The Garden Route in 6 days

We booked the Garden Route in six days with Earth Stompers, click here to find out more.

Sunday
We started the day in a slow pace as expected on a Sunday! We managed to leave the house with two cars, Paul Liezl and the kids (Thomas and Annabel) at 1pm! We went to Tokara vineyard for a very good free tasting and stunning views over the winelands. There were also some amazing paintings made with wine. We then got hungry and stopped at Jimmy’s fish in Stellenbosch for a great seafood feast. I had the cajun tuna steak which was delicious and Bruce of course went for a platter! The fat bastard.

After that we tried another two wine tastings but since we got carried away with the lunch, all vineyards were closed after 4pm and we couldn’t have any other tastings for the day. We got home to Paul’s and had some wine there instead, and a lovely dinner with cold meats and cheeses to accompany the nice wine. We also tried coeksisters and milk tart desserts. Yum. Little Charlie the dog enjoyed some tickles on the sofa post dinner.

Our last night in Cape Town since the garden tour starts on Monday. A huge thank you to Paul and Liezl for hosting us with amazing hospitality, and for driving us around. We had a fantastic time and hope we can return the favour in Italy very soon!

Garden Route

Day 1
The morning start was early and hectic. Paul and Liezl left to drive the kids at 7:15am, and we waited for our tour to pick us up at theirs until 7:45. Pieter, our guide, picked us up and we were the last on the bus. It is a different story from our previous tour adventure, the bus is more of a car, it has aircon and sits only 8 people including the driver. The crew includes three Swiss girls and a couple composed of a Polish girl and a South African guy that lives half in London and half in Poland. We were supposed to start the tour in Agallhas, the real most southerly point of Africa, but Pieter told us that since it is a very busy time we had to reverse the direction of the tour. So we did a very long 400Km drive on the first day, had lunch en route at a petrol station, and arrived at the Cango Caves at around 3pm. They are the oldest tourist attraction in South Africa, and the Royal family came all the way to see them in 1800. Bruce and I were the only pussys that had the heritage tour, and not the adventure tour. The adventure tour includes some proper stretches to get through very tight bits of the cave (and I expressed some doubts as to whether Rob’s ample midriff would squeeze through the narrow gaps) , while ours was only a comfortable walk in the caves and a great explanation of the history by our super camp guide. The caves are stunning, at some point the guide switched off all the lights to give us the same atmosphere that the person who discovered found in 1600 when he came down and found the caves. It was so dark it’s hard to describe it better than pitch black. It had the dank and foreboding air of Rob’s laundry basket after a summer weekend.

After the caves we made our way to our “Paradise” backpackers, in the ostrich farms region. It wasn’t much of a paradise, but good enough. To make the most of it we had ostrich skewers braai for dinner, and ostrich egg for breakfast. 1 ostrich egg is equivalent to 24 chicken eggs or roughly one half of a Dave French omelette.

Day 2
After the ostrich egg kickstart, we left for two different activities. Some of us went to the ostrich farm and 4 of us went to the Cango Wildlife Range park. We saw lots of animals including a tiger and lions and cheetahs. Bruce even got to encounter some super mega cute cheetah cubs. I am not a big fan of this type of place, feels like a zoo, but it’s still fascinating to see some animals so close up.

We then left and made our way to Wilderness, in the heart of the garden route. We picked up our picnic lunch en route and then started our canooing to get to the Giant Kingfisher trail in Wilderness. The wind and current were quite strong and the paddling wasn’t the easiest, even for the youngsters amongst the group. Rob may have well have been paddling with a sieve . Soon after we started we decided to get back and to take the trail instead. The walk is beautiful, in the jungle within amazingly shaped trees. We even saw a small snake, (Peter thought it was a young python) which caused some in the group to lose their shit entirely. We had to cross a river with a pontoon. Old school but very efficient! We arrived up at the waterfall after a long walk, sweaty and hungry. Swimming in the waterfall pool was very cool and refreshing even if the water was very brown. It didn’t feel dirty, it just looked like swimming in fake tan liquid! We got out and had our packed lunch after the swim and then lie down on the rocks in the sand to recover for a bit. The descent was much quicker and easier. Such a beautiful hiking trail. Looked like being in an enchanted forest out of a dream.

