South Africa's finest and a marathon!!
- Rhoda Phillippo Harrington
- Jan 6
- 23 min read
Our amazing trip to Capetown and the Garden Route including a safari adventure......our trip was organised through the amazing team at https://encompassafrica.com.au
OUR HOLIDAY TO SOUTH AFRICA – OCTOBER 2024
Sydney to Jo’burg to Capetown Marriot Crystal Towers Hotel - Day One and Two
Our premium economy flight to Jo’burg was good, however we did not have our “meet and greet” as expected to help us through the maze that is Jo’burg airport from international to domestic. We didn’t have much time between connections so were delighted to be “adopted” by a smiling porter who scooped us up and deposited us at the right gate to recheck our luggage and head through security. Our driver was waiting for us in Capetown and we were pleased to end what was a very long day with a good night’s sleep.
We were naturally awake very early so went for a walk around the canals surrounding this relatively new development called Century City in Capetown. A huge Virgin Active gym opposite the hotel provided us with a much needed workout. Then we grabbed an Uber to V&A Waterfront (Victoria and Alfred, not Albert!) and dropped a case we didn’t need at the place where we will stay in a little over a week’s time. We wandered around the area which was bustling and full of great shops, restaurants and live performers of all types. We had lunch at the Ferryman’s Irish Tavern which was gearing up for an afternoon of Irish music and dancing. We had booked to visit Robben Island and after a short delay boarded the big catamaran which would take us there. We sat on deck due to my poor ability to travel well across the waves and were next to two girls who took more selfies than we would have imagined possible during the course of the afternoon. The visit was in two parts. The first was a bus tour around the island where we saw the route that the prisoners were required to walk in shackles when they arrived, the limestone quarry that the prisoners worked in and the now abandoned prison buildings where Robert Sobukwe the leader of the Pan African Congress was detained in 1963 and kept in solitary confinement for six years and not allowed to communicate in any way with other prisoners. Although it was very hot on the bus with no air conditioning we loved the guide who was incredibly knowledgeable and also loved the way the mainly African audience interacted with questions for him. We stopped for a drink in a small café and took photos of the penguins that live on this tiny island too. The second part was the prison itself, guided by a former prisoner. To have lived in these tiny rooms with no toilet facilities and a tiny exercise yard for such a long period of time is hard to imagine. Nelson Mandela arrived on the island in June 1964 and spent 18 years of his prison sentence here. We visited his tiny 2 by 2 cell with a bucket for a toilet. He was only allowed one visitor a year for 30 minutes and to write and receive one letter every six months. The garden that the prisoners cultivated in order to hide their work (particularly Nelson Mandela’s) and the invention of a tennis game in order to get the work into the outside world by hitting balls outside the prison confines with his work inside were truly inspiring and I determined to re-read The Long Walk to Freedom. The whole visit was sobering in many ways and from the story in the ferry terminal to the guides and the way the prison has been turned into a memorial for so many left a lasting impression on us. Back to shore we caught an Uber to Century City and had a lovely tapas dinner at La Parada – a chain that we were going to frequent a couple of times on this trip.
Simbavati lodge - Fynbos on sea - Sedgefield - Day Three to Five
We were picked up at 8am by Mohammad to start the 5 hour drive to our first garden route destination near the townships of George and Sedgefield. The first 90 minutes out of Capetown were peppered with huge townships on either side of the road – he told us that the largest one was home to over 2 million people. Most of the shacks had satellite dishes, and the toilets were at the outskirts of the townships, portaloos. He also told us that despite what they looked like on the outside, many of these were very well kept inside. He said there were a mixture of people who worked and chose to live in the townships rather than in the city, however for us it was a real contrast with the V& A Waterfront yesterday and the “have’s” and “have nots”. As we went up and over the mountains (Langeberg) that define the beginning of the Garden Route and approached Mossel Bay the scenery changed dramatically several times. We had not anticipated the rolling countryside and massive farmlands and soft fruit plantations that we saw. We passed ostrich farms (apparently ostrich meat is red like steak and Mohammad encouraged us to try it while on our trip, which we did) and elephants wandering through farmland and felt like we were really in the heart of this amazing place. Mohammad couldn’t find the lodge – it was tucked away up a 3km steep drive and we saw a mongoose on our approach (we later learned that this was better than the snake that the arrivals before us had seen)! We were met by the lovely staff at Simbavati and told we had been upgraded which was a nice surprise. There were only 9 rooms at the property which had stunning views over the valley below. We were introduced to Keith who was to be our guide while we were here and after a quick change he whisked us out for a drive around the property and up to one of the two lookouts over the sea. The property was once a sheep farm and the current landlord has been returning it to its natural state for some 10 years now. Fynbos means fine bush and the bush is very indigenous to this part of South Africa – rich in plants and flowers and very beautiful. The protea flowers growing wild were amazing in their different colours and shapes and sizes. On this short drive we saw the mouse bird, the red billed spurfowl (a funny bird that ran around in packs like headless chickens) the boubou, the weaver and the lilac breasted roller as well as zebra, bush and water bucks. The weavers were a beautiful golden colour and the males had created their nests in and around the trees where our lodge was. They apparently try to make the best nest to attract a female to come and lay her eggs in it. One weaver had made his on the end of a massive palm tree frond that was buffeted by the wind at the top of the mountain so we doubted that he was going to be successful in attracting anything other than a very adventurous mate!!
