Thursday, Sept. 20th-21st. Somerset West to (and at) “The Retreat at Groenfontein”.

Posted in Port Elizabeth (our old home town) on Sept. 30th.

Moving Day! We were off on the next leg of our vacation. We traveled up the N2 from SW to Swellendam and then took the Tradouw Pass over to Barrydale. For those who were with us in 2005, this is the pass that was closed and caused a major diversion for us. This year it was open and was a spectacular drive. We stopped at a view point and Angela fell in love with a dassie. We stopped for lunch in Barrydale at “Clarke’s of the Karoo”. I detected an English accent from the proprietor and on enquiry, he revealed that he came out to South Africa “with McBride’s (19)75 lions and decided to stay”. I did not have the temerity to ask him if he was a player or a spectator! A very annoying “feature” of all the roads we are traveling in SA is how many of them are under repair. When they repair the road, they close down the side of the road they are repairing for miles and make the other side a one way road. Then they have a stop sign for one end of the section while they let the vehicles at the other end through and the line of vehicles gets longer and longer until all the vehicles have come through and then you get to go down the single lane. These “stops” have notices that say “Wait time 30 minutes” (people get out of their cars and chat to each other) – and some of these are so called National Roads – the equivalent of Interstates! We encountered one of these after leaving Barrydale, which, in fairness is not a National Road.

On to Calitzdorp and then 20K of dirt road and we arrived at “The Retreat at Groenfontein”, a little piece of heaven on earth! (http://www.groenfontein.com) We were met by our hostess, Marie Burton and after moving suitcases to our rooms, went for an evening stroll before dinner. The Retreat is a guest house (a converted farmhouse) in the middle of the “Karoo”. It is dominated by the close proximity of the Swartberg Mountains, while being surrounded be smaller hills/mountains as well. It is a place of utter peace and tranquility, with only the birds and running water in the streams to hear.

Our host, Grant Burton joined us on the veranda for sundowners and then, as is their custom, Marie & Grant joined us for dinner. The main course that evening was an ostrich casserole which was delicious. Fortunately, it was a beautiful evening and we were able to have dinner on the veranda. By chance, we were the only guests on this particular night, so we were able to catch up on all the news of The Retreat with Grant & Marie and enjoy some good wine with them. We slept well!

An excellent new feature of The Retreat is the fact that that Grant has gone out into the surrounding hills following the animal paths, marking them and clearing them where they may be a bit overgrown or dangerous. He has created linking paths from farm paths and created a map of all the trails around The Retreat. There is a Green Lizard Trail, a Yellow Lizard, Klipspringer, Baboon and others, each of different lengths and difficulty (don’t try the Baboon Trail unless you can climb like one!). The trails are also interlinked, so you can join one trail from another and make it a longer walk. By walking all the trails, you can actually walk a complete circle around the farm buildings and view it from all the high points on the surrounding hills. The next morning, this is what I set out to do.

Alison & Angela started out with me on the Blue Lizard Trail, which was a good walk for them just by itself. When we were at a point where I was sure they could find their way back to the house, I left them and continued on each of the trails mentioned above. I had been planning to get back by 1PM but not being a baboon (no comments please), took a little longer on that trail than I anticipated (I couldn’t find the way down!). Anyway, as I arrived back at the lodge, I saw Grant on the veranda with his binoculars, but he may have just been looking at the birds! We had a very nice lunch followed I think by a siesta.

Marie had been telling us about the Rock Pool Trail which we thought we had already completed the evening before and is an old trail that we have done before. However, having now seen a drawing of the trail in map form, we realized that what we thought was the rock pool was actually about 600 yards short of the real rock pool, which was across the stream we had stopped at, across yet another stream and then a scramble across more rocks, to find the “real” rock pool at the bottom of a small waterfall.
Marie told us this rock pool was deep enough to take a plunge in and we should give it a try, subtly inferring that we didn’t need to take any swimming gear. Alison and I set out once again on the Rock Pool Trail and this time we went all the way! We were trying to set up the camera so that we could take a picture of us together in the rock pool, but it proved impossible due to the downward slope of the rocks and if we put the camera any further away, I wouldn’t have made it back to the pool before the timer went off. All this palaver was going on while we were absolutely “kaalgat”, shivering with cold, and laughing hysterically. Eventually, we had to take pictures of each other in the pool individually, but I cheated a bit and took pictures of Alison before she actually immersed herself in the pool. I am going to sell them on eBay. It was great fun (who said we were old)?

Back to the house for sundowners and dinner again. Of course we had to show the pictures to prove we had been in the pool – from the look on Grant’s face I think I showed him the wrong picture!
This night there were other guests, a couple from Knysna who were there for the first time. They had only checked in 90 minutes before dinner but had already tried to extend their stay for a third night – to no avail as the guest house was full – such is the lure of The Retreat.

I have also almost totally neglected to inform everyone of the number of photographs of birds that Alison has taken on this trip so far. In Kruger, it was at least one bird for every animal and far too many to put on the blog. However, we will find space for the lovely Malachite Sunbird in the garden at The Retreat.

