New Forest - Oh Deer!

Seen in the New Forest this week. They wouldn't hang around long enough for a nice close up.

The End

Here we are in Cape Town departure lounge. At Windhoek the shorts were changed for longs as the anticipated temperature at Gatwick was -4C. We had our last look at wildlife in Windhoek because there were some quite formidable beetles rushing around departures - we didn't want to take any onboard the plane in our carry on luggage.



A last look of Namibia.

Hout Bay

Hout Bay beach - a very popular place at the weekend.





Our accommodation in a secure complex. Who is that in the window?

Chapman's Peak Drive

Last time Sue and I were here this was as far as we could go on the Chapman's Peak Drive. Since then the landslide has been cleared and the road made safe so we were now able to do the full drive which is quite spectacular.
The view below is towards Hout Bay harbour.



Chapman's Peak Drive going towards Hout Bay.

Boulders Beach

This is one of the few places that African (Jackass) Penguins can be found. It is possible to walk amongst them, but they can bite if you get too close.

Cape Point

When in Cape Town or one of its suburbs a visit to Cape Point is a must. Also if travelling independently get there early before the coaches. The day we went was clear, but not that bright.

Distance post at Cape Point



One of the local Chacma baboons



Cape of Good Hope - overrun by tourists

Hout Bay - our last stop

We were booked into Hout Bay for five nights. On the itinery was a visit to Kirstenbosch Gardens, Cape Point, picnic at a winery, visit the penguins at Boulders etc.

This is the Hout Bay market which we both enjoyed we even bought some small trinkets here.



Kirstenbosch Gardens
This is a plant that is part of the Cycad group which was around 150 - 200 million years ago. The leaves are have very sharp spikes on them.

Bontebok National Park

On the outskirts of Swellendam is Bontebok National Park. This is one of the places where Bontebok can be seen. The park isn't that large by African standards and can be driven around in a morning.
Whilst at Swellendam we had been hankering after a swim because of the heat and this park offered just that. We packed a picnic and our cossies plus geocaching kit because there was a cache out there.
As it happened the cache was very close to the swimming spot and also close to resting Bontebok who were not disturbed by our presence.

Crocodiles - what crocodiles?




Sue and an older resident of the park




You know this one




Bontebok

'Q' car

This car was spotted on the coast road. It was heavily disguised and had 4 German chaps in it. They were not happy at being photographed and made a swift getaway. Dave and I think they were testing, a yet to be, new BMW.

Swellendam

Swellendam is not a very exciting place, but there are some quite old and interesting buildings. The building below is the oldest in Swellendam and is now used as the Tourist Office.



This building is now the Drostdy Museum. The museum itself is spread over a few buildings and gives a good insight into Swellendam of old.
We were staying in some old thatched cottages which are listed as a national monument. It was from here that the Wordsworths had their camera stolen.

Knysna

We stayed at the Old Drift Lodges on the outskirts of Knysna. These lodges are set in the depths of the forest with a very steep access road. We had use of canoes here, but as the weather wasn't as good as it should have been we only went out a couple of times. On one afternoon we were surrounded by a troop of vervet monkeys which were on the scrounge. Carol did her best to discourage them.



Old Drift is now part of the new Simola Golf Estate which is very swish. This is the view from the clubhouse towards the heads at Knysna.



Bedroom companion found on Sue's side of the bedroom. Later released unharmed.



We visited the Knysna Elephant Park which is now home to 5 elephants there were a lot more here originally.

Tsitsikama National Park

We were booked into Tsitsikama for 2 nights. The chalet we had was on stilts and right by the sea. It was a very relaxing place, so long as you didn't do the trails. David and Carol, our intrepid in house explorers, came back after one trail saying it was dangerous, impossible etc. I'm glad we didn't go.



The coastline here is beautiful so I spent a lot of time taking photos.



Our chalet

Jeffreys Bay

At Jeffreys Bay we stayed at Beach Cabanas. The owners were extremely helpful and on finding out that we wanted to try surfing they offered to loan us a couple of boards. Now I know that you don't need to be told this, but Jeffrey's Bay is world famous for its surfing waves and people come from all over to surf them including us. Below is David doing his best. Come in close to shore and you trunks fill with sand - Oooooh!



Two budding surfers!!!



A well deserved meal out.

Geocaching

We have found that geocaching takes you to places you wouldn't normally go to. The South African geocachers idea of 'easy' turned out to be our 'difficult' or 'challenging' consequently we had give up on some caches. The two photos show us en-route to caches which we did. The ferry was an interesting one which took us to a Nature Reserve which some of the locals hadn't heard of.

Victoria Bay

This is one of the places Sue and I wanted to revisit because it is a lovely little bay with good swimming (playing in the surf).
What we didn't know about was the vervet monkeys that roam the area and raid the dustbins, despite anti monkey precautions.



This is the nearest we got religion whilst we were away. Wondered who was sponsoring this guy.



A photograph with a reflective mood.



Boarding at Victoria Bay - I wish!!!!

Skeiding Ostrich Farm

We stayed 2 nights here and on the first morning went on the truck to feed the animals and ostriches, this took about an hour.



There we were sitting on the patio of our cottage when a fully grown ostrich appears in our part of the garden. Is the ostrich friendly? Is it a pet? Or is it an escapee? We soon found out when the 2 house dogs, which were with us, ran at the ostrich and shooed it away. It was an escapee and took 4 chaps to round it up. Phew!!!




The meals here were superb, ostrich was a speciality, the springbok pie and bobotie were also excellent.

Stellenbosch

We had a day out and went to Stellenbosch for the morning. It just happened to be student carnival day, so mayhem reigned. One of the must do visits is Oom Samie se Winkel, a general store, from another era. We had coffee there and liked the lunch menu so we returned later.






David trying to look intrepid - what do you think?

The Winelands - Paarl

This is at the Fairview Estate where they produce the wine 'Goats do Roam' (Cote du Rhone...get it?) There is another wine called 'Bored Doe'...work that at for yourself. The guys a bit of a joker. Nice visit though.



This is the view from our patio - it certainly had a wow factor.





The intriguing Afrikaans Language Monument was inaugurated on the 10th of October 1975, to represent the influence that the residents of Paarl had on the development of the Afrikaans Language.

Various Photos from Cape Town

This colourful photo was taken in the Cape Malay quarter of Bo Kaap. We went around the museum here which shows the development of the area.



This is the market that runs down the centre of the pedestrian precinct in Cape Town.

Fires on Table Mountain - a devastating fire had burnt a large part of the mountain the previous Friday. I know the photo is blurred.

This is David and Carol on Signal Hill. We were doing a geocache and since the area was burnt out we were not hopeful of finding it in one piece. As you can see only the corner was burnt - it had been under a pile of rocks. Carol was the actual finder. After this we had to go back to the apartment to change because we were covered in black charcoal!