Keith was incredibly knowledgeable about flora, fauna, birds and animals so we learned a great deal on that first short drive. Despite being a small place Simbavati boasted 52 wines on the menu (we didn’t manage to try them all!) and we had a lovely dinner (steak for Tim and fish for me).
Next morning, Tim and I set out early on a bush walk around the property – safe as there are no lions around although Keith had warned us to be watchful for snakes. The bush walk is marked and you could do 5, 10 or 15k so we opted for 5k this day – we are still suffering from waking up rather early! Our walk took us to the second look out and we saw dolphins playing in the sea at the base of the cliffs.
We also saw beautiful Elan, the bucks and zebra. Adding to our bird watching we saw the Water Thick Knee Crane (a funny name as it has the skinniest little legs!), the cape sugarbird, the widow bird and the cape canary. I must admit that I was probably boring Tim with my fascination with these exotic bird types. There are many molehills across the property but we never did see a mole. After breakfast Keith had planned a beach walk with the other guests Rosanne and Dave from Vancouver. They were tandem cyclists who had completed an impressive number of long distance cycles together including from Brisbane to Melbourne. The beach was very beautiful and we came across a plough snail furrowing through the sand. We had lunch and then Keith walked with us up to the lookout that we had visited that morning and Rosanne came along. We learned a great deal more than we had observed on our own as Keith pointed out the different leaves, their smells and what they were used for. Tim stepped on a small snake which gave us all a fright!! Dinner that night was a cauliflower steak for me and chicken for Tim.
Once again, Tim and I started the day with another walk to the lookout and then (mindful of the marathon) I ran down to the main road and back (just 6km but with the uphill coming back quite a test in the heat). We chilled out in the morning and then after lunch Keith took us to Rondevlei (Round Lake) and a visit to a bird hide and then a walk up the Mole track. We saw a malachite kingfisher (Keith’s favourite bird), waxbill, cape weaver, coots and moorhen, a fork tailed drongo, a bee-eater, and both white breasted and cape cormorants. It was a beautiful setting with only us there.
Fynbos on sea – Sedgefield to Amanzi Boutique Hotel, Knysna - Days Six and Seven
After breakfast and a visit to the protea farm with Keith we were collected and driven the short distance to the Amanzi Boutique Hotel in Knysna.
The weather was quite cloudy and miserable in the morning so our visit up to East Head didn’t display the views that we had seen in photos! We chose to check into our whale suite and sat by the pool as the sun came out and had lunch in the hotel – a small place (15 rooms) on a small “island” attached to the mainland by a causeway. Promise is the main man at the hotel and looked after us very well. After lunch we decided to use the hotel bikes and do a loop of the island (about 5k) however due to punctures Tim had to ride a three wheeler much to the amusement of some local boys!! We returned and had another spell by the pool, followed by dinner in the hotel.
