Paternoster, Lambert's Bay and Beaverlac....

Ruth's birthday was coming up, so we decided to take a week off and drive up the west coast. I heard about Paternoster and Lambert's Bay years ago as they are popular with Capetonians as weekend getaway destinations. They are famous for crayfish too!

We left home at around 10am on Saturday morning. Last night we went to see a South African, Afrikaans performer called Valiant Swart. I have been listening to his music for some years now and it was great to see him and his band perform live...

Paternoster is around 150km north of Cape Town, so we weren't in for a major driving experience. Henceforth, we arrive at Midday, promptly phoned the agent to get our keys for our weekend cottage. Within the hour, we had got the keys, unpacked our groceries and were ready to see what Paternoster had to offer.

We were told that if we wanted crayfish, we should take a walk up to the Paternoster Hotel and just opposite is a clump of trees where the locals sell fresh crayfish. We bought two, headed back to the cottage, where the ritual slaughter of the said two crayfish was going to take place.

Within minutes, they were despatched and thrown into boiling salted water as lunch....mmmmm, Crayfish salad....

After lunch, we took a long walk along the spectacular beach to do some exploring. We were blessed with wonderful weather for Autumn.

That evening, we were heading to the Noisy Oyster for dinner. On the way, we stopped in at the Paternoster Hotel for a drink in their 'Panty Bar'. Hundreds of panties have been put up in the rafters of the bar. Anything for a laugh....

Dinner was excellent at the Noisy Oyster after which we headed back to the cottage for some shuteye.

After breakfast, we decided to hike to the Cape C0lumbine Lighthouse, via Tietsiesbaai. Man, I hope our love for hiking never fades. Ruth and I have hiked thousands of kilometres together. We have seen and experienced some incredible beauty whilst here in South Africa.

Above is the cottage we rented in Paternoster.

Sunsets were incredible.....

No photoshop needed here, just a beautiful sunset.......

On Monday morning, we left Paternoster and drove north to Lambert's Bay, a distance of around 127km.

Eland's Bay is approx. 25km south of Lamberts Bay and this is where the photo of Ruth doing a cartwheel was taken.

Lamberts Bay is an interesting place. Not as touristy or beautiful as Paternoster though. It is a bit more industrial with large fish processing plants and factories. The coastline is a lot more rugged and has a huge Gannet population on 'Bird Island', where we walked to.

Lamberts Bay Harbour was quite scenic and had a great restaurant called 'Isabellas', where we had dinner on Ruth's birthday.

After two days of 'beachy' accommodation, it was time to head off to Beaverlac, nestled at the foot of the Cederberg Mountain range.. The route we took was via Clanwilliam a well know Swartland farming town.

We had hired a cabin called the 'Butcher Bird', which is one of my favourite South African birds... Latin name 'Lanius Collaris', also know as the Fiscal Shrike, one of the smallest predatory birds.

Below is a photo of the Fiscal Shrike.

Shortly after arriving, we set out on a hike to 'Flat Rock', which was a beautiful rock formation in tiers along a river. Once again we were blessed with fantastic weather. Beaverlac is situation in the heart of an orange grove of plantation. The rock formations around Beaverlac were stunning and the views of the Cederberg Mountains were incredible too.

All around us were rock formations like the ones below. Lots of rocks balancing on top of other rocks....

That night, we had a braai of note with a roaring fire under the incredibles stars of the Milky Way.

The next day, we hiked to the Olifants River. A round trip of 3 hours. Weather was quite hot too. Here is a picture of Ruth hking down into the valley.

In the orange grove....

On the way back from the Olifants river, we stopped again at Flat Rock for a quick dip in the pools to cool off. Here is a picture of me after I had climbed a rock formation....
The view we had from our cabin, with the Cederberg Mountain range in the distance. In the evenings, the low sun would shine on the mountains in a beautiful golden hue.

Kleinmond Big Blues Festival

We were fortunate this weekend to be attending the Kleinmond Big Blues Festival, featuring some of South Africa's best Blues talent.

Kleinmond is a beautiful sleepy seaside town around 115km from Cape Town on the other side of False Bay.

We had booked a B&B for the weekend, which was fortunately only 10 minutes walk to the festival grounds.

We checked into the B&B and then headed off for some lunch at the Kleinmond Harbour, which was scattered with restaurants.

I have been looking forward to seeing Valiant Swart for sometime now. He is the guitarist pictured below. In the 18 months we spent in Jozi, not once did he venture up north to play. He is mainly Western Cape based. It was great to finally see him in action.

The venue was really quite intimate. We could get up close and personal with the performers. There wasn't too much of a crowd early Friday afternoon

After Valiant's gig, the Diamondback Blues Band came on at around 6pm. They really had the crowd going. These guys have been around the South African blues circuit a while now and were brilliant.

Pictured below is Anton Goosen. Hahaha, who would have belived all these years later I would have paid to see him perform. Back in the 80's he sang very Afrikaans types of music which the 'Englishmen' wouldn't dream of listening too. Anton reminded me of an Afrikaans Neil Young. He performed with Albert Frost and together they were really great!

Below is Piet Botha, the son of former Apartheid Minister 'Pik' Botha. Ruth and I have seen him play around 4 times now and I really enjoy his music. His supporting band were outstanding too.

Early Saturday morning after breakfast, Ruth and I took a long stroll along Kleinmond beach. The water was freezing cold, seeing as it is the Atlantic ocean, but didn't stop us from going for a a swim.

Underneath, is Albert Frost in full swing. This guys was incredible!

Here he is, performing with Dave Fergusen.

