Last Stop Before London.

We're sitting at Cape Town international airport right now, awaiting our flight home to Heathrow, at the end of the third of our major retirement adventures.

We've spent the past 4 days in Franschhoek, in the wine-growing region to the East of Cape Town. As we left Knysna, the weather returned to its usual gloriousness, and we've enjoyed more gorgeous sunshine and blue skies, with temperatures in the low 30s - though reaching 35 by lunchtime today. Franschhoek is another really pretty, very up-market town, if a tad twee and with a distinctly staid feeling about it.



It's rightfully one of the gastronomic as well as wine-lover's highlights of the Eastern Cape, and the lovely, pristine little town is surrounded by a truly lush green valley containing more beautiful vineyards than you can shake a stick at. And the setting is stunning too, with its 360-degree range of beautifully rugged mountains, complete with several clear mountain streams and small waterfalls.

Franschhoek must, however, also be one of the least culturally diverse or ethnically representative towns we've stayed in in the whole of our trip: the only black faces we've seen have been those in service roles (as waiters/waitresses, maids and servants) - we've seen virtually no black people as customers or paying guests in the many shops, museums, hotels or restaurants - nor even just walking about the town window-shopping, as many people do. We asked about this when talking to our breakfast waiter, a Zimbabwean man named Innocent, who looked after us at the lovely little guest-house we were staying in.
 

His 'take' on things here was that Franschhoek is mainly an unofficial 'retirement village' for very or fairly wealthy people - the overwhelming majority of whom in South Africa, despite some progress in the past 20 years, are still from the white population. It would seem that most of the black people who provide the services here live in a township some way out of town; and that, some years ago now, the residents of Franschhoek decided that the little railway station (once the end of the line from Paarl) should be closed down, and the line should terminate at what had been the penultimate stop, a few kilometres before Franschhoek. The ostensible reason given for this decision was that it would further enhance the tranquillity of this already-tranquil town. Whether this was the real reason for the decision or not, the effect has certainly been to restrict the means of transport for the township dwellers, hardly any of whom have their own transport, of course. And neither have we seen any the typically African mini-bus-taxis plying their trade here, even though they are seemingly ubiquitous in the other towns we've visited, careering around (pretty dangerously, it seems, from the horrific traffic accident figures we've read about) collecting mainly black passengers. We learned that most of the black staff in the hotels and restaurants are, generously, 'bussed' into town and home again by specific transport arranged directly by their employers (liveried mini-buses or even pick-up trucks). So, the effect of all these factors, deliberately or otherwise, clearly helps to restrict the number of black people who might otherwise visit the town.

Perhaps we're being unfair on the white population here - we have, after all, only visited for 4 days! - but we both felt a very marked absence of diversity, and a far stronger sense of polite deference towards us from the black people we've met than we've experienced anywhere else.

Nevertheless, we had a lovely few days here, lazing around the pool in the sunshine from time to time; wandering around the wonderfully 'arty' shops and the Saturday morning arts, crafts and foodie market; 

 

visiting the Hugeonot museum to help understand the origins of the French influence in the architecture and vini-culture around the area;

enjoying a wonderful day-long wine-tasting tour by vintage tram, complete with a pre-booked picnic lunch by the riverside at the Couronne vineyard;



and visiting the stunning collection of vintage and classic cars a few miles out of town.

Oh, but going back to our Zimbabwean waiter, Innocent, whom we've mentioned earlier, for just a muinute:  we've noticed here in Franschhoek - mainly from the name-tags which most of the waiters and waitresses seem compelled to wear - an amazing range of perhaps missionary-inspired first names: Patience, Prudence, Faith, Lucky, Happy, Goodness, Charity, Joyous, etc. But things got a bit silly (or rather, we got a bit silly) when we saw the name-tag of one of the waiters we met a couple of times: his name, would you believe it, was 'Tedious'!   Boy, were his parents full of joy and thrilled to see him when he was born!!   Poor bloke - fancy having to go through life with a moniker like that - what must it have done to his sense of self-worth?! But I confess that, when we thought about it later, we found this at once both pitiable and highly comic (I blame the wine-tasting), and, sitting by the poolside back in our guesthouse that evening, we had a daft half-hour coming up with names for any subsequent siblings who might dare to come along.   We started with Superfluous, Odious, Obnoxious, Lugubrious... Anyone else fancy joining in this silly game ...?