Grant and Marie have two pure bred Staffordshire Bull Terriers and of course Alison also fell in love with them. When they look at you with those sad eyes, they sure look a lot like Clare’s Meathead.

We left the next morning with promises of returning in 2009!

Wednesday, Sept. 19th. Vic & Carol’s last day with us for a while.

(Posted on Sept. 27th at Sedgefield) Having set the alarm, Vic & I were up early and were at the “Helderburg” gates just after 7am. We got to the parking lot and then started up one of the trails that led up from the parking lot, not paying too much attention to which trail we were on – bad idea! There was very thick mist and low cloud this particular morning so it was difficult to know exactly where we were, but we knew we had to go up. We finally found what we assume now was the right path and 75 minutes later we were at the highest point we could attain given our time restraint. The whole of the Somerset West and Strand area was completely covered, with only the mountains showing majestically through the clouds. I have included a second photograph, taken at a later time, showing approximately the same view and the same mountains without the clouds.

The ladies were waiting for us when we returned and after a quick shower and packing Vic & Carol’s luggage into the SUV, we headed out for Hout Bay where we had decided to have lunch. For Nostalgia’s sake, we drove the route of the “Two Oceans marathon”, which Vic and I had run many times (only 35 miles!). Our plan was thwarted when we got to one of the most difficult parts of the course, but also one of the most beautiful, Chapman’s Peak was closed because of rock falls – gives you some idea of the terrain in that area. We diverted and found another route to Hout Bay where we had a lovely lunch at the Mariners Wharf. By the time we finished lunch it was time for us to make haste once more to Cape Town International where Vic & Carol would leave us to fly back to Port Elizabeth. We will see them in eight or nine days when we return to PE by road (making some stops along the way).

When we were at the Helderberg Nature Reserve, Vic & I saw what must be one of the most beautiful Proteas in bloom that we have seen and I wanted Alison to see it, so after dropping off V&C we went straight to the reserve and Alison took a photo of the Protea. She and Angela liked the reserve very much and would have liked to have spent more time there but it closed at 5.30 and the next morning we would be on our way.

Tuesday, Sept.18th. Once more up Table Mountain

(Posted on Sept. 27th at Sedgefield) Angela visited us in South Africa in 1978 and Alison brought her to Cape Town from Port Elizabeth, but the weather was never good enough to go up Table Mountain. Fortunately, she had better luck this time. We dropped Vic & Carol at the Waterfront and made arrangements to meet them for lunch, then headed up the mountain. Because every day had been clear since we went up with Chris & Linda, the lines were normal and we were soon in a cable car on our way to the top. This time, Alison and I wanted to make a hike of it so after walking for a while with Angela, we set out to walk to Maclear’s Beacon at the back of the mountain, overlooking False Bay and back over Somerset West and Gordon’s Bay. It turned out to be much further than we thought so it took us longer than we intended to be away.

We then joined Vic & Carol at Quay Four, the name of a fish restaurant. Alison was particularly impressed with the fish that she had – Dorado. Back to Somerset West and Vic & I investigated how we might be able to walk up part of the mountain (subsequently determined to be named “Helderberg”) that we could see from our residence. After walking and asking, we found that the gates to the “Helderberg Nature Reserve” were within driving distance of our house and that they open at 7 AM. We were determined to rise early and make an attempt to take a good walk up Helderberg mountain.

Monday, Sept 17th, Wine tasting and lunch at Franschhoek

(Posted on Sept. 26th at Sedgefield) On this day, Vic had arranged for the five of us to have a private wine tasting at a winery called Boekenhoutskloof in the Franschhoek Valley. Vic’s company distributes their wine in the Eastern Cape area so we were well looked after and the wine tasting was conducted by the winemaker himself, Rudiger Gretschel. Coincidentally, one of the red blends that they make is called The Wolftrap, which as you can imagine, is a popular table wine in the Wolff household. A bottle of The Wolftrap retails at about R32, or under $5 to those in the USA. One can easily buy a bottle of wine here to accompany a nice dinner at a price between R50-R100 ($7-$14). We also tasted some of Boekenhoutskloof premium wines, one of which was called “Chocolate Block” which was superb and cost R140 ($20). I bought four bottles, but don’t get excited, they won’t be coming back to the USA!

From Boekenhoutskloof, we drove a short distance round the Franschhoek Valley to have lunch at a restaurant called “La Petite Ferme”, which is situated in a most beautiful spot overlooking the whole valley. The photographs cannot do it justice. (http://www.lapetiteferme.co.za/). We had drinks on the lawn and lunch on the terrace.
After lunch, we stopped on our way home to Somerset West in Stellenbosch at the Lanzerac winery and I bought three bottles of Lanzerac rose, one of Alison’s old favorites from our early days in SA.
Back home to watch more 20/20 cricket and a light supper before bed!

Sunday, Sept 16th, Angela (Alison’s sister) arrives from England

(Posted Sept. 26th in Sedgefield).

Early morning Alison & I left for Cape Town International once more, this time to pick up Alison’s sister Angela, who had taken an overnight flight from Heathrow to Cape Town. We had a quiet day in Somerset West with the two sisters catching up on their latest news and me trying to write up a few days for the blog! Sunday evening was another showdown between England and South Africa, this time in the World cricket limited overs (20-20) championship (which SA also won). Interestingly, the USA has a side in the World Cup Rugby champs, but not in the cricket champs. Vic cooked two whole chickens on the Weber braai for supper.