We then made a move to our accommodation by the sea, called Afro Vibe, in Sedgefield by Myoli Beach. Beautiful sunset on the beach while watching the kite surfers hit the waves, and a nice dinner to finish off yet another grand day. Tomorrow we will witness the jump of some crazy bungee jumpers!

Day 3
Today was adrenaline day! For some more than others. The brave Fabian jumped off the highest Bungee jumping bridge in the world as we watched her astonished. It was a great experience to watch, the bridge is truly fascinating and the shouts that you hear from the jumpers are very entertaining. Our guide Peter told us that when he jumped they made him a joke and as soon as he is jumping off at the point of no return they shout “Wait Wait!” and in the video you can see him trying to get back as he falls off the bridge. Made us giggle!

After the jumps were over we made our way to the Titikama national park, with beautiful vegetation and sceneries over the Indian ocean. We hiked over the trail for 1km, until the suspension bridge. A beautiful piece of architecture that can carry only 25 people at a time and that wobbles quite a bit and keeps your adrenaline flowing, especially if you are scared of hights and not very brave like me and Bruce.

After the trail we had just about time to grab a quick lunch on the go before we arrived at the Ziplining departure. I was a bit doubtful since I had a back pain for the last few days. But once I got there I couldn’t resist, call it FOMO! And I am glad I didn’t miss out on it, as it was very very fun!
The first few descends were quite slow and gentle, to get used to it, and then the longer and faster zip lines started and the fun and Matiti’s shouts begun. The longest was over 220 metres long. And a few were over some pretty waterfalls with great landscapes all around us. Beautiful, and great experience strongly recommend and definitely worth the money.

After we finished with the zip lining, we had to wait a bit for our pics as they recommend not to bring your camera since it can easily fall down while you are zipping and once is gone is gone. Another good marketing technique to sell you their own photos and videos. The guy getting us the photo was very very slow, and he even forgot to include the video of Rob and instead he included a random guy from another group!
Anyway we had to get on the road again for three hours to reach our accomodation in Addo National Park. We arrived at 6pm and dinner was at 7pm quickly after. A beautiful accommodation by the river with a great view and beautiful little wooden apartments. It feels like living in another era. The dinner was also very traditional, Bobizuk… apparently recipe brought during the dutch colony by their slaves that is still the most traditional meal in South Africa. Very tasty, especially if accompanied by a slightly chilled Pinotage. After dinner we stayed outside for a bit to look at the tones of stars and the milky way was very evident since there is no moon. Bed early as tomorrow we are leaving at 5am for our early game drive into Addo National Park, the Elephants sanctuary.

Day 5
The early wake up was interesting! Quite cold in the park, and the vehicle we had the game drive on was fully open and very bumpy. Definitely kept us awake.
The guide from the first game drive was initially quiet, and we didn’t see any animals other than zebras in the distance for the first half an hour into the drive. We were starting to think the worst about our decision: paying money to wake up at 430am and not see any animals… That wouldn’t be ideal! Luckily shortly after the guide got a call from another vehicle and told us to make our way in that direction to try and see the lion that they just saw. We got there and the lion was there waiting for us. Initially it looked like he was ready for breakfast but in the end he got lazy and started to lie down to sleep, as the antilopes moved away from him enough to make him give up on the catch.
We also saw the leopard turtle, kudus, warthogs, ostrich, mongoose, and some interesting birds including a bird of prey (a grey one we cant remember the name!) , in our morning drive.

After we got back we met with our guide Peter and all had a nice heavy breakfast at 830 before we set off for another two hours drive in the park. We were really excited about seeing Elephants since this park is renowned for elephants, and there are over 500 living there. While there are only 8 lions in the entire 35,000 hectars of Addo National park and we managed to see one! It couldn’t be… But Peter knew his shit, and he brought us to a waterhole where over 50 elephants were together… Some having a drink, other having a swim in the mud, others getting a bit too “excited”!

