lots of small water holes on the way for game viewing. Saw Springbok, Wilderbeast, Gemsbok, Lioness with three cubs and a Honey Badger to name a few. There are no Elephant in this Park. Arrived Nossob Camp at 5.30. Fenced Camp so secure from wildlife. Nice camp site with our own ablution and kitchen/wash up area plus electric hook up. Not that « wild ».
Salmon and veg for supper.
Monday November 12th
Up crack of dawn for Jeff to take us to the Bushlore depot in Midrand
After all the paperwork, checking of the inventory, filling up with diesel, we were on our way from Jo’burg at 10.00 am. Long day driving to our first night stop at the Red Sands Country Lodge at Kuruman arriving at 17.30. Nice site with it’s own little ablution block. After unpacking all our cases and organising the “kitchen” and a quick glass of rose we took ourselves off to the Lodge and indulged ourselves in a dozen peri peri King prawns and a bottle of Zonnebloem Shiraz, £15 a head. Wonderful. It’s warm , 34 deg but not to bad at time of writing, it’s 21.30 and nearly time for bed on the roof!!
Good start !
Still in SA so good Wi Fi ?