Stellenbosch

South Africa’s Wine Country

There are few things in life as pleasant an experience as winetasting at a good vineyard. Last Friday night Chris and I agreed to meet in Stellenbosch, the Mecca of the South African wine industry. As this is the town where Chris grew up, I could not ask for a better guide.

We hit our first winery at 10:30 and our last at 4:30, with a lunch at one of them in between. Not a bad days work! Upon arrival 7 bottles were lined up for our pleasure and approval. A preference of each type becomes more and more difficult with every new pouring. The wineries have been around for several hundred years and just ooze an air of old world charm and sophistication.

The staff at the 3 wineries we visited, out of 321 in the Stellenbosch area, is knowledgeable and clearly carefully selected and trained to make the experience as memorable as possible.

The total of vineyards in South Africa presently exceeds one thousand. Other areas such as Paarl I hope to visit next year on another pilgrimage

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We finished off our tour with a vineyard only producing sparkling wines. The sparkling wines cannot be classified as Champagnes for legal reasons but are every bit as good as their French counter parts. Stellenbosch is a university town reminding me of Luxembourg, Germany or France perhaps but certainly not Africa.

If I had the space I would have taken a few crates back with me. As is, I bought 3 bottles as presents; 2 Champagne and 1 Pinotage. One of the bottles of champagne will be brought to Holland to be popped on my moms 94^th birthday in August.

We found this eclectic store in the middle of town.

The historic building where gunpowder was kept during the skirmishes with the bushmen.

 

Melkbosstrand

Ben & Maryana

The last few days were spent cleaning the truck, fixing the tire and taking it easy in Melkbosstrand. The seas are really rough here but hearty souls don’t worry about these things and use it to their advantage.

The area is quite well to do compared to what I have seen during the last couple of months. The unfortunate stand out here rather than being the rule.

Newly crowned grandpa Chris dropped by to visit with us on Friday night. It was good to catch up again and exchange travel stories. Maryna had made a wonderful Malaysian curry for us all accompanied by some fine South African wine and the by now almost standard conversation about the ills and merits of South African politics and culture. Towards the end of the evening Chris and I agreed to meet in Stellenbosch, the wine center of South Africa, on Monday. The question of where to leave Godzilla remains unsolved for the time being.

 

Van Rhynsdorp to Melkbosstrand

Yesterdays PROTRUSION posting looked like a “Have A Nice Day” poster but in reality & enlarged it looks more like a “I Am About To Ruin Your Nice Day” poster.

VanRhynsdorp Focal Point

Godzilla greeted me this morning in the parking lot of the hotel with a left rear tire as flat as a pancake. The previous day it had also been flat but I checked it for a puncture or a leak with water and could not find any. After having blown it up with the on board compressor I drove the whole day without any problem. In my mind someone had deflated the tire overnight but now it was obvious there was a leak somewhere. One of the spares came to the rescue and I left the lodge in VanRhynsdorp a half hour later than planned.

The lobby had a huge bible on display, ironically right next to the gambling warning.

The N7 highway is being widened causing many delays. It was clear I would not make my planned 2 p.m. rendez-vous with Ben & Maryna. 

The countryside became greener and greener with rolling hills on which cattle and sheep were lazily grazing, reminding me of New Zealand. In the town of Citrusdal I stopped for lunch and was able to alert my hosts of a late arrival in Melkbosstrand. When I rolled into town at 3:30, they were already looking out for me on their balcony so they could open the gate.

A beer, some chitchat and a shower later we had a delicious seafood dinner on the boulevard, walking distance from their apartment. Melkbosstrand is a relatively small pristine suburban community about 25 km outside of Cape Town. It feels safe and relaxed, a world apart from the Johannesburg ambience they came from. The truck will need a thorough cleaning tomorrow inside & out. The tire will also need to be fixed. In the meantime Maryna has been looking for a place for me to store the car until next March. If I can leave it here until then I will drive the Garden Route next year. For the time being Melkbosstrand is my home.