Saturday, Sept. 15th, (Clare’s 30th birthday). Goodbye to Chris & Linda

(Posted Sept. 26th in Sedgefield) We were up early, but not as early as C&L, although they had done the majority of their packing on Friday night. We left the house just after 8.30 as we were also returning the VW microbus at the Cape Town International airport as well as putting Chris & Linda on their flight to Johannesburg. We replaced the VW with a smaller vehicle - a Toyota SUV (an Avanza – a model not available in the USA). We were sad to see C&L leave, but know that they considered their experience in SA the vacation of a lifetime. We certainly enjoyed their company and their enthusiasm for everything they saw.



We went out to lunch at the Oak Tree Restaurant on the Lourensford Wine Estate, one of many, many wineries in the Somerset West, Stellenbosch, Paarl and general Cape Region. From there we returned to watch the World Cup rugby match that all the SA fans had been waiting for – the Springboks v England. It was annihilation in SA’s favor.

Friday, Sept 14th, Table Mountain and “The Waterfront” (The Umbles’ last full day).

(Posted Sept. 25th, Sedgefield). The danger of only having one full day in Cape Town is that the weather could be bad and there would be no point or fun in going up Table Mountain. Fortunately, we woke up on Friday morning to glorious sunshine. Unfortunately, there had been bad weather all week in Cape Town so every tourist in town headed to the cableway on Friday morning, so there were long lines and quite a long wait. However, once we got in the cable car, we all forgot about the wait and enjoyed the moment and the views. Spectacular as always!

From the Cableway, we went to Cape Town’s second most popular attraction, “The Victoria & Alfred Waterfront” down at the harbor. We had lunch at a favorite pub & restaurant of Vic’s, “Ferrymans Tavern”, followed by shopping for those inclined. We got back to SW in time for sundowners and then Vic cooked the snoek to perfection on a Weber braai. Another great day.

Thursday, Sept. 13th, De Hoop to Cape Town (Somerset West).

(Posted Sept. 25th in Sedgefield)

We got an early start on our way to Somerset West as we had decided to take the scenic coast route instead of going back inland. We went through Bredasdorp, which is just 30K from Cape Agulhas, the southernmost tip of the African Continent. We stopped in Stanford at the Birkenhead Brewery and as it was only five minutes to opening time, waited until 10AM and then had a beer tasting as opposed to a wine tasting, although there was also a winery in the grounds. From there we went to Hermanus (another famous whale spotting town, but we didn’t see any whales that morning), Betty’s Bay, on to False Bay (a body of water) and into Gordon’s Bay where we had lunch at a pub in the little fishing harbor.
After lunch, we went to Strand where we picked up some snoek (a Cape Town specialty fish) for our next braai, and then on into SW, where we moved into Carol’s brother’s vacation home – a very, very nice vacation home!
After settling in, we went out for the evening to the Spier Winery to a restaurant called Moyo. The restaurant is in a large marquee and has an African theme with symbolic hand washing at the table, face painting, African style blankets on every chair to put around your shoulders and, of course, African music and dancing as entertainment. Naturally, the food was also (South) African, and was served buffet style from multiple stations serving different categories of dishes (fish, curry, braai, stew, etc.) along one side of the marquee. It was well done and a very fun evening. (See www.moyo.co.za)

Tuesday, Wednesday, Sept. 11th, 12th, Sundays River to De Hoop Nature Reserve

(Posted at Sedgefield on Sept. 24th). On Tuesday morning we drove to the airport in Port Elizabeth and picked up a VW microbus that we would use to transport the six of us with luggage to De Hoop and then on to Cape Town. We repacked and got on our way down the “Garden Route” en route to De Hoop, a journey of about 650K, of which the last 60-70K is on dirt roads. Our accommodation was in self-catering cottages and was very nice. We had two adjacent cottages and set up one as the main base where we would eat. The reserve contains the 15K long De Hoop Vlei: “A wetland of international importance for migratory birds. Of the 260 bird species recorded, 97 are waterbirds, etc." The vlei was formed by a river mouth being cut off by sand dunes.

In addition to the birds, there are many species of antelope in the reserve, including the bontebok which is indigenous to the area, but was almost hunted to extinction until the remaining 22 where protected by being placed in a reserve.

Although we were interested in both bird and game viewing, our main hope of coming to De Hoop was to see the whales! Quoting the tour guide: “The waters off De Hoop have the largest concentration of southern right whales along the South African coast and the reserve offers superb vantage points for viewing these majestic creatures”. We were not disappointed. On Wednesday morning when we got to the shoreline, we were able to see many, many whales in the shallow blue water along the coast. These whales have come into the bay to calf, so do not “jump” and thrash about, but they are quite clearly visible and “blow” huge spouts of water into the air. Unfortunately, they are also very difficult to photograph and I don’t think we have a “great” picture of the whales to show you. They are much easier to follow in the video.
It was another great day.