One had 5 legs. It was overwhelming to see so many elephants in the same place. It was hard to decide where to look as they are all fascinating to watch, babies, females and big males with their bright white tusks.
On the way there I also spotted a huge water buffalo, which was our first in this trip, and it was so close to the car as he crossed the road that we all had a second of fear in our minds.
It was another fantastic (and lucky) game drive!

At 11am we left the park enriched with good photos and memories, and started the long 5hours drive towards Mossel Bay. We had several stretching legs stops, and after over 3 hours we had a nice walk in a little forest called The Garden Of Eden. It was like an enchanted woodland walking around centenary trees and hearing the noise of unusual birds all around us. Very beautiful and relaxing.

Before arrival we stopped at a nice view point to see the beach from above, and we learnt about the old steam train, the route was 100km , which was a very popular tourist attraction until 2009 when it had to be closed because maintenance of the railway was getting too expensive since a lot of rocks kept falling on the tracks.

We arrived in Mossel Bay and had time for a quick shower before heading to the beach for dinner at Kaai on Mossel Bay harbour. The place was very pretty, with a guy playing the guitar and singing, and lovely simple food from the barbecue (Braai) being served along with ice cold Windhoek beer, our local favourite. All for less than £10 for two, thanks to the exchange rate pound vs rand which is making us joyful on a regular basis. Perfect way to end our 18 hours long day!

Day 5

Rob jumped out of a plane at 10,000 feet and keeps wanking on about it….WHATEVS!

It was a bit of a tease , as we went to the airfield at 9am but the weather was too cloudy so drove back to town to have brekky with the others. I then thought it was off, but then got the call that we were back on, so back to the airfield at 12.

I was 3 kg away from the “fat bastard obesity fine” but just scraped under the 100kg mark. Result!

I had to wait for the other 2 girls to jump first (Selma and Noki) so had a nice relaxing 30 mins pacing around, sweating and wondering about if I should write a will.

Eventually my time came and I climbed into the fucking tiny plane, which seemed to be open plan/missing a door/very well ventilated. One of the other staff who was also jumping looked at my coldly – and said “you aint gonna make it boy” which really calmed my frayed nerves.

I was strapped to my tandem jumper and positioned next to a large hole in the side of the plane.

The next 30 mins steadily climbing to 10,000 feet whilst banking and feeling like I was about to fall through the hole were not the most carefree in my life. Nice views though.

Then my time came and I got my knees and feet stuck desperately trying to swing them out of the plane to assume jump position.

I had a moment of doubt where I did wonder quite what the fuck I was doing there but it was too late, JUMP!

What an incredible rush, no feeling like it in the world. Watching the video back is great value. My face contorts in the wind to new levels of ugliness!

The combination of fear, noise, g force, amazing views, confusion and adrenalin make it an indescribable feeling.

If you have never tried it – GO!

Mati was chilling on the beach for most of the day and we then drove 3 hours to the most southern point of Africa, Aghalus (spelt wrong!)

We had a big session as it was our last night on tour – so the springbok shooters, local ciders and wines were all knocked back – its gone so fast. Last day tomorrow. Big love to our garden route buddies!

 

 

Day 6
A chilled day, starting with the one and only late breakfast at 9am. We then went to Cape Agulhas, the most Southern tip of Africa where Pieter told us some stories about earth being flat. We tried to find some sting rays on the shore but couldn’t spot any. We then moved on to the wine tasting at Raka, for a wonderful 5 glasses of tasty wine with a fine view over the mountains. We had lunch in Hermanus which is the whale watching town, but it’s not whale season so don’t get too excited. To finish the day on our way back to Cape Town we stopped at a big colony of penguins… it started raining and then the rainbow came. A great way to finish our garden route adventure!

Once arrived in Cape Town we stayed at Monique’s place, which has a beautiful view over the harbour (grazie mille for hosting us!), and had a lovely dinner with her and her German cousin Annasofia and her boyfriend. Last South African steak before we head off to Asia tomorrow!