Road Trip to the Mother City #9: Boland visit

On Saturday, our last day in the Cape, we decided to actually NOT spend it in the Cape, or at least not in Cape Town itself, but headed inland to Worcester, to an old friend of mine who has moved there this year.

Rather than taking the Huguenot Tunnel on the journey up, I took the old duToit’s Kloof pass – something I have not done for many years. The weather was clear and warm and we enjoyed spectacular views of Table Mountain and the Paarl Valley as we travelled. I say the day was clear – and it was – but the lack of wind meant that there was a rather nasty smog cloud across the peninsula. Still, despite the black smear, the mountain looked beautiful.

It’s when you look out over that kind of landscape that you understand just why people flock from all over the world to spend just a few days here in South Africa, and more particularly the Cape. And sometimes those of us who live here every day take that for granted.

Having negotiated the pass, and taken untold number of photographs, Ulricha and I stopped for a coffee at the du Toits Kloof lodge, where we sat next to the Molenaars river, flowing forcibly after the recent (lengthy) rainy season in the Cape.

The day was rounded out with an amazing afternoon spent catching up with old friends and reminiscing and swapping blogging hints and tips. Arthur writes his own blog too, Online Trek, and so it was fun to exchange blogging stories with him.

Our trip back to Cape Town in the evening was uneventful. But that didn’t matter – we had truly had a wonderful day out in Worcester, and a dull drive back was just what the doctor had ordered!

Road trip to the Mother City #8: Taking to the Air

Today (Friday) we went up, up, up and away as I contacted the local Flying Club at the Cape Town airport and arranged for a flight around the peninsula. Unfortunately my original plan of taking myself and two passengers fell through as the clubs aircraft are quite small training planes, and so myself and Ulricha joined Gareth the instructor and we set off.

Having already flown in both London and Johannesburg, and with around 10 hours of training experience behind me, this was not something new to me, but it was new, or at least different to Ulricha who had not flown in such a small light plane before. Nonetheless, we joined the taxiway behind a commercial plane and set off.

Our first destination was the Cape Town city bowl, and so we headed West from the International airport, over the “Cooling Towers” of the Athlone power station and the over the harbour. It was an exquisite day for flying, calm and clear, though with an inversion layer at around 1,800 feet which caused a bit of cloud cover and haze in the later part of our flight.

Once we had cleared the power station, Gareth handed the controls over to me, and for the first time I flew a passenger that wasn’t my instructor, as we headed over the harbour, the Waterfront and then the Green Point Common, site of the new 2010 World Cup Football Stadium – a MASSIVE building amongst much smaller buildings that really stands out on the common. I was amazed at just how mammoth it was by comparison to its neighbours.



Then I turned us south and followed the coast line toward, Clifton and Camps bay. To be honest, I didn’t notice if there were people on either of those beaches – I think I was too preoccupied at keeping us “straight and level”. The Sentinel at Hout Bay looked magnificent, and we rounded that and then headed along Chapman’s Peak, seeing the construction over the road way from a new perspective.


The flight continued uneventfully, as we followed the coast past the Kommetjie lighthouse and the Cape Peninsula Nature reserve. Just before we reached the Point itself, the cloud layer at 1,800 feet thickened slightly but I kept us just below that level, giving a very eerily feeling as the clouds passed just above our heads.

We rounded the Point which was looking quite stunning, and then we found what Gareth had been looking for – whales! And not just one, but 3 at first, as as we continued along the False Bay coast line, a few more.

We crossed the coastline at Muizenberg and I found myself taking a route that I had often taken by road, but now was taking by air, as I followed the Main road north, passed Wynberg and slightly east over the Kenilworth race course.

By the time Gareth took control of the plane we were nearing the International Airport once more and negotiating our way amongst commercial jet traffic that was taking off and landing.

All in all I had another hour that I can add to my flight experience for my Private licence, but the experience was fantastic! I am now looking forward to taking Ulricha up over Johannesburg once we get home – and hopefully we will have some Johannesburg aerial photographs too!

Road trip to the Mother City #7: Catching up with Friends

Whenever I am in Cape Town, one of my “pilgrimages” is always to visit Suikerbossie – a beautiful restaurant situated above Hout Bay and overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. I used to work there when I was in University but had originally met one of the owners when I worked with him at a local family restaurant in Bergvliet – all the way back in 1990. And so every time I am in Cape Town, I make the journey to Hout Bay, to visit David and to enjoy Suikerbossie. On Wednesday I made that pilgrimage again.

