Cycling The Road Less Travelled

As mentioned in the last couple of blogs, we grabbed some road maps, our trusty Lonely Planet book, got into Lester and hit the road. Like every other road trip we’ve taken, it soon become glaringly obvious that Spiros is the better driver AND the better map reader. This is going to be an issue if we ever get on the “Amazing Race”. We’d still win mind you because we’re the best…the BEST I tell you. We’re faster, smarter, and cuter then all the other teams! (Unfortunately, I’ve watched enough reality TV to know that you won’t get on the show unless you “talk smack”…so bear with me, I’m just practicing).

We got a late start the first day and only made it to Stellenbosch. The major accomplishment of the day was finding a GREAT Lebanese restaurant called Manoushe. Zaatar, hummus, jibneh, babganoush…ooh the babaganoush. All of it mouth-watering! The place has great atmosphere too; water pipes, nice music, and an open kitchen. We got a real kick out of watching the chef work the kitchen, greet his guests and schmooze the ladies with free jibneh and a smile. If he’s not already a celebrity, he should be. Anyway, Spiros hasn’t stopped talking about this place ever since and has pretty much planned the rest of our stay in South Africa around it. Most people who know Spiros know about that perfect pain au chocolat he found in a boulangerie in Nice and how he insists that any flight we take anywhere in the world includes a stopover there. Well, looks like we will need two stopovers now. Two tickets for Vancouver to Montreal, via Cape Town and Nice please. Aaahhh, a crippling and obsessive weakness for really good food…It’s the glue that keeps us together!!

Next day we drove along picturesque vineyards and beautiful mountain passes to get to Montagu; very pretty but a bit of a ghost town when we there, nice hiking and a puppy that stole our hearts. The only other thing I remember is having a delicious 4 course meal at a great restaurant, all the while discussing how we really need to cut back on calories. Like I said…hopeless.

From Montagu, we drove down to and along the coast on the Garden Route. Very striking coastal scenery with long stretches of beautiful white sandy beaches. Definitely world class; an absolute must if you are visiting South Africa. The next major stop was Tsitsikamma National Park. The very minute we got there we knew we would be staying for awhile longer. The photo pretty much shows the view from the campsites. Not too bad, huh? A beautiful and rugged coast, gorgeous sunsets, dolphins, great hiking, not to mention being lulled to sleep with the sound of the ocean. I could get used to this.

We then decided that Lester was old enough to go on a game drive, so off we went to Addo National Park. It’s not the Serengeti but it’s very nice and you get the added bonus of being able to drive through the park yourself. Allowing tourists to go on self guided game drives is a good idea because it adds a lot of excitement. For example, accidentally cutting off a rather large elephant as he tried to cross the road and driving Lester into a small ditch because we got distracted by three zebras really got the adrenaline going. In addition to the elephants and zebras, we got to see kudos warthogs, buffalo and ostriches. Amazingly, we also stumbled onto 4 lions in an open field. They were just lazing around, sleeping, yawning, stretching; that is until a warthog decided to nonchalantly trot right by them. Poor little warthog…poor dumb little warthog.

Next we decided to go a little off the beaten track and do some hiking at Hogsback. The forest there is quite remarkable and is said to be the inspiration for “Lord of the Rings”. We stayed at a great campsite that had a lodge complete with fireplace, TV, radio, kitchen…anything you could think of. We were the only ones there so we had it all to ourselves. It was freezing so we made a fire but quickly ran out of wood. We started to get a little desperate. At one point, we were eyeing one of the wooden bar stools. I mean really… there were five of them! Would they really miss it if one went missing? Isn’t there some kind of interior design rule that states four is the perfect amount of bar stools in a lodge anyway? Anything more then that is just clutter don’t you think? In fact, some may even say we would be doing them a favor! Alas, we weighed the pros and cons and after some consideration, decided it could be considered a little rude. So we just packed up and went to bed. I think we made the right choice.

From here, we went back to the coast and stayed at Cintsa. Yet another awe-inspiring, beautiful beach. What can I say? South Africa is beautiful. We stayed at a very popular backpacker’s lodge. Aaahh, hostels and backpacker’s lodges; cheap, convenient, centrally located and a sure-fire way to make anyone over 30 feel absolutely ancient. Imagine us sitting in the kitchen trying to prepare a blog as the walls shook to the beat of “Highway to Hell”. I’m suddenly much more aware of my 2 inches of gray roots.

The next major stop from here was Camdeboo National Park, where we got amazing views of the “Valley of Desolation”. Once wasn’t enough, we had to go back for sunset. We stayed nearby in the town of Graaff-Reinet, fourth oldest town in South Africa and hometown of Robert Sobukwe.

One of the absolute best parts of South Africa for me was Graaff-Reinet. The hiking was beautiful but this town won me over. I could have stayed here and “people-watched” all day. It just has a great spirit about it that I loved. The colors, the vibrancy, the spark; people talking, laughing, gossiping, arguing. Best part of the day was around noon, when scores of people came out, sat on sidewalks, on benches, had lunch and just chatted up a storm. Oh man! If I could just bottle that up and take it with me I would.

Another highlight was driving over Swartberg and Schoemanspoort passes. Yikes! The Swartberg pass in particular is one serious climb; 1600 m over 24 km. The views are gorgeous! Be warned though, looking over the edge is sure to give you a serious case of vertigo. I have to be honest; going down was a tad unnerving for poor Lester. He is a trooper though, he made it. The other incredible thing about this pass was that as we drove up, we passed a boy, couldn’t have been more then ten, cycling up alone on his mountain bike. He was blazing I tell ya’. Very impressive. We’ll be looking out for a freckle faced South African at the Tour de France in a few years.

After a few more days of driving and more beautiful scenery we made our way back to Cape Town. In case you’re wondering: Yes, of course we went via Stellenbosch so that we could go back to Manoushe.

We spent a few lovely days at Mel’s (thank you soooooooooo much Mel), picked up Diana (and Pépé of course) who will be joining us and are off to our next destination: Gorgeous Namibia.