Well, we have now only an hour to go till boarding, and we've been reminiscing about the whole of this fascinating trip we're just coming to the end of.   We've had a thoroughly enjoyable, at times exciting, and culturally and politically enlightening time - with so many highlights that we couldn't choose a 'top 3', or even a 'top 10'. We've enjoyed sharing it with you, too, and we look forward to getting home to Merry Cottage, to friends and family - but also to starting to plan the next major adventure, whenever and wherever that might be.   As the words of the song by Robert Earl Keen go - 'The Road Goes on Forever'!





Bye for now. And 'Cheers!'

The Best Laid Plans ...

....whoa........(?!) .... hang on there a mo - isn't the next bit of this something like "of Mice and Men"? So then - exactly what kinds of plans do mice make, please, Mr Burns? (Or, since he's no longer around to account for himself, if any of you can help out here, then answers on a postcard please)

Actually, having now mentioned the word 'plans', I'm also reminded of our visit to the Fine Arts Gallery here in Kynsna this afternoon. There was a beautiful collection of large, brightly-coloured ceramic pots and jugs by a young local female artist, each of which, on close inspection, had a bizarre little epithet scripted into the clay and coloured with gold leaf. One of these read: "Everyone has a Plan. Until they get Punched in the Mouth". So, what's that all about then ...? Obviously too deep for me!



But, back to the point. Those of you who are still paying attention will doubtless have noticed that we are still in Kynsna - the longest stay in one place during our whole trip. Having fallen for the beauty of our surroundings here - both the town with its wonderful lagoon and mountains, and our gorgeous accommodation with its fabulous garden, pool, and bird-life - and having learned just how much there is to do and see in and around the area, we'd decided by New Year's Day that we should extend our stay for a few more days; so, we made the arrangements with our hosts, much to our satisfaction. The very next day (Thurs, 2 Jan), we went off for the afternoon to tackle one of the many hiking trails in the nearby forests. Nearly 2 hours into the hike, however, I managed to trip and fall really heavily, breaking the fall with my rib-cage crashing onto the binoculars which I'd been carrying over my shoulder. Not a very clever thing to do really. (Still, I'm 'on trend' it would seem - my sister, Jacky, has also injured her ribs in a fall just recently, Sharne's boyfriend, Pad, has deep tissue bruising, and even Angela Merkel has decided to join the party!).

Anyway, by the next morning, having checked with a local A&E Department that there was no evidence of actual broken ribs, albeit clear evidence of deep bruising, if not some cracking of ribs, the doctor ordered several days of complete rest. This proved not a difficult order to follow as it turned out, given that for nearly a week I could barely move, twitch, cough or even breath without difficulty. So, we decided to extend our stay by yet a few more days, to allow some recovery time before we could start exploring once again. But this plan was also rather thwarted as, two days after the fall, the glorious weather we'd been experiencing suddenly changed, and we've now had 7 consecutive days/nights of rain, heavy cloud and thick mists (albeit that it's stayed warm enough to sit around in shorts and t-shirts). This change in the weather has conspired to extend the days of enforced rest - even touring around by car is pretty pointless when you can't see more than 50 yards in any direction! - except for our penultimate day before moving on, when the mist lifted long enough to visit a bird, monkey and big-cat sanctuary in nearby Plettenburg Bay.

 



Amazingly, here we bumped into Martin, our erstwhile truck-driver for our 20-day safari tour at the start of our trip. Gerty, our Tour Guide, was also around, but was already inside the sanctuary with her group, so we didn't actually see her. An amazing coincidence, then, given that since we parted company from them on 4 December in Zimbabwe, we've been travelling all over South Africa, whilst they're on yet another Nomad Adventure Tour of 5 different countries! I've since been thanking my lucky stars, too, that my fall hadn't happened earlier - I'd never have coped with the 'African full-body massage' of that truck journey!



'Plett', as the locals call it, is another splendiferous town with a several-miles-long beautiful sandy bay, over which we had a wonderful sunset view that last evening from the Italian restaurant on Keurboomstrand ('strand' is Afrikaans for beach, and I think 'keurboom' must be an onomatopoeic representation of firing a mustket!).

 



We used our enforced resting time to catch up on reading several books and e-books, completing a few crosswords and sudokus, and keeping up with news stories in the local press. One of these, on 5 Jan, made us shiver a little, bearing in mind our elephant 'close encounters' in Addo. This local news item reported on an elephant attack on two people in a car in Pretoriuskop: a British woman and a South African man, had been following a lone bull elephant in musth (when their testosterone levels are at their highest and most aggressive) when it suddenly turned and attacked their vehicle, rolling it over three times, and flinging it, and them, over 40 metres! One of the elephant's tusks also pierced the back of the woman's thigh, and she had to be airlifted to hospital, where she thankfully remains in a stable condition. Sadly, however, because the attack happened next to a regular walking trail, the SANparks authorities decided that the elephant had to be put down, as it was very likely to attack again. Aaaw!