Our 1st Wedding Anniversary – how quickly that year has gone and what a lot we have packed in! I set off to run 10k (twice around the island) and Tim cycled but not on the three wheeler this time. Promise took us into Knysna and we visited the waterfront and bought some gifts and postcards and had lunch at 34degrees south which served amazing seafood. It was on the same latitude as Adelaide! Then we walked up to the mall and stocked up on underwear as we knew that our laundry service that we had enjoyed at Simbavati was not going to be the same as we headed on safari, then headed for an enlightening visit around the Old Gaol museum. We read up about the Numbers Gangs which originated as an African nationalist organisation and is present in most South African prisons to this day. The gang is divided into groups – the 26’s, 27’s and 28’s and is one of the oldest crime organisations in the world. We also read the story of the Thesen family and the yacht that they sailed to this area in 1870 from Norway. Their discovery of this area was quite by accident as they were enroute from Stavanger to New Zealand where they planned to resettle. Encountering heavy weather and damage to their boat in Cape Town they were approached to deliver some supplies to Knysna and realised the potential to settle here instead. We had booked a massage at the Peluza Spa in the late afternoon so Promise dropped us up there and we finished the day with a lovely anniversary meal at Drydock back on Knysna waterfront. A great day.
Amanzi Boutique Hotel, Knysna to Amakhala Game Reserve – Hillsnek Camp - Day Eight to Eleven
We were picked up at 9am for the 5 hour drive to Amakhala which is past Port Elizabeth or Gqeberha as it is now called. Our guide was much more knowledgeable on this leg as she came from Port Elizabeth and once again we were glad that we had not opted to self-drive as there was a lot to see on the way. We made a service station stop at Storms River but didn’t actually go down into the village – there was a pretty impressive bridge over the gully. We made our next stop in Jeffreys Bay where we had lunch at the Taste Table Café. A “car parking attendant" helped the guide park the car and knew the names of all the Aussie cricketers! The beach at Jeffreys Bay is a surf beach and very popular as a resort. As we skirted around Gqeberha we learned that there were main roads named after Sia Kilosi and Razzy Rasmus – the South African rugby team are cult heroes in this country. We eventually arrived at Hillsnek Camp where Ebin is to be our guide. The camp only has 4 luxury tents so very small and bespoke which is great. We had a quick turnaround as we had to be out on the safari drive at 330pm – this was to be the first of 8 that we did in total here, each one different and wonderful. The drive is in an open jeep with three rows of seats. We are sharing with Steph and James from Reading and Derek and Julia from Manchester. In a second car are Tom and Larissa from Stuttgart.
Our first drive did not disappoint – from the baboons that live in the cliffs into which our camp is built, to the vervet monkeys, bush bucks, elan, wildebeest, springbok, elephant, cheetah, Oryx, black and white rhino, jackal and kudo – we were treated to a veritable feast of wildlife as it is meant to be seen. The cheetah has apparently “escaped” from an enclosure where she was meant to be gradually introduced to the reserve.
Ebin is a very clever guide. It is clear that the years of COVID have been really unkind to these lovely people who are just so grateful now to have tourists back. We did get cold though when the sun went down so learned our lesson about layers on the afternoon drives which started very hot and then cooled down significantly. Dinner turned out to be a very special event every evening here with choices of springbok carpaccio, ostrich steaks, kudo filets and so much more – and lunch we would find was the same. An incredibly talented Michelin star worthy chef team in this wonderful small camp!
Next day, we are back in the safari swing with a wake-up call at 530am and on the road by 6am. We have spent a very pleasant night in our tent which has indoor and outdoor shower, a lovely big bath and lots of space for our stuff. This proves to be the final safari for our fellow jeep passengers as they are to head back to the UK this afternoon. We are somewhat dismayed that they spent their time on this drive either trying to rearrange their flights or to get tickets for the Bruce Springsteen concert in Manchester – did they not know they were surrounded by beauty that made these things irrelevant?! We discover that there are two sides to this reserve, yesterday we were in the side around our camp and this morning we go “across the road” to the other side. We are treated to a wonderful viewing of a cheetah, many, many warthogs, a giraffe family around us as we sipped our early morning coffee, a massive tortoise, elephants with the baby playing in the dust, two secretary birds (my particular bird favourite), mongoose, oryx and elan….all before 9am in the morning. After breakfast we farewell the others and the new arrivals gradually join us. Mark and Wendy are from Oxford, and we discover quite opiniated on a number of topics! There are just six of us here for the rest of today and poor Larissa has injured her foot so is finding it hard to get around. Tim and I decide to do a YouTube workout as we have worked out that the food here will definitely put on the calories. After a shower and lunch it is time for the 330pm drive where again we go “across the road”. We come across four cheetahs having a leisurely stroll (2 brother and 2 sisters). We sight a male lion and two lionesses from afar and some more majestic giraffes. We have our sunset G&T watching the waterbucks and when we get back the team have organised drinks around the campfire. Dinner is once again magnificent.