I have been reading a lot about a young Canadian girl now residing in Cape Town. Her name is Natasha Meister. She is only 20 years old, but, boy can she sing and play guitar. I wish I could play that well....

Dan Patlansky (Below) was once again in his element. We have seen him twice in Johannesburg too. He plays in the Texan Blues style of Stevie Ray Vaughn. Blues Prodigy he is known as. The sounds he can coax from his Fender are unbelievable.

Below is a Very White crowd! Who says Apartheid is dead??

When we left Kleinmond on Sunday afternoon, we stopped in at the Harold Porter Botanical Gardens in Betty's Bay. We hiked up to some waterfalls which were so beautiful.

Ruth chilling out...

Tankwa Karoo National Park

Friday morning we headed off to the Tankwa Karoo National Park. This Park is around 321km northeast of Cape Town. 140km of this road is dirt road, but fortunately it is a good quality dirt road. We left home at 07:50 with Ruth at the wheel. We decided to take the R44 and go through Wellington, a historic Cape hamlet. It was a beautiful day for driving and before long we were heading through Mitchell's Pass, an extremely scenic route to Ceres. This route passes by the old town of Tulbagh.
Stopping at Ceres for some coffee and a change of driver, we then continued along the R355 and onto Tankwa. Before long, we hit a dirt road. I didn't realise this road was going to be so long, but it ended up being 75km of dirt before turning right onto the P225o that leads to Tankwa. After turning off, we had another 65km of dirt before we arrived at our destination. Fortunately this road is graded frequently and we sped along this at a steady 80kph. We arrived at the Tankwa National Park office just after 1pm. The temperature was around 40c by this time. We picked up the keys to the "De Zyfer Cottage", and then drove to the cottage. Quickly unpacking our stuff, we decided it was just too hot to go for a walk, so we relaxed for a while waiting for it to cool down.
In the late afternoon, we went for a hike. We encountered a troop of Baboons who were shouting at us to keep our distance.

That night, we had a braaied some chicken I had marinated for 2 days, washed down with some beer and some wine. Later we climbed an outside staircase that adjoins the cottage and sat up there for a while contemplating the stars. Man, the sky was so clear, you could barely make out the common constellations as the Milky Way was just a white blanket.I woke up Saturday morning with Ruth grinning over me with a Birthday present and a handmade card. Yep, another Birthday, and thankful for spending it with a beautiful wife in such beautiful surroundings.
Shortly we got up and went for a walk in the desert. We hiked to a conical hill not too far from the cottage. The landscape is very different here to what we have been used to. The ground is covered in what looks like shale rock which is notorious in this neck of the woods for punctures as it is very sharp. Succulents abound here too. On the way, we found a stone maze someone had made. Ruth loved this maze. It was strange to find it in the middle of nowhere.
When we got back to the cottage, we cooked up a storm for breakfast. Not often we have the full fry-up, but hey, it was my Birthday… Later on in the afternoon, we took a drive to the Gannaga Pass, 24km away. When we arrived at the top of the mountain, you could see for miles and miles. There was a storm happening in the valley below. It was like a grey sheet of water just pouring from the sky.
Arriving back at the cottage, it was time to light the braai again. Fortunately it was another clear night and the stars were out to visit us again… We ate our dinner on the veranda whilst we listened to the noises of the night. We were fortunate to have such fantastic weather. I really feel in my element in places like this.







For more photos of the Tankwa, please click here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/dlivens/TankwaKarooNationalPark

Happy New Year

Well, 2011 is here already..... Not to be too Clichéd, but what the hell happened to 2010? I must say it was an absolutely magnificent year for Ruth and I.

So, here is wishing you all a fantastic 2011, I hope it brings us all a lot a great challenges and opportunities....

2010 started in Cape Town, we headed back to Jozi then to Botswana and then back to Cape Town at the end of October.....This is now our hometown for the time being....

Every year on New Years Day, the Cape Town Minstrel Carnival takes place. This used to be called the Coon Carnival, but it has been renamed as the tourists thought the name 'Coon' was a bit derogatory.

One story goes that the carnival was inspired by a group of African-American minstrels who docked in Cape Town in the late 1800s and entertained the sailors with their spontaneous musical performances. The popular song Hier kom die Alabama (Here comes the Alabama) refers to the ship that is believed to have brought them.

Fire!

We were wondering what all the helicopters were doing buzzing over our apartment complex. I went outside and saw the smoke on Signal Hill which is just to the West of us. Lordy, the whole Hill was on fire.

About two blocks from us is a small reservoir on Upper Orange Street. There were four helicopters flying back and forth from the hill to the reservoir to fill the water-bombs. Made an interesting sight.

The next day, Ruth and I climbed Signal Hill to get to the Noon-Gun, a canon which fires every day at 12 Noon. The fires had started again and out came the helicopters again... Fortunately this this time, the fires had been successfully put out.......

Cape Point Nature Reserve

Christmas Day has been and gone. Ruth and I spent it with an old schoolmate of mine, Graham, his family and his in-laws in Constantia in Cape Town. We had a really great day, with plenty to eat, drink and talk about....

Today, Ruth and I headed off to the Cape Point Nature Reserve, right at the tip of the Cape Peninsular.

Fortunately we got there early-ish. As the day went on, there were more and more people arriving at this fantastic spot.

Hundreds of ships have floundered on this coastline over the centuries. So much for the Cape of Good Hope!

Seeing as Ruth and I love our hiking, this is a great place to do just that.....

Jonkershoek Nature Reserve - Stellenbosch

Man, there are soooo many incredible hikes around Cape Town. Today