A South-African journey: Christmas in Summer (contains a trip to Cape Town !)

This year, Laura and I spent Christmas in the Southern Hemisphere, so ... in summer ! It's quite disturbing ... Long days, usually sunny and warm, but still with some Christmas decorations in the shopping malls, it's strange. But we do appreciate it !

So, we spent the Christmas dinner "réveillon" with Simon and his family, at Simon's brother's house. It was a really, really nice time we spent there - we left past 1am without even noticing we'd been there for so long ! Although we felt a little bit uneasy because we had the impression to intrude into the very family reunion, everyone was so friendly and welcoming that we felt "at home". We really had a great time. We were so confused to even receive presents, when we had simply brought a few things to eat ...

This is actually from Grenoble, so, it will travel a long way back to Lausanne ;-)

Usually, we like to sleep late on Christmas day ... but that time, we slept 2 hours, and woke up at 4:30 ! Direction : O.R. Tambo Int'l Airport ! We had a flight to Cape Town at 7am :-)

Johannesburg at 5 in the morning, on Dec. 25th ...

It was the start of 3 nice and full-packed days in the Cape region !

Day 1 : Cape Peninsula
We landed in Cape Town at 9am, then we went to pick up a rented car. It was not easy to get a rented car, as it is the touristic season, but we could find one. They gave us a car that ... didn't start ! So we had to change (for the same car, only different color). After that, we went quickly to check in at the hotel. We stayed at the Townhouse hotel, a "business" hotel in the city center, very nice, friendly staff, and also amazing breakfast (I'll come back to that !). I would have preferred to book in a guest house somewhere near Stellenbosch, but all those I called were already full, so I gave up after a few. But the hotel where we stayed was really good.

Our room (9th floor)

View from the room

After check-in and leaving the luggage in the room, we went straight to the Table Mountain Cableway. Unfortunately, it was very, very crowded. I mean, we were expecting the place to be crowded, but not that much. Our plan for the day was to go down to Cape Point after that, and it was already 11am, so we thought we'd postpone the Table Mountain for another day. Well, there is still a nice view from the bottom of the mountain !

Here is a map of what we did on the first day :

Peninsula Tour

We first passed by Camps Bay, which has a nice beach, but we didn't stop - it was anyway crowded ! We continued south towards Hout Bay, and we took the Chapman Peak Drive, a nice road crossing the National Park, with amazing views on the Atlantic side.

Then we crossed the peninsula towards Simon's Town, where we stopped to see Penguins ! There, you have a choice : either you go on a beach where you have to pay, and you see the penguins, or you go on a beach where you don't have to pay, and you see the penguins. We chose the latter, and we even had our own private penguin ;-)

Penguin

We had a quick lunch (sandwiches with boerewors !) and we left towards the Cape Point Nature Reserve. It appears that we were not the only ones to have in mind to go to Cape Point ...

A little part of the queue of cars in front of the entrance of the park (we were actually stopped on the road !)

After waiting about 20 minutes to enter the park (which is not so bad !), we went to the Cape of Good Hope. We came across a couple of ostriches with a baby.

We stopped a little bit on a very windy beach for some photos of ourselves ...

... and of an ostrich that was passing by !

We finally reached the Cape of Good Hope : a lot of wind, and a lot of marmottes ! It's like the Alps, but warm ...

Cape of Good Hope

Strong wind !

Windy hair-style

Falling from the cliff ?

Cliff hanger !

La reine des marmottes !

Then we continues to the lighthouse, and from there to the Cape Point. It was no less windy ...

Towards the Cape Point

Looking South, from the lighthouse

After the Cape Point, we went back towards the gate of the park (which you have to quit by sunset, otherwise you get a fine !). We made a detour to another part of the park, hoping to see more animals ! We didn't see any zebra this time, but we caught a glimpse of some baboons and other animals. And the beach was beautiful.

Then we finally left the park and went back to Cape Town, via another road. But we were very, very tired ... We had not walked a lot, but the wind made it quite exhausting ! And also we had slept only 2 hours the night before ... So, we went back to the hotel and had dinner there - very good dinner, I took a babootie wrap and Laura salmon ravioli. We slept early, to be in good shape for .........

Day 2 : Cape Town, False bay and Hermanus
We woke up early to have a walk in the city center before going all the way to Hermanus (about 120km from Cape Town). The day started by a good breakfast in the Hotel ...

The buffet, for fruits, cereals, cheese, ham, croissants, bread ...

Two fried eggs, beef sausage, bacon, and mushrooms

... then a walk in the city ...

The old city hall

Company's gardens

... and we finished by a stop at Greenmarket Square, where there is a flea market. We bought some souvenirs there, and then we went back to the hotel to leave them in the room and take the car. Direction : Hermanus, via the road on the coast (a.k.a. the long way !).

Oustide the city, going east (obviously : west of Cape Town in the ocean ;-) ), you cross the Cape Flats, where there is an impressive township. It's quite sad to see. Anyone going to Cape Town sees them, as they are just next to the highway linking the airport and the city.

Continuing to the east, we arrive in Sommerset West, where we exit the highway and go towards Strand. There is a nice beach there, and of course, at 11am on a sunny Dec. 26th, we got caught in traffic as many people wanted to go to the beach ! We managed to escape, by taking another road, a bit farther to the coast, but also higher, so the view was even better ! We continued towards Gordon's Bay, and from there towards Hermanus. At some point, we stopped to try and see whales - unsuccessfully ... But we did succeed in stopping at a nice beach and have a Christmas bath ! The "whale route" is just wonderful - if not for the whales which we did not see, at least for the landscapes !

On the right, the beach where we stopped

We finally arrived in Hermanus, where we started by buying hats and refreshments, and with a little bit of patience we saw some whales in Walker's Bay !

Then we decided to drive a little bit more, until Gansbaai, where we had a nice sea food dinner ! We went back to Cape Town using the faster way, though we had a little bit of rain. I think we arrived at the hotel at 10pm, so it was again quite a long day !

Day 3 : Table Mountain and the Winelands
On the last day, we decided to start early and go to the Table Mountain before the rush, and then go to the Winelands (Paarl, Franschoek, Stellelbosch). When we arrived to the Table Mountain at 8:30, it was already crowded (though less than on the first day), and cloudy ... We decided to give it a try anyway, but when we got on the top of the Cableway, it was ... fully in the cloud !

Cableway lower station

Clouds

We finally didn't stay long up there, as we wanted to go to the Winelands. We started by passing through Paarl, which is a nice small city, but not easy to visit as it is quite spread. So we continued to Franschoek, where I'd already been a few weeks ago, and we stopped at the Drakensberg prison, where Mandela finished his prison sentence.

We visited the Huguenot memorial and museum, and then it was time to eat something ! We tried to go in a place that Simon had recommended, but they were apparently closed. So we just chose "randomly" a wine estate and tried ! We went to Vrede en Lust, asked for some wine tasting and a cheese platter, they found us a table on a terrace ... It was really good ! So good that we bought 3 bottles ... ;-)