Archives for September 2020

Good night was had.  We had to be back at the SanParks office by 9:00 for our walk up the Agulhas lighthouse.  I was bouncing with excitement.  These windows show the left turret and right turret.  These have been rebuilt in the past as they were constructed out of sandstone and had collapsed.  We spent quite some time in the museum and Chandre gave us so much information and we really enjoyed our time with her.

As we were leaving I remembered seeing an extraordinary garden in a private home.  I was looking for it and we found it.  The family each day when they walked on the beach they picked up stones and they alanced all the stone on top of each other.  They now have their personal Stonehenge and rock garden.  So much to see there.  I also saw my very first Cape Sugarbird.  So very cute.  Aunty Ria who lives there makes and collects teddies from all over the world.  She is truly an amazing lady.  I could have spent hours with them.

We then headed to Quoin Point for the next light house and to meet my new friend Michelle.

We had a blast together.  We drove on this most hectic extreme rocky and sandy road.  I never thought I would ever do such a road like this. But we all survived the road trip.   We stopped at the beach and with a short walk and so much giggling and chatting we arrived at Quoin Point.

Now we had to go back on that road….  Big breath, deep sigh, I faced that road once again.  Shake, Rattle, grunt, roll and panic, we got through the rocks, stones and sand.

Michelle then took us into the Abalone Farm.  Oh my word.  This was amazing.  Michelle chatted about the spawning of the parent abalones to the hatching of the babies.  Then moving the babies into larger tanks where they grew for a number of months.  Then they were moved into larger tanks where their shells started to harden and then outside to platforms where they were allowed to live for the next few years to grow into larger animals ready for export.  This was such a treat to see these creatures.  Well done to all the staff that care for them.

We left the farm and headed to our accommodation.  We slept at Oom Piets Accommodation.  Such a beautiful place.  Chantal was so accommodating for us.  Michelle and I enjoyed a glass of wine, and I took her home.  Mom and I went to a special chicken place for dinner.  We were quite exhausted after the days crazy driving that we decided to have an early night.  Tomorrow we head for Hangklip hotel.  Lets hope weather improves and wind died down.

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It rained for most of the night, nothing hectic but just a fine misty rain.  Woke up to a clear sky.  Just very cold in the mornings with the weather heating up nicely during the day.  We are here in Agulhas for 2 days.  This place has been on my bucket list for many years.  So today is very special to me.

Plan for today…. Go to Lighthouse, the southern most tip of Africa and a ship wreck.  Busy day.

The flowers here in the Agulhas area are beautiful.  If my garden at home could look like this with no work I would be the happiest person around.  They just grow wherever they want without any help and care from us humans. 

Took a walk around the lighthouse.  What a beautiful space.  We drove to the Southern most point of South Africa.  I actually dawned on us that this was actually the Southern most point of the African Continent.  That puts a whole new look on Southern tip of South Africa.

We drove up to the ship wreck called Meisho Maru.  It was a Japanese fishing trawler that ran aground in 1982.  Not much left of the wreck.

We had our lunch and took a slow drive back to our accommodation.  We had some good news in that I was allowed to go into the light house tomorrow.  This is really great news, as all the light houses have been closed due to COVID.  We are both really excited by this news.

Mom made dinner and we crawled into bed.

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We woke up to another glorious day.  Started off really cold, but improved to a stunning day.  We drove from our Wedding Venue sleeping accommodation through to Agulhas.

Saw these amazing fields of ivory white fields.  Patchwork of colours ranging in green, pink, yellow, cream.  Seeing is believing.

WE arrived at Arniston where we had to walk to our next Beacon.  I could not locate it on the map so together with my two phones … One for the data to run the other phone for the map.  Really hectic we managed to find Struisput beacon.  What we did not realise was the distance we had to walk.  I tried to hitch a lift with a guy on a quad bike, but that did not work.  I asked him to tell my mom not to follow me as the walk was beyond hectic.  I knew she would not make it.

I rushed my shoes off to get to the beacon and back as soon as possible because our time was getting extremely short.  I did it in record time.  We managed to hitch a lift back to our car at the car park.  I was truely grateful for the lift as it cut off so much walking time for us.

We arrive at our Agulhas sleep over.  A rather interesting place.  Details will be released after book has been publish. 

A great day, but tomorrow my legs are going to let me know that they are not impressed with todays abuse.

Today was a rather horrible day, but it ended on a rather high a positive note. The next light house was in the Gouritz Nature Reserve.  This place is stunning.  The pincushion protea are in full bloom and the colours from red brown to red to orange to yellow as far as the eye can see is mind blowing.  The candy striped lighthouse called Ystervark was so out of the ordinary.  I could really spend so much time here, but time is something I don’t have much of.

The next light house has be put on hold till later in the trip as there has been a miscommunication with the farmer. (Cape Infanta).  Coupled with this we arrived at the Malgas Pont, to find that it was not functioning.  The time was getting rather late and we could not find any accommodation.  We met a very sweet Afrikaans lady along the road and she put us in touch with another lady who allowed us to sleep at her wedding venue for night just to give us a safe space to sleep.  What a beautiful place.