 

VanRhynsdorp

A strange protrusion

After many monotonous hours of driving on the N7 two-lane highway I have arrived in VanRhynsdorp, halfway between the Namibian border and Cape Town. The village seems very Afrikaans and the Namqualand Lodge, where I am hanging my hat, certainly is. I am still waiting for a big black momma to welcome me but all the establishments I stayed at, have been white owned. “The lodge is 98 years old,” the proprietor told me, to which I replied; “Yes, I can see that!” What I meant to say and should have said was “Yes, I like the colonial style of the building”. American politicians call that “misspeaking”. Driving through the now somewhat greener landscapes you can just imagine the Voortrekkers (pioneers) plight. They arrived here a couple of hundreds years ago with their oxcarts, wives and children. The group could not have travelled faster than 2 miles per hour, to finally settle here, up to 1,000 km from their roots in the south. To some it was apparently a better experience than others. I passed through establishments named “Weltevree” (meaning Contentment) and another one named “Moedverloor” (meaning Lost Courage). A group of 60 to 100 people would have settled when their Moses declared: “This is it. We are not going any further”.

 

Imagine there is no road and you’ll understand what the place looked like 200 years ago.

To some it was Utopia and others no longer had the capability to go on or simply lost the will. They were for the most part devout Christians and not much different than the Amish of North America. The lodge is eclectic and has some garish attributes; elephant feet with flowers planted in them adorn the lobby.

The big plus is that they have secure parking, Wi-Fi and the room is $ 27.-.

I am looking forward to see Ben & Maryna tomorrow in Melkbosstrand, just north of Cape Town and have some social contact again.

 

Augrabies Falls

To get to Augrabies Falls I decided to cut off a piece of road and take a short cut on a rarely travelled dirt road. It may not have been the wisest choice as it was in horrible condition.

Customs turned out to be a very relaxed affair with a one man show; one guy handling all the paperwork and looking after the gate in Namibia. It took apparently 2 guys to do the same job in South Africa. I was the 4^th person that past the border today as indicated by the form that had to be filled out. Not exactly a nerve-wrecking job. Again, there was no checking up on ownership of the vehicle. Baffling! After settling into the Augrabies Lodge I hopped in the Toyota to have a look at the falls.

Electrified Weaver Birds

The water level is very low right now. It’s hard to believe there was flooding here in March, which means the water at that time was at least 30 meters higher from the level I saw today. At the risk of sounding like a whiner; I don’t feel we should be asked to pay to see natural wonders like these falls, Mont Blanc, a crater or a glacier unless there are maintenance costs.  I look at the moon for free and that’s pretty special. On top of that you are asked for your citizenship, as a Canadian one pays $ 16.00, as a South African $ 3.60. Sounds like gouging to me but if they pay you as a citizen of Bangladesh, I’ll take it back. The lodge is comfortable with a friendly staff.

It was dark in the bar and not a sharp photo but you get the idea

The bar must have 200 Jeagermeister bottles lined up. They drink this stuff like water here and in Namibia. It is more popular than beer according to the bartender.

 

The bonus is a widescreen TV. There I will plant myself to watch the Holland –Chile match.

 

Ai-Ais

Because I have been without internet for a few days today I am posting the last 3 updates

The Klein-Aus Vista Lodge

The car alarm goes off at 2 a.m. The whole compound is sound asleep including myself. I am dreaming and ignore it. A minute later it starts up again. Now awareness is slowly creeping in and so is the realization that this is my car creating a ruckus. Scrambling for my clothes and shoes I stumble in a sleep-drunk state outside, only to meet the wife of my neighbor who is out there thinking it is her car. We simultaneously hit our remotes twice to unlock and lock the cars again and go back to our respective rooms. The moment I lay back in my bed after having removed my shoes and clothing, the bloody thing starts up again. Wind force 7 to 9, which has been blowing for the last 2 days, is rocking the cars and now both of them are blaring for someone to turn them off. The region is infamous for its windy weather but this ferocity is unusual, even by local standards. The only way to get some rest will be to unlock the vehicles. The neighbor does the same as more alarms are going off. It is bedlam in the parking lot. We are far away from any civilization and I really do not worry about anyone breaking into the car, certainly not in this weather. By now I am wide-awake and shivering. Eventually peace returns and the parking lot crowd goes back to their hot-water bottle beds. From the outset it was my intention to return to South Africa via the Kalahari but it has been made clear to me by Chris that the night temperatures can dip to – 7o C, which is not on my “things to do” list. The alternative therefore is to meet up with Ben & Maryna in Cape Town for a few days and then take the Garden Route towards Kroonstad. That plan also opens up the possibility of visiting Addo, which is another highly regarded National Park. For the time being I will make decisions on a day-to-day basis. For my Sunday drive, dirt roads were the order of the day direction Ai-Ais. This spot had been recommend to me by Chris because of its hot springs. My expectations were to see hot springs in a natural setting but they turned out to be oversized bathtubs in a covered building.