What a surprise I was in for – with the restaurant having expanded and increased its capacity. Dave greeted Ulricha and me with a broad smile, and we very quickly got into reminiscing about how long it had been since I had seen him and about how things were when I had worked there. He encouraged us to walk around and enjoy the views, while he scurried off to find us a brew of coffee.

Suikerbossie has been one of the premier eating venues in Cape Town for a number of years, and Dave, and his partners have worked extremely hard to maintain that status – but even managed to improve it. It is also a top wedding venue and the many framed bridal photos all around the bar area bear testimony to just how many couples have used Suikerbossie as a wedding venue.

Ulricha had not been there before and she was completely blown away by the venue, and also the exquisite views of Hout Bay and over Llandudno. Despite the Cape Town weather dishing up some low grey cloud, and the occasional rain drop, the views were no less spectacular.

Our pilgrimage ended with a fond farewell to Dave and his team, promising to visit once more on the next occasion I was in Cape Town.

As Dave says, “That’s the rule!”

Road trip to the Mother City #6: Winetasting

On Tuesday we decided to head into the Winelands and enjoy our very own selection of wine farms in the Paarl, Stellenbosch and Franschoek area. This was always going to be an over ambitious endeavour, given that we only gave ourselves a day, and even the selection of 5 farms we started off the day hoping to see, quickly reduced down.

Fairview Farm
We first headed out to Fairview, a farm closer to Paarl, known not just for its wines, but its cheese too – in particular its goat’s cheese.
We tasted a selection of their white and red wines, from a number of different named brands, and quite enjoyed them. However, at the end of it all we bought just 2 bottles, and then set off to taste their cheeses. WOW! Some of their cheese were just sublime, magnificent and a taste extravaganza! Needless to say, we bought a heap of their cheeses…
Fairview is a beautiful setting though, with its iconic goat tower (complete with 4 rather lazy but no less lovely goats) and a really beautifully manicured garden around the tasting room. It certainly is with a visit just for the experience and the views of the Boland.

Vrede en Lust
Having had our fill of cheeses, we decided on a change of our original plan, and headed off to a farm that Ulricha had suggested, Vrede en Lust. A beautiful old farm from 1688 and one of the original Stellenbosch wine farms. Through a chequered history though, the farm has also been a fruit producing farm, only recently returning to its original heritage of being a wine farm.
The tasting room was a sumptuously decadent room, with oversized couches overlooking their vineyards and the mountain backdrop of Stellenbosch. This beauty faded though once we started tasting their wines. Such a beautiful mix of light and easy drinking wines, put together like a symphony, with wine maker Susan Swartz the orchestra leader. I must say though that Yvette, the wonderful lady helping us in the tasting room was brilliant – with a full knowledge of her product and able to bring the wines to life by telling us where they came from and what they were good with. She was also a really good sales woman, and we left with 6 bottles of wine!


We then enjoyed a wonderful lunch at their restaurant, which was brilliant, and a lovely break in the day – accompanied of course by a bottle of wine!


Boekenhoutskloof
Deciding to follow Yvette’s advice, we headed off to Franschoek, to a small farm called Boekenhoutskloof. This is a little known farm, located at the foot of the mountains around Franschoek and a completely new experience to us. Their wines however were well known to us – Porcupine Ridge and Wolf Trap. And so we got stuck in, enjoying our fair share of their red wines. We were then introduced to a fantastic wine, called Chocolate Block – a wonderful red wine. Impressed? We certainly were, and left the farm with another 5 bottles of wine! So impressed were we, that we returned to Franschoek to enjoy a late afternoon bottle of the Chocolate Block at a local restaurant called Reubens.


It really was a wonderful day in the Boland – enjoying some fine local wine and cheese and feeling that we had come away with a little bit more culture and appreciation for our local wine making heritage…. Or was that just the wine talking?

Road Trip to the Mother City #4: The Cruelty of Nature

On Saturday morning, our first morning in Cape Town, Ulricha and myself sat enjoying a lovely cup of coffee watching as the small birds flittered around my parents’ garden, enjoying the seed table that my father had set up, and just enjoying the little wild life display that was being provided for us.