On the road early again, this time on the same side. Our sleep has been a bit disturbed by the boisterous noise of the baboons on the cliffs behind our tent. First up we went to see a hippo wallowing in the water behind one of the other lodges on the reserve. We looked for the water buffalo but didn’t find them. We did see purple heron, little egret, the African hoopoe, lapwing, kingfisher, the tiny duiker – a carnivorous antelope! – and six rhino in total both black and white. We discover that the white rhino is not actually white but named as such because of the misunderstanding of the Afrikaans word for wide. They are significantly larger than black rhinos and have a small hump about three quarters of the way along the body whereas a black rhino has a deep arch in its back. We finish our morning with red hartebeest and wildebeest, more warthogs and zebra with babies.
Back for breakfast and a relax and sunbathe around the little plunge pool and then we attempted 30 minutes of a YouTube workout. As Tom and Larissa leave, we have new arrivals today. Adam and Lauren from Boston are on honeymoon and will join Wendy and Mark and Tim and I in our jeep. Emily, Ben and their two daughters Bethany and Robyn from the UK will be in a separate car. Our afternoon drive starts with a pair of huge tortoises mating as we make our way across the reserve. We could not believe how loud the male was and the sounds he was making as he clung onto the dome of the female for dear life! We came across him later looking thoroughly exhausted!! We see zebra, hoopoe, waterbuck, mongoose, a thick cheek gross hawk, a yellow beak and come across a huge elephant family which is to feature in an adventure later on this trip. On the way back to camp we see giraffes, hares, lions and lionesses sleeping in a small hollow, a rhino and a most wonderful sunset as we sip our hot chocolate and amarino. This is the life. Over dinner the team offer a new service for the next day – an in-room massage which Tim and I are keen to sign up for as the jeep bouncing is not the best preparation for the marathon in a week’s time!
We are first up this morning and chatted to Bethany a lovely girl who is 9 and turning 10 on Halloween. We are staying on our side of the reserve this morning and as we head up the track we hear a monkey on the top of a tree making a very loud call. Ebin tells us that the monkeys have a different warning call for different animals and that he is warning of a nearby cheetah. We have spotted a male and two female ostriches heading up the hill and then suddenly turning around and speeding back down again. Sure enough around the corner we see the cheetah sitting at the top of the hill surveying her possible breakfast. She is the young one that has escaped – the team in the reserve have decided that if she is smart enough to escape then she is smart enough to fend for herself. Out of the bushes dart two bush pigs and we are told that it is very rare to see these during the day. We drive around the Boma pen which is the enclosure used to introduce animals to the reserve and hear that they are going to try once again to introduce jaguar. We see a glossy starling, drongo, Hartebeest and a huge herd of water buffalo at last! These can fetch up to $10 million rand. We come across an enormous elephant, white rhino and southern bul bul. Ebin tells us that the owners of the reserve actually wanted the water buffalo to be “across the road” and that they spent a whole day trying to shepherd them through there. However the water buffalo voted with their feet and came back again so the lions live across the road and the water buffalo have this domain. Back for breakfast and then we have the most amazing massages with Yolande. She and her partner Jaison have been the main ones looking after us. Renzo is the lodge manager with a damaged foot in a moon boot and Nadine is a white south African who manages the day shift. Before COVID Yolande and Jaison worked in a big reserve in Kruger however had returned here to be close to family during those hard years.
