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

Cape Town here we come.........

The time has come the Walrus said.......

Today we started our two day drive to Cape Town, accompanied by Kylie Madge, Ruth's Aussie friend from the Art Therapy Centre in Jozi.

We drove down in two cars. Ruth and Kylie in the Mini and me in a VW Polo hire car, seeing as I haven't as yet bought a new car since writing mine off in September.

We finally left our apartment in Parkview at around 06:45. It was a sad occasion as we had grown really fond of the area and the apartment. We were leaving just as the Jakaranda trees were coming out in full-bloom.

We picked Kylie up at around 07:00 and embarked on our 1,400 km Cape Town road trip.

To cut a long story short, we turned off the N1 Motorway at about 700km and onto the N9. We were heading to a quaint little Karoo town called Nieu-Bethesda for the night.

We arrived at about 4pm and found our accommodation which we had previously booked. Nieu-Bethesda is a beautiful little place. More like an oasis in the Karoo Desert.

What a beautiful Rose....

Nieu-Bethesda is famous for a little place called 'The Owl House'. Seeing as it closed at 5pm, we had to hurry quick smart.... The Owl House was owned by a woman called Helen Martins who had a thing for sculpture, especially Owls. She used a lot of ground coloured glass in her works, which added a beautiful sparkle.

Below is the kind of sculptures I like...

Spare a candle Sir?

These sculptures are wonderful. Lots of different characters in different poses...

Below is an old rusty car. The sign says 'Rust in Peace'....

After the Owl House, we took a walk around the town to take some photographs and then headed towards the local pub (as you do). Within minutes were were talking to some people who had gathered there to watch the Saturday rugby on the big screen.

Koos Kombuis was playing at the Town Hall tonight. We saw him perform in Johannesburg a few months previously. This was his first time in Nieu-Bethesda and we were looking forward to seeing him after a long day on the road.

The next day we had breakfast at local cafe. Kylie and I had drunk quite a lot of beer the night before whilst watching Koos Kombuis perform. Coffee and eggs were the order of the day...

We left Nieu-Bethesda at about 09:00 and passed through a wonderful valley and then through Graaf-Reinet, a historic Karoo town. There is a beautiful Church there which needed photographing.....

We drove down to a town called George and stopped for some lunch at Mossel-Bay.

A few more hours into it, we hit Sir Lowry's Pass, heading into the Cape Flats. Man, the traffic was backed up for miles. You could see the cars bumper to bumper for around 5km....Eish, after a long days drive, we didn't need this.

Eventually we made it to the N2 and to a place called Century City where we were spending a few weeks until we found suitable accommodations......

All in all, it was a good, safe trip... We had made it to Cape Town. For how long? Who knows....