Next we're off to Franschhoek for the last few days of our trip, before flying home overnight on 14/15 Jan. Will report on Franschhoek in what will inevitably be our last posting of this blog. Meantime, however, I do want just to wish my mum, Jessie, a very Happy Birthday for Sunday, 12 Jan. Just wonder how it feels, mum, to suddenly be 'two fat ladies'?!

It's SO very Knice here in Knysna!

This must be one of the most beautiful towns we seen yet - and that's saying something! Knysna is a small coastal town on the Garden Route, Eastern Cape province, perched on the edge of a large and lovely 'lagoon', with a backdrop of beautiful mountains a few miles to its north. The river estuary has two impressively craggy headlands (known as the Kynsna Heads) which almost meet each other at the estuary's outlet to the Indian Ocean, creating a large blue 'lagoon' of clear turquoise water inside the estuary - fresh-water from the river meeting the salt-water from the sea somewhere in the middle - complete with two fairly large natural islands, both with road access from different parts of the estuary, and on both of which there are houses, restaurants and shops.

 



Though it looks stunningly gorgeous, this particular river-mouth is one of the deadliest in the world - so deadly, in fact, that Lloyds of London, the world's most famous shipping brokers/insurers, have for many years refused to insure any ships of any kind trying to pass between the Knysna 'Heads', either into this natural harbour, or out from it to the Indian Ocean. That, of course, means that there is no longer an industrial port here, and no cruise ships can ever visit - so there are some advantages in this restriction, at least in terms of natural beauty. There is, however, considerable 'internal' boating activity on the lagoon - dozens of small motor-boats, many with water-skiers attached, lots of beautiful yachts, a few house-boats, a couple of ferries and cruisers offering tours around the lagoon, and even a large-ish New Orleans-style paddle steamer on which passengers can enjoy gourmet meals and sunset cruises. In fact, yesterday (New Year's Eve) we took a trip on a cruise-boat across the lagoon to visit the Featherbed Nature Reserve on the Western headland, and the whole trip, including a wonderful buffet lunch at the end of the walk around the reserve was just a delight! Once across the lagoon, we were all transported from where the boat docked up to the top of the headland on a kind of tractor/trailer, and then allowed to walk slowly back down, enjoying the spectacular views across the heads and the ocean from some of the viewing points, and stopping to visit the amazing caves nearer the bottom of the cliffs.



So, it's very much a tourist/holiday destination, and, rather like Cape Town, feels very Mediterranean rather than truly 'African' (or what we regards as truly African, that is). Nevertheless, it IS really beautiful, and we've been enjoying temperatures in the high 20s, with unbroken sunshine and clear blue skies since we arrived - so we're not complaining!

 



Our accommodation here, too, is equally beautiful. As I write this on New Year's Day, we're sitting by the beautiful salt-water pool, complete with jacuzzi and rock-face waterfall, surrounded by the most verdant garden of tree-ferns, banana trees, fynbos bushes, sweet-scented honeysuckle, herb-bushes and lawns, in which are flitting about some gorgeously coloured birds and butterflies.

 



A real Garden of Eden! There are four beautiful, and beautifully-appointed houses within the grounds, all of different styles, which are holiday rentals, and the young German couple who own the place are serious birders and nature-lovers, so have planted the grounds to encourage both - including, much to theirs and our delight, the 'Knysna lourie', only found in and around the Knysna area and distinguishable from other louries by their bright scarlet under-wing feathers.

 



Last night, New Year's Eve, our hosts, Martina and Philipp, put on a braai meal for all of their 12 guests - including two couples from Germany over here for the world-class golf courses nearby; three people from Sweden, one of whom had been an official Election Observer in South Africa for its first-ever democratic elections in 1994; and one family comprising a German man and his Chilean wife and daughter, all currently living in Egypt. So, an interesting combination, some fascinating conversations, and a really fun evening. Martina and Philip had set out several tables amongst the trees near to the swimming pool, and we enjoyed our meal under a beautiful view of the Milky Way in the dark blue skies, right beside the little , well-stocked cave in which there is an 'honesty' bar for guests, complete with coloured fairy lights and a music system, with a little dance-floor just outside of it, which we made good use of. A really lovely occasion. We celebrated the South African New Year at midnight, the New Year for most of Europe at 1 o'clock, and a few of us even managed to stay up for the British New Year at 2 o'clock!

 

So, as we close this particular posting,

let us wish you all much happiness, good health,

and hopefully lots of fun in 2014!