Our afternoon drive today is much colder. We set out across to the other side as we have been told that the UK family witnessed a kill in their morning drive. We follow the younger male lion for a while and it appears that he is stalking a buck however nothing happens. We come across the older male lion and two lionesses and follow then down a windy track. Suddenly in front of us are some very young elephants with some older females. Ebin asks Tim and I as we are in the back what we can hear and see – a very loud trumpeting but we see nothing until a massive female elephant appears behind our jeep. We have inadvertently split her from the babies and she is not at all happy. Ebin tells us to sit very still and to be quiet and the elephants start to walk towards us. It is scary and they brush along Tim’s arm who is at that side of the jeep. They could so easily have knocked the jeep over and trampled us. But they move past and we all let out our collective breath. Ebin drives us to a lovely spot for our sundowners and there is the most beautiful double rainbow – a sign that we were not meant to die!! I ask Ebin if this happens a lot and he says no, you avoid being in that type of situation at all costs. We all chatter with nervous excitement about our lucky escape and name Ebin “elephant man”. We see rhino on our drive home and have delicious venison for dinner.
An early start for our 8th and last game drive. We once again see secretary birds, so named as their feathers on their heads look like a 1940’s secretary with a pen stuck in her hair! We hear rather than see the bokmakeri which makes a noise like a cellphone ringing. We are lucky enough to see an ant eating chat which has white underwings that move so quickly that it gives the impression it is moving as quickly as a humming bird. And we see an eatons bustard, unusual as it is an omnivore.
Ebin tells us that giraffe legs move on the same side when they are walking but not when they run and also that the elan have loose heels that click when they run. We come across the four cheetahs again, sleeping this time, a bul bul, orange throated long claw, and a red backed jackal. We make our breakfast stop with the giraffe family. When we get back to camp the team have put together an outdoor breakfast brie with fruit kebabs, cinnamon and apple custard, polenta burgers with egg and tomato – what a finish! We are sad to leave and I buy a bead warthog as a lasting memory of this special place and Tim a cap. In our room was the beautiful poem by C. Emily Dibb
When you’ve acquired a taste for dust
The scent of your first rain
You’re hooked for life on Africa
And you’ll not be right again
Til you watch the setting sun
And hear the jackals bark
And know that they’re around you
Waiting in the dark.
When you long to see the elephants
Or to hear the coucal’s song
When the moonrise sets your blood on fire
You’ve been away too long
It’s time to cut the traces loose
And let you heart go free
Beyond that far horizon
Where your spirit yearns to be.
Ebin drives us to be picked up and taken to Port Elizabeth airport where we fly to Capetown and make it to the Lawhill Luxury Apartments without incident. Tonight’s dinner is cheese and biscuits after all the fabulous meals we have had at Hillsnek.
Lawhill Luxury Apartments, V&A Waterfront - Day Twelve to Seventeen
It was nice not to get up at 530am today!! We walked to find a coffee and around the waterfront, picked up our Hop On and Hop Off bus tickets and set off on the Red Route. This took us past the clocktower, the convention centre, up Long Street in the city and up the very windy road to the Table Mountain Cableway which we were going to do later in the week so didn’t get off. It then headed to the coast – Camps Bay, Sea Point, Green Point and back to the Aquarium. It was useful to get my head around the marathon route (and how far it was!!). It was also very informative about the apartheid years and it was hard to witness the beautiful areas that the Afrikaans had cleared to build themselves great homes pushing the inhabitants into townships. Josh arrived late morning and we headed to the Time Out market for lunch then back to chill out and do a supermarket shop before getting ready for dinner at Den Anker.
We are up early again for our wine tour with Cullinan Tours. It is a small party comprising the three of us, four from the US who turn out to be work friends, and a couple from Melbourne. Our first visit was to Paarl (pearl so named because of the flashing lights that the early settlers thought that they saw on the mountains which was actually granite). Our winery here was Fairview and probably the best of the day. We didn’t seem to have any problem wine tasting and cheese eating at 930am in the morning. We bought a wee bit of wine today and managed to drink it all except one during our stay. This vineyard specialised in cheese and Josh and I visited the goats in a clever enclosure where they could go up and over a rickety bridge. The gardens were lovely.
The next stop was the Drakenstein correctional facility where Nelson Mandela was held after leaving Robben Island in 1982. He lived in a private house inside the prison compound for 14 months until his eventual release on 11 February 1990. The house has been declared a South African National Heritage site and there was an impressive statue of Mandela at the prison gates.