It was more like something you’d expect to see and I have experienced in America, as opposed to Africa. The vistas en route were nothing short of sensational and photos just don’t do the 3 dimensional landscapes any justice. It is impossible to capture the 180-degree views you are treated to while driving through this part of Namibia. The GPS listed an old car wreck by the side of the road. Someone had propped it up with stones. Was this supposed to be a tourist attraction? Its radiator fan was spinning around a mile a minute in the wind. How long had it been sitting there or did someone plant it in the middle of nowhere?

These are the kind of pertinent questions that go through head when driving a straight dirt road for hundreds of kilometers. Pointless but you can’t help it. Driving further south I got to the Fish River Canyon, which is part of the Ai-Ais National Park and the 2^nd largest canyon in the world after the Grand Canyon. No motels, hotels, Mc Donalds or any other commercial entity.

After the canyon more open fields, which eventually gave way to the mountainous region of Ai-Ais.

 

The overnight stay is in the park’s lodge because the camping spots are very small, a bit like setting up tent in a parking lot. Somewhat disappointing but tomorrow I’ll be crossing the border again and spending time at Augrabies Falls before I start my descend to Cape Town.

 

 

The Ghost Town of Kolmanskop

Deserted Desert House

Diamonds are a girl’s best friend but the town they come from leaves a lot to be desired. There aren’t many mining towns in the world that are worth visiting from a tourist standpoint. Luderitz, which lies 125 km from Aus on the Atlantic, is no exception and is the main port. Fearing that accommodation in Luderitz would be of the industrial kind, I extended my stay at the Klein Aus Vista inn. It turned out to be the right decision. The main reason for heading to Luderitz was the ghost town of Kolmanskop.

Driven by the enormous wealth of the first diamond miners, the residents built the village in the architectural style of a German town, with amenities and institutions including a hospital, ballroom, casino, power station, a theatre and sport-hall, ice factory and the first x-ray station in the southern hemisphere. It also had the first tram or streetcar in Africa. There was a railway link to Luderitz. Today I just found an erie stillness overshadowing the howling wind.

 

The town declined after World War 1, when the diamond-field slowly exhausted and was ultimately abandoned in 1954, In short; it was a happening place where every red blooded white boy in the surroundings could live some sort of quality life or go out for a night on the town.

The starkness of the desert makes you believe no mammal could exist here for a very long time but you’d be wrong.

Austriche with 9 chicks

There are plenty of them; I saw Oryx and the desert feral horses.  The rare brown hyena also lives here. There are many speculations on how the horses came to be. They are no different than America’s mustangs and were imported from distant shores. The most likely scenario is that the German Calvary left the horses to fend for themselves in 1904.

The interesting thing is how the horses adapted to a life with hardly any available water or grass. In just several generations these horses can go without water for 5 days and is a case where evolution was put into overdrive purely out of survival. Sometimes though, humans have to step in in order for them to stay alive and even thrive here.

 

 

 

 

Sossusvlei to Aus

How many meals in your life are truly memorable? Not many probably and it takes something special. The Sossenvlei Lodge’s kitchen simply is astonishing, not only the variety of food on offer, but also the superb quality of all their dishes. The salad bar was akin to something you would expect in a 5-star hotel on the Riviera.

