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South Africa / Travel — Comments Off on Road Trip Day 4: J-Bay
30
Jun 10

Road Trip Day 4: J-Bay

Wednesday, June 30

Jeffreys Bay, RSA

The Garden Route begins at Storms River Mouth at its eastern end.  The N2 from PE to Storms River Mouth is beautiful the whole way, even if not a part of the Garden Route.  In fact, about 75km from PE is Jeffreys Bay.  Supposedly Jeannette had seen this beach before as it was featured in (and became famous after) Endless Summer.  But as this movie was a chore to watch, she doesn’t exactly recall.  She will always remember visiting Jeffreys Bay though.  It was gorgeous.  We picked up some cappuccinos at a beachfront coffee house and watched an impromptu, pickup soccer game between some Brazilian tourists and local kids.

On our way out of town we stopped at the mall (a HUGE mall) to pick up medications for our now out-of-control colds.  The pharmacist was super helpful and aided our navigation of the foreign under-the-counter-is-still-behind-the-counter-and-needs-a-pharmacist’s-sticker system.

South Africa / Travel — 1 Comment
28
Jun 10

Road Trip Day 2: Cango Ostrich Farm

Monday, June 28

Oudtshoorn, RSA

After driving back towards the city to get back on Route 62, we didn’t get far.  We realized we needed to visit a real ostrich farm if we were going to truly “do” Oudtshoorn.  We couldn’t drive past the Cango Ostrich Farm without stopping in for a tour.  After some lessons on the history of ostrich farming in South Africa and on ostriches themselves, we got to go and see the farm.  We got to “hug” ostriches, see some eggs, see the emus they have, watch some ostrich jockeys, and then Josh got an “ostrich massage”.  The guide had Josh hold the feed bucket in front him while a ton of the female ostriches craned their necks over and around his shoulders to get in the bucket.

Cango Ostrich Farm:

Getting our ostrich hugs:

This is the nicest female (which we hugged) and on the right is a dwarf ostrich female.  Every time they try to put her in a pen with another female, the big one beats her up, so she lives alone.

This is one of their emus:

The mating pairs have these houses to nest in:

A male, checking us out:

A look at all the pens:

Ostrich jockeys:

Josh getting his “massage” and really thinking about his earring!  From the beginning of the tour, the guide had been teasing Josh to watch his “shiny” earring because it was just the perfect shiny type of bauble (and height) that an ostrich would love to peck at and eat!

Josh checking the eggs:

The shells are super strong!

South Africa / Travel — Comments Off on Road Trip Day 1: Route 62 to Oudtshoorn
27
Jun 10

Road Trip Day 1: Route 62 to Oudtshoorn

Sunday, June 27

Cape Town, RSA to Oudtshoorn, RSA (420km or 260mi)

As depressed people do, we slept in a bit after the USA loss… USA loss, Celtics loss… It all seemed so much.  We decided to go on a sports-soul healing drive across the entire Western Cape and on across the Eastern Cape as well.  Richard encouraged us that our previous plans of just taking 1 day to drive to Addo (where we had reservations for Monday & Tuesday night) and 1 day back was not long enough to enjoy the drive.  After sleeping off the heavy losses, we hung out with our South African family and made some reservations for Oudtshoorn (official site) for the night – in a place where Richard and Carol knew someone who had stayed there before and they highly recommended it.  Additionally, Richard had a spare cell phone and SIM card so we didn’t have to go buy another one!  Even though we had barely used our previous cell, having one available as needed made us feel so much more connected and able adjust plans as needed.  It was so kind of them to let us borrow theirs and it made everything right with our world again (well, other than our USA loss – wink, wink).

We had heard of the Garden Route before we got to South Africa, and knew that we wanted to drive that one way of our trip to Addo – but when we arrived we learned of Route 62 (wiki).  Richard again highly recommended this scenic drive to Addo.  It was a gorgeous route along the mountains, and the striking landscapes seemed to change drastically by the hour.  We rattled off comparisons we were familiar with as drove.  Here is just a short sampling of some the wildly varied places we were reminded in the quickly changing landscape of the drive:  Grand Canyon, American Southwest, Petrified Forest, Australian Outback (although we’ve never been), the Badlands, Washington State, and West Virginia.

To get to Route 62, first we drove N1 through the Winelands and through a mountain range using the Huguenot Tunnel.  At Worcester we turned East on R60.  R60 follows the mountains to R62 and is a gorgeous drive.  We stopped in Robertson (official site) at the Rooiberg Winery (as Richard had suggested), but they were closed on Sundays so we ate at Bourbon Street and had Rooiberg wine there.  We drove through the super cute towns of Montague (official site) and Barrydale (official site) while listening to the game in both English and Afrikaans on the radio.  We thought we could understand the Afrikaans broadcast well enough to know when a goal had been scored and for which team, but it turns out when we get into range of an English broadcast several goals had been scored for both Germany and England that we had been unaware of!