Next stop was Franschoek which was originally settled by the Hugenots fleeing the Catholic regime in France. This was a family vineyard and much smaller and the owner was very quaint and clearly suffering from memory loss. The wines were lovely and this place seemed to be much less commercial than our other two stops. There was a very friendly ostrich there too! We had a short walk through Franschoek which would have warranted a day’s visit in itself, very crafty and pretty. Our final stop was Marianne Winery n Stellenbosch for lunch. Marianne has two state of the art boutique wineries with minimal intervention and natural techniques. We had a lovely and very large lunch here and were amused by Ryan in our party from Minnesota who confessed to having a spreadsheet on which he rates all the musicals that he has seen down to 2 decimal places!! We decided we only needed cheese and biscuits for dinner. Josh and I set off to the stadium to register for the marathon. It was quite emotional going through the tunnel into the stadium. We bought some bits in the enormous Adidas shop and I was moved by this quote on the wall….Humble grounding is the perfect platform for exceptional performance.
Today, Josh and I set out for a run up to the lighthouse and back and then the three of us set off on the Blue Route on the Hop On and Hop Off bus. This took us further afield than the Red Route past the base of Devil’s Peak and to the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens which sadly we couldn’t fit in on this trip (one for next time!). We passed the bus change point to visit the two closest wineries to Capetown and then headed on the bus out to Hout Bay – again a mixture of a huge township and a marina with markets. On the second half of the bus ride Josh got the chance to see the back part of the marathon route as well as the amazing homes built into the cliffs on this stretch of the coast. It was home for a quick change and then out for our special birthday lunch which was Josh’s treat. We went to Fyn restaurant in the city which boasted views of the mountain through its massive windows. We ate sashimi, a burnt mushroom custard, cape wagyu, Kingklip, African game, an icecream sandwich and wagashi to finish, all with the wine pairings. I’m not sure we have ever eaten such fine food in such a wonderful setting and we all thoroughly enjoyed every mouthful and the beautiful presentation.
Still full we headed to Utopia for a massage and then up to the Silo Rooftop bar for a cocktail and the most beautiful sunset. What a wonderful day – we ended with more cheese and biscuits for dinner!
This morning, Josh went for a run but I opted not to put too much strain on my hip the day before the big event. Tim and I grabbed coffee and walked around the harbour and then when Josh returned we set off to Table Mountain where we had a “skip the queue” ticket for the top.
This was definitely worth it when we saw the queues and we were in our gondola with the NZ age group hockey team (the hockey masters were on in Capetown during our week there). The gondola turned 360 degrees during the short trip to the top affording amazing views.
At the top we did a walk around taking many photos of the amazing vista from up here. Tucked into a cliff face we saw a Dassie or rock hyrax. It was the clearest of days and we were delighted as on the other days that we had contemplated coming up here the top of the mountain had been in cloud.
We headed back and grabbed lunch at La Parada – the same chain as Tim and I had eaten at on our first night but this one in the V&A Waterfront – chilled in the afternoon and then went for dinner at Harbour House (another Dave and Sue recommendation) which was delicious. It was an early night for the marathoners!!
MARATHON DAY!!
What an amazing experience. Right from the start as the crowd of runners burst into song as we filed past for our start time we knew that we were in for a treat. Josh and I ran together the whole way which was not what I had expected but made it even more special. There were bands at many places on the route which was good to lift spirits as the wind was quite vicious in spots and never seemed to be a tail wind.
We ran the first half very quickly and I paid for that a bit in the second half so it was great to have Josh keeping me going. Tim was waiting at 32km to give me a change of shoes which was important as I was blistering badly. We spent the last few kms trying in vain to catch the man in the chicken outfit! We crossed the finish line together holding hands and it was just the best feeling – my “last dance” at marathon 35 and Josh’s first of “many”?
I had definitely saved the best until last.We walked home to clean up and then walked around the wharf. Josh had been planning to go diving with seals tomorrow after we left however read that they were potentially rabid so decided to just watch the ones on the pier along from our apartment.
Dinner for our last night was at the African restaurant Karibu which was a fabulous African feast accompanied by dancers and singers. Such a fun and a fitting end to a great day.
Our last day started with one last walk around the waterfront and a coffee. Then we grabbed an Uber to take us to the Common Gardens, Parliament House, City Hall and the Castle of Good Hope – all sights that Josh and I had seen on the marathon and wanted to share with Tim.
Time left only for hugs as our next time with Josh will be when he and Jihane get married in Morrocco in May 2025. Farewell Africa – our second trip and it’s been just as intoxicating as the first. We will return.
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