I started taking a few photos of the little beasts, but in particular of a weaver’s nest that had been lovingly created by a talented little builder, who was still busy putting the finishing touches to his wonderful creation.

This morning, Sunday, we once again enjoyed our morning cup of coffee outside in the wonderful Cape sun, when we noticed that the beautiful nest of yesterday was no longer to be seen. It would appear that Mrs Weaver thought differently to ourselves and did not like the architectural design of the weaver’s nest, and had at some point in the previous 24 hours completely ripped it apart – all that remained was the bear palm tree leave where the nest had once hung.

How cruel nature is sometimes that the hours of loving dedication that Mr Weaver had put into his house could be so easily destroyed by a disgruntled or unhappy Mrs Weaver.

Thank goodness this kind of behaviour doesn’t happen (too often) amongst us humans!!!

Road trip to the Mother City #3: Visit of Theodore Rooseveldt

It appears that Ulricha and myself are not the only visitors to Cape Town this weekend.

The American nuclear powered aircraft carrier, USS Theodore Rooseveldt is briefly visiting Cape Town and has taken up a mooring in Table Bay – causing a flurry of activity among tourists, as they rush to get their cameras, and a good vantage point and enjoy this rare sight so close to a major South African city.

Not wanting to miss out – I grabbed my camera and found me a suitable vantage point!


What I was most surprised about was viewing the photos afterward, and noticing how the planes all lined up on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier. I was amazed, given the winds that are currently being experienced in Cape Town.

Road trip to the Mother City #1: Holiday by the sea

Usually one goes to the coast to enjoy high temperatures, but this holiday is a little bit reversed. For a local that has just returned from the UK, the recent high temperatures experienced on the Highveld feel REALLY warm, and so Ulricha and myself are taking a week out and visiting my parents in Cape Town.

We started off very early on Friday and were already approaching Bloemfontein by the time the sun rose. We continued extremely well, making good progress until Colesberg, when the car developed an emission system problem, which caused the engine management system to limit to power being delivered. As a result our progress was significantly slowed, though thankfully the problem is not serious enough to have caused us to stop.

We arrived safely late in the evening, welcomed to Cape Town by strong winds, but clear and sunny skies – something quite unusual for Cape Town recently.

However, along the way we managed to get some good photo opportunities – especially when we got into the Western Cape, and caught sight of some snow that has accumulated over the high mountains of the Boland. The scenery in the Cape is magnificent, with the recent higher than usual rainfall having left the flora blooming magnificently.

And no matter how much time you spend away from Cape Town, somehow the glimpse of Table Mountain from Blouberg always gives you the feeling that you have returned home.

Mother City Visit: Leaving under a cloud

Well, despite my doom mongering, Cape Town appeared to only suffer cosmetic damage, although the wind did take down trees, which in turn
took down power lines and causing widespread electricity outages.

Sunday continued to be "changeable" and within minutes the weather would alter from bright sunshine to dark clouds and driving rain. The wind was a constant though through out the day.

I managed to get an occasional view of Table Mountain, but for the most part, this was obscured by cloud or rain. And so it came time to head back to Johannesburg. Arriving for my flight in good time, I was greeted with the cheerful news that flights between Cape Town and Johannesburg were severely delayed. It appears that the foul weather in Cape Town and strong wind in Johannesburg had caused several flights to be delayed. I head in fact that a truck delivering cargo to one plane had been blown into the engine, causing major delay and the plane to be replaced with a fresher model.

My flight was delayed by 90 minutes. The best thing to do was just to tuck into a Juicy Lucy sandwich and watch the second hand tick by slowly. Eventually I was persuaded though to check the information being reflected on the flight information televisions, and was informed that in fact the flight was leaving at 8:20 - not 9:10. Give it was 7:45, this meant I could board within minutes. Rushing through the x-ray checks I was greeted (in a motley tent arrangement currently doubling as the departure lounge in Cape Town) by a long queue of people going through my gate - but none of whom were going on my flight. Apparently my flight was NOT leaving at 8:20 after all. Dejected I started mulling over what words I could put into my next blog post to fully relay my frustration - a dark cloud hanging over my head now similar to that which had smothered the peninsula all day. I roamed aimlessly in front of the counter at the gate, hoping that any moment my flight might be called and I could return home - late, but at least be home.

