More than a month has passed since I last wrote… and what a month! We arrived at Frank’s place in Somerset West, some 45km from Cape Town, on the second of January. We were greeted by Frank and shocked by the sudden change in standard of living; last night we spent in a tent and now we were going to sleep in this… mansion? The guest room was so immaculate I dared not nap on the bed, but lay down on the floor instead… I quite simply felt too dirty.
After a short nap, at least it felt short, we climbed into Frank’s Discovery and set course for his favorite restaurant; Henri’s. Visiting Henri’s once again proved what we had figured out a good 2.5 weeks earlier: South Africa is a wonderful country. The most expensive main course, ostrich fillet, cost 125 Rands and all meals tasted absolutely wonderful. It’s quite amazing what little price difference there is between a decent restaurant and a great one!
A few days after our arrival Frank took us to the Tyger Valley Shopping Mall where he a few weeks earlier had met a Swede, Lars, running a wine store. Lars immediately invited us to try some of his wine and after a couple of bottles he also invited us to a barbeque. With the Swedish track and field national team. It turned out that Lars for the last couple of years had helped them organize their training camps in Cape Town, and as the ongoing camp was coming to an end everyone was invited to dinner. The event was all great fun, especially for Kina who had to explain to me afterwards who the people we’d met were.
The next few weeks primarily circled around trying to get Frank’s Disco ready for their trip. Him, John and Tony were mere weeks away from their departure, but the car was still to be finished. We followed Frank around to all of Cape Town’s 4x4 and outdoor stores, gave him pointers and tried to help him figure out what he should have done with the car. A few days before Frank was to go to the UK he had his plan all set up and the car was handed over to Cris at R&D Offroad. Frank then left for his 10-day trip, leaving Kina and me alone in the house. We cannot stress enough how extremely grateful we are for his amazing hospitality. Not only did he offer us stay as long as we’d like in his house, he also trusted us to stay in it alone while he was away. Very nice of him!
When Frank was away we got an email from the Brazilians (www.mundoporterra.com.br) whom we had driven through Sudan with. Roy and Michele had now reached Cape Town and we decided to meet before they had to leave for Namibia. We had time to meet a total of three times while they where waiting for their visas for Angola. They did however not get said visas, but decided to try to get them in Namibia instead. We are now keeping our fingers crossed, hoping they will get them.
Between our meetings with the Brazilians we also had dinner with Charlotta and Lenny, a Swedish/Dutch couple whom we’d met first in Kenya and then later in Malawi. They were staying in Stellenbosch so we were practically neighbors. It was great fun to meet them again and we decided to celebrate us reaching civilization by having an ice cream marathon at Mc Donald’s. Great fun!
Lenny told us we had to stop by at a penguin watch point on our way down to Cape Point the day after. He described the penguins as looking completely lost standing in 35-degree heat, digging holes in the sand. He was right. They looked hilarious! And also really cute.
We had seen a few penguins when we a couple of days earlier had visited the Two Ocean’s Aquarium down by the Waterfront in Cape Town, but this was magnificent. Hundreds of penguins were swimming, running around, nesting or just standing around in great congregations. The tourists got to walk around on raised walkways, allowing us to see the penguins at close range, but still not getting so close we’d disturb them.
The Two Ocean’s Aquarium is worth mentioning a bit more, by the way, as it is a beautiful installation well worth a visit. Placed just by the sea it offers a great selection of the wildlife present in both the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean, as the two oceans meet nearby.
There was a huge tank holding among other things sharks, rays and sea turtles, and also a lot of smaller tanks, a great penguin compound and a special frog exhibition. All very well presented and great looking.
Back to Cape Point, where the drive along the coast is a sight on its own. As we reached the park we first drove down to Cape Point, which is different to Cape of Good Hope, and neither of them is the southern-most tip of Africa.
From the well-filled parking we walked a path, climbing up to the highest point on the Cape Point Cliffs, some 250 meters above sea level, stopping at several viewpoints along the way. On the top a lighthouse was built, but it had soon proved useless since its high location resulted in it being covered by clouds most of the time.
Thus a new lighthouse was built a couple of years later, located at 89 meters above sea level, edging just at the southernmost cliffs of Cape Point. The view from the cliffs at Cape Point was absolutely breath taking, offering the magnificent sight of the ocean pounding the cliffs hundreds of meters below and also a plethora of different birds nesting on the steep cliffs. Magnificent.
After a short lunch we took the car over to Cape of Good Hope, where we took the ceremonial picture of Bumblebee parked by the large sign. As we were about to leave the whole place seemed to get swarmed by Swedes. In about 15 minutes 11 Swedes in three different groups approached us. Amazing. We can only wish we had thought about putting up the Swedish flag a few months earlier, as it sure seems to work.
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