We passed by Ronnie’s Sex Shop – which is supposed to be an awesome pub – but we had just gotten to a good radio station with the game in English and the sun was starting to set so we didn’t want to miss any of the landscape.  (The sunset was gorgeous!)

Despite our efforts, it was dark by the time we got to Oudtshoorn.  The Buffelsdrift Game Lodge, where we were staying, was  about 7km outside of town.  It was INCREDIBLY lux.  We tried to document the luxury details in the “tent” before we headed to dinner at the lodge restaurant.  We had an AMAZING dinner:  South African wine, ostrich wellington, venison loin medium rare, Afrikaans oven bread and malva pudding with custard.  Over the top ridiculously good.  We can’t say enough about the accommodations or the dinner – amazing.  Jeannette loved her HOT pedestal bath with salts and we loved falling asleep to a cacophony of loud birds. A great start to our road trip inside of a trip.

Our route for the day:


Our first start of the Mountain Route:

We saw baboons!

Huguenot Tunnel:

Cute church in Barrydale:

Canyons, just as the sun was going down:

Our tent at the Buffelsdrift Game Lodge:

South Africa / Travel — 1 Comment
26
Jun 10

Cape Town Day 5: Cape of Good Hope

Saturday, June 26

Cape Town, RSA

After seeing the penguins, we headed the rest of the way down False Bay to the Cape of Good Hope.  There were all sorts of signs for baboons and Josh finally got to see some on the way into the National Park (Jeannette was taking a cat nap).  The old lighthouse was beautiful and we had a good time exploring around Cape Point.  It was SUPER windy (as will be evidenced in the photos below).  All in all, this day out on the Cape of Good Hope was a very successful trip for Josh’s inner child to finally see where Prince Henry the Navigator dabbled in exploration, as it had fully captured his imagination when he was a boy.  When we left the park, we decided to go home the “quick” way so that we could catch some of the Round 2 Uruguay-Korea game.  We were able to do just that and watch the second half at home before heading back downtown to watch the USA play in the second round.

Our drive from Kalk Bay, to Simon’s Town, to Boulders Beach, to Cape Point:


Inside the Cape of Good Hope National Park:

The old lighthouse:

Hold on to your cap, Josh!

Needless to say, we needed a comb after we left!

You’re looking at the southernmost tip of… Cape Point! (They have determined that Cape Agulhas is farther south on the African continent, though most Cape Towners still talk about the Cape of Good Hope as the southernmost tip.  When you remind them it isn’t, they say “Well, it’s the symbolic southernmost tip of Africa. They have no need for L’Agulhas. Haha!)

This is the modern beacon for the Cape Point.  The old lighthouse is no longer functioning.

A story of the bad hair day to come:

Looking North:

South Africa / Sports / Travel — 1 Comment
24
Jun 10

Cape Town Day 3: Netherlands v. Cameroon @ Green Point Stadium

Thursday, June 24

Cape Town, RSA

After driving back to the city center, we parked at Claire’s Dad’s firm on Long Street.  While we were waiting for everyone who had tickets to the game to gather, the two of us headed to an English Pub, 3 Lions, just around the corner for a few pints while we watched the first halves of the Slovakia-Italy and Paraguay-New Zealand games.  After we all met up on Long Street, we walked the Fan Mile to the stadium, stopping halfway there at Lazari at the Cape Quarter for dinner, care of Malcolm.  After a fun dinner with good people and conversation, we walked the whole Fan Mile (a lot of Dutch fans!).  We want to note here that the Fan Mile in Cape Town is much longer than one mile.

Once we were in the stadium we found that we had amazing seats!  We were right at the yellow corner flag, and two rows up from the railing.  Where we sat wasn’t as loud as the Soccer City stadium, but we were right at the corner where two goals were scored – and the subsequent celebrations were had.  Once again we were rooting for the African team, but most people in attendance were pretty stoked that Netherlands won 2-1.  We enjoyed seeing Eto’o and Robben play.  Josh spilled beer (a full bottle) on our camera bag due to an exciting PK in our corner – luckily Jeannette had the camera out on her lap at the time, so no harm done – but the great seats only served to heighten excitement.  Josh had also practiced his vuvuzela skills and was one of the better blowers in our section.

We all met back up for some wine to sit and recap the game together.  Jeannette had started to feel a bit sick for the last couple days and by the end of this long day, her cold had come on quite strong.  Luckily one of the people we had just met for dinner, and again postgame, was a nice doctor.  She offered some advice, and prescriptions if desired.  Jeannette decided to hold out for a bit longer (bad idea) but did snag a box of kleenex that was gone by the end of trip, along with a second full box.

By the time we made it home, we were feeling peckish and still pretty riled up and excited about the game so we stayed up and ate snacks with Claire and her parents, Carol and Richard, before hitting the hay.

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