And then a very kind and extremely helpful lady working at the counter saw my plight and called me forward. I explained to her that I was not booked on the flight that she was loading, but having checked if I had check in baggage, she very kindly made arrangements for me to board the earlier flight. Like the sun that had (on occasion) broken though the clouds throughout the day, my spirits lifted.... I was going home!

The only thing better than that was the announcement from the pilot informing a plane full of weary travellers that the tail wind would shed 30 minutes off the 2 hour flight. So all in all I arrived 10 minutes later than originally scheduled. Tired, but relieved.

My trip to Cape Town had been rushed, busy, and far too short - but I was home at last.

Mother City visit: Relentless rain and driving winds

There’s a moment of silence now. The kind of silence that gets louder with each passing second, until once again being broken by the roar of a Northerly gale against the window of my bedroom.

It is 6:30 in the morning on Sunday. I have been in bed since last night – I couldn’t tell you how much of that time I have actually slept.

The storm which, for the whole of Saturday had been touted as “the worst is yet to come” by locals, eventually struck around the time I went to bed. For the whole night the wind has tried to remove the roof of my parents house. Rain – and more recently hail – has hammered against the window pains with such force that the sound has become just a constant roar of noise, a cocophony of rattling, hammering, beating and banging as the water is thrown against the glass by the raging wind.

I have just looked outside the window – fearful of what I might see, but the sun appears to have been too scared to wake up this morning, and it is still dark outside.

Cape Town is already soaked to the skin from a very wet winter, and the ground is very close to saturated. I cannot see how the rain of the last 7 hours could not have caused flooding – and possibly severe flooding. And I cannot see how the wind has not caused damage to homes and businesses – and particularly to those living in the informal settlements around Cape Town.

I am in a brick and mortar house in Tableview – and I feel fortunate to still be in Tableview, and not to have been transported to Muizenberg like some modern day Dorothy.

It would be a miracle of quite some order if the Mother City has come through the night with just minor damage. I fear what dawn’s light may reveal.

Mother City visit: Miserable Mom gets a facelift

When I was growing up, there would be Winters in Cape Town that would be cold, and grey and wet. This weekend is just like those Winters of my memories.

Having landed quite late on Friday evening, I was fortunate to get to my parents just minutes before the heavens opened and the rain poured for quite some time. Saturday morning was quieter, but no less grey and ferocious. The Northerly wind is blowing at gale force strength at times, and it is really not a pleasant experience going out. I took some photos while out today, but as you can see, could not even SEE the mountain through the cloud and precipitation.

I was out today, travelling to Somerset West and to Big Bay in Blouberg. And I got to see that, despite being miserable (well, this weekend anyway the Mother City is preparing herself for the football World Cup, under going a fairly major facelift in areas – preparing herself to not just looking beautiful, but to be more welcoming to visitors.

And that got me thinking, there was and continues to be a lot of argument about the pros and cons of hosting such major events as the Olympics and the Football World Cup. But the “success” of such events is very subjective. South Africa’s Beijing Olympic Games experience was anything BUT a success – with just a single Silver medal. Businesses, sponsors and corporate partners will measure “success” purely in monetary terms.

But perhaps more importantly (in my mind at least) is the legacy that such an event creates for the general public, the people living in the host country.


And it occurred to me that in the years I lived in Cape Town, I cannot recall the N2 motorway ever undergoing such building work. I cannot recall the amount of road works that I saw today, as the transport system of Cape Town receives some long overdue attention.

To my mind, the legacy of the event, the manner it enriches the lives of the people of South Africa – not in monetary terms but in uplifting their lives and way of life – these are the measures that will ultimately prove whether the Football World Cup is a success or a failure.

Mother City visit

I am off to the Cape Town for the weekend. I have not visited the Mother City since last June and am quite looking forward to returning to my roots – even for a few hours. Thing is, Cape Town has been more “Cape of Storms” than maternal over the last few weeks, and I fear those roots might be well and truly sodden!

All the same, I just spent 6 years in the UK – how bad could Cape Town possibly be by comparison!

Anticipate more photos from my weekend – just expect to see far less sun than in the photos from the Berg!