We arrived in Cape Town and stayed with Tamara Ridley and her boyfriend JP for almost a week of a luxuriously comfortable bed, a fully functional kitchen and way too much alcohol. Tam is a family friend, her father and my father went to University together. I had last seen her in 1996 when she came out to visit my family in Australia with her father. Honestly I was a little worried about staying with someone for that length of time when I hadn’t seen them in almost 15 years. Fortunately both Tamara and JP (both featured in photo's below) were lovely and we had an amazing time staying with them.
I think, if we were to live anywhere in Southern Africa, I’d pick Cape Town. Firstly cities situated on the West Coast are always cooler (think Vancouver, think Perth, think Lisbon). There are vineyards within and 30 minutes from the city centre, some amazing diving, Table mountain to hike, and a very unique food culture with seafood galore and a great nightlife, as well as seal and penguin colonies and hiking on the Cape of Good Hope.
We managed to do almost everything above, except for the kelp forest diving. Mark had been given for his 30 birthday money towards this from friends in London; unfortunately the weather wasn’t amazing while we were there, so he couldn’t. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure he spends it on something cool. J
From Cape Town we hired a car and headed to Stellenbosch for three days of wine tasting and amazing food. We also caught up with Rob Brown, a gentleman we had meet in Kariba Zimbabwe. We left Stellenbosch with lighter purses, clinking bottles of wine in the boot of the car, and a few extra pounds in weight from the food. Lovely!
Right now we are in Prince Albert and have managed to really fall on our feet. Yesterday it was Sunday and with everything closed except the local bakery/ cafe we spoke to the owners who have rented us out an entire amazing old colonial three bed house for £16.50 (less than the price of a camp site in Namibia).
From here we hit the Garden route, followed by the Wild Coast and then Lesoto
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