Nov.8th – Nov.11 th – Swellendam – Cape Town

(Posted in Sedgefield on route to Port Elizabeth from Cape Town) Thursday was another lovely day and after breakfast we took another walk in the Langeberge to a waterfall. When we reached the path to the waterfall (already having walked quite far), the sign said 1K, but this did not describe the steepness of the kloof and the rock clambering we had to do to get there. We felt it was quite an achievement to reach the goal of the waterfall and the rock pool below. We were quite exhausted by the time we got back to the house and we had a lazy afternoon, although we did spend time preparing the blog and dashed off to an internet café in Swellendam at 4.pm to post. A&P met us at the café and we followed them to the bowls club for sundowners. Later in the evening we went to A&Ps restaurant of choice called Mattsens where we all enjoyed steaks and wine that we had purchased at the wineries the day before. The restaurant is licensed but they allow you to take your own wine and locals don’t pay a “corkage” fee – so we were locals that particular night!

Friday was another moving day, but first Alison & I had to take our last local walk to the “microwave tower” which (naturally) sits on a high point overlooking the whole of Swellendam. It was another beautiful day and we took more pictures of the views and of A&Ps house. We returned to a “full on” breakfast of eggs, sausages, baked beans, etc.. and fortified ourselves for the relatively short 150 mile journey to Cape Town. The journey was made a little longer by the fact that we hit three different “one lane at a time” traffic stops, each with wait times up to 20 minutes. In an earlier blog (Oct. 17th), we mentioned that we had finally met up again with an old friend David Betheldo. When David heard we were coming back to Cape Town later in the trip, he insisted that we stay at one of his “rental” flats on the beachfront in Cape Town and when we arrived, David arranged to meet us and we followed him to the flat and settled ourselves in. David came back and picked us up at 6.30 and we went back to his current home for drinks before driving back into town and having dinner at a very smart restaurant called Riboville which is in an old bank building in the middle of the city. We were joined by other friends of David & Tish, Brian & Cathy Kerry. At the restaurant, if you are inclined (and we did), you can go down to the old cash vaults in the old fashioned elevator to view and/or choose your wine from all the racked wine stored behind the giant vault doors. Despite the late hour, on the way home we called in at the Xtreme Hotel for an ABF so that we could see why it was called “Xtreme”. We got the picture. We got to bed past midnight after a great evening. Fortunately David’s wife Tish never drinks alcohol, so we were assured of a designated driver to get us home!

Saturday we lazed around in the morning and enjoyed the views from the flat of Table Bay, Robben Island and Bloubergstrand across the Bay. If we walk to the back of the flats we see Table Mountain and the cable station. David, Tish and their 13 year old son Corbin picked us up at noon and off we went again to the Cape Winelands. We drove through Paarl and on to Franschhoek, this time tasting wine at Rickety Bridge, Moreson and finally ending up at Boschendaal where we had a five course buffet lunch and of course, a nice bottle of wine. The weather, setting, atmosphere, company and the food all cooperated in making it a perfect afternoon. It was after 5pm when we were dropped at the flat and fortunately we had no plans for the evening and just “crashed” and watched TV until we could legitimately retire for the night!