Sossusvlei Lodge Bar

The selection of meat consisted of pork, lamb, beef and exotics. There was also a variety of seafood available with all dishes cooked to order with whatever sauce, herb or spice you can imagine. The selected cut of beef turned out to be the best cut on this trip. The choice of desert desserts is mindboggling but what really is the clincher is that they have to get all these ingredients from Windhoek, 350 km from here. With exception of the bakery in Solitaire, there is NOTHING to be found 300 km in any direction. That is equivalent to a restaurant in Rotterdam getting all their ingredients 100 km passed Cologne in Germany or 100 km inside of Paris, France. 2 Thumbs up for this lodge; the price of admission is worth every penny!

Only 1 ointment in the soup; sleep was virtually impossible. None of the breakfast guests had been able to get any sleep. Due to the 30-knot winds coming off the desert the tent shook violently all night with the many flaps creating a noise like you are sleeping under the boom on a sailboat with the mainsail up and loose sheets in a storm. After no more than a catnap I got out of bed to get ready for my day at 3 a.m. This part of the hotel needs some re-thinking, as I am sure this is not a freak occurrence. When you are traveling a good nights sleep is worth a lot. Having had breakfast right at 5:30 I was 1^st at the gate and had to wait until 6:45 for it to open.

Animal spotting had been largely forgotten by now but about 10 kilometers into the National Park a cheetah appeared from out of nowhere and wanted to cross the road, He thought twice about it and was running beside the car at 8o km p/hour. Then he kicked in the turbo’s, accelerated away from me and cut across the road into the field. What speed!!! It all happened so fast; I had no time to switch on my dash-cam.

The remainder of the day I saw lots of springbok, mountain zebra en Oryx.

Sossusvlei makes me very happy about digital cameras because you just cannot stop taking pictures.

 

Unfortunately it was getting windier by the minute and visibility became less and less. Getting out of the car was an immediate invitation to get sandblasted but it made for some stunning visuals walking around at the “vlei” itself.

It was something right out of Tolkiens “Lord of the Rings”.

If I told you that I made in to Aus today, you still would not have clue, unless you live in Aus. Let’s just say I am 350 km south of the Sossusvlei Lodge to which I had to backtrack again. The drive was really tiring having not slept but with stunning sceneries. You can’t take your eye of the road for a second because the surface changes instantly.

My room at the Inn

After some searching I found a really great lodge in Aus. They even show the world cup tonight but I don’t know who’s playing.

 

SHORT VIDEO OF THE SEA LIONS AT CAPE CROSS

 

 

Sossusvlei Lodge

The pier at Swakopmund

Refreshed by 5 days of relaxation I left Swakopmund this morning. My destination was Sossusvlei, the spot where the dunes in Namibia are the most impressive.

From Swakopmund there are only dirt/sand roads out into the dessert. I had 250 km of nothing ahead of me to Solitaire. Some parts of the road were good and I could do 100 km p/hour, other parts would be long sections of the familiar washboard. Every now and then I would see a car coming the other way but mostly it was a lonely affair. The wind was blowing at about 25 knots. The sand and dust once again crept into every nook and cranny.

Solitaire is aptly named and marked on the map as a town. It does have a gas station but it consists of that and 2 other buildings, one of which is a bakery of all things. A guy named Mc Gregor started making apple pies here a long time ago.

He is no longer alive but the place has become a compulsory stop for the Overland crowd and I have to admit the apple pie is excellent. After the pie I pushed on for another 72 km and settled into the Sossusvlei Lodge, the most expensive place I have stayed at so far.

Behind the Sossusvlei Lodge

There is not much choice around here which means they got you by the short and curly’s. It is a beautiful spot with the room being half tent, half cement. Because it is so windy the tent part (being the bedroom) is flapping all over the place. It will feel like I’m still camping at 20x the price. “Mai Pen Rai” as they say in Thailand. To get into Sossusvlei a permit is required and the gates open at 6:30 in the morning. I want to get there as early as possible in the morning and it is still a 62 km drive inland from where one can only backtrack.

Weaver Bird Nest with at least 100 birds. The structure is a work of art.