Tomorrow we head off to a place I have dreamed of for many years.  I have tried to get here 4 times and now hopefully it will happen.  Cape Agulhas, you are within my grasp.

 

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After Plettenberg Bay we headed off to Mossel Bay as it was the closest stop over for us before we arrived at a little place called Infanta.

So I decided to photograph Cape St Blaize at night.  Such a stunning image.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Not much else to comment on.  I have decided not to give a full commentary on our daily drives as I am running out of time typing up the comments and still trying to edit images.  So I will give a short break down and a few images for each day.

So today is the day that we have been working so hard for.  We are heading to Cape Seal which is at the Robberg Nature Reserve. We know that it is a 9.2 km hike and we are hoping that we can do it.

We set off into the unknown and oh wow we are so unprepared.  The long story cut short…. I managed to get my light house which was why we went there. We did not make the point, but we did get to see it.

Mom was amazing.  She did so well.  This HIKE some like I did when I hiked in the Drakensberg.  High ups and steep downs. 

The sea was clear as crystal.  You can see the seals swimming and playing in the water.  It was amazing.

I met up with a Ranger and we headed off to the Lighthouse.  Mom caught up with me and we headed back to the main car park as we were not going to be able to make it all the way around the point.  The Ranger said that the section after the point was going to be to hectic for mom with her new hip and repaired knee.

We got back to the car park around 16:30 after hiking all day from 9:10.  WE were both wacked.  I was thrilled I got to the lighthouse, mom was just thrilled we managed to the hike.  As we were driving back to the camp site, the heavens opened up with rain and it bucketed down.  So glad we were off the peninsula before the rains hit.

We headed back to the camp site, had a shower, sorted out the camp site as the wind came up and the rain came down.  Our neighbours really saved us again.  We decided to go out for dinner so we had our favorite finger tasty type of chicken.  (I cant advertise their name but I think I have said enough).  Went back and crashed for the night.  Tomorrow is another great day for the next part of this adventure

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The alarm went off and we sighed.  I was determined to get sunrise at Cape Recife Lighthouse.  But my wish crashed with a big thump.  This particular lighthouse is in a nature reserve and the gates only open at 7 am.  That time will be far too late for sunrise.  I chatted to a gate guard at an adjoining resort about access.  He said that he did have access, but he stated that there are many poachers and questionable people.  I felt that we would be in danger so we drove away.  I stopped when there was a look out point to the sea and hoped for sunrise.  There were a couple guys who decided to go and surf and we were still waiting for the sun to come up.  The sea mist and the heavy cloud prevented any sort of sunrise.  I was not impressed.  I even tried to photograph the light from the light house which also failed.  We headed back to the campsite to pack up as we are heading to Plettenberg bay today.

We left Willows, kick started my old phone for the google maps, redirected it to take us on the other route so that we can miss out on the centre of town.  Finally arrive onto the N2 and we were back on the road for another day.

We stopped on the outskirts of Tsitsikama for lunch with a close up view of the wind turbine.  They boggle my mind.

We were looking at the map and we decided to take a stroll along the suspension bridge at Tsitsikama Nature Reserve.  The road down to this reserve was really pretty.  We got to the water’s edge where the walk to the bridge began.  I had no idea that it was going to be a fairly long walk.  I did take a photo from the beach.  We decided to come back on the 26 to do the walk.

We turned around and carried on our way to Plettenberg Bay Forever Resorts.

A long and winding road, with lots of little flowers and stunning grasses to look at.

We got there, found our site and set up for the next 2 days.  Tomorrow is going to be a really hard day of walking.  I really hope that daily walking has prepared us enough for tomorrow.  All we can do is try to sleep and get a good rest.

Happy thoughts for tomorrow.  Sleep tight world.  Take care over us, Wake us up refreshed and ready to tackle this 9 km hike

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We woke up to another awesome day.  Took a bit of a slower morning as I was absolutely finished.  I finally managed to pay the account for Nahoon as the comms here are shocking.  I had to go over the road to try for comms, and that also did not work, so I finally paid in cash.  Not the ideal situation as we are now R400 short for our emergency fund, but not a problem.

We said our good byes and headed out.  Had to drop off a thank you note for Geraldine and Kevin.  Said our good bye and we promised to be back one day.  I’m hoping to spend some time with Kevin at his excavation site and a few other places that he maintains.  I really can’t wait.

We headed out and we landed up on the wrong freeway heading a completely wrong direction.  After about 1 hour of fiddling around, I managed to kick start my old phone.  We got comms off my new phone and found the correct road to head down to Port Elizabeth.

It was really an uneventful drive.  I really struggled with the boredom of this drive.  We decided to play a game that I used to call general knowledge at school.  We changed it slightly as I could not really choose a letter so we started at the beginning of the alphabet.  We had to choose a colour, an animal, food, a girl’s name and a boy’s name.  This really pushed our brains but it did do the job on getting us through the quiet parts of this drive.

Mom called Rob and Shirley and asked if they would like to see us.  We offered to come to them or for them to come to us.  They agreed to come to us.  Mom was really happy to see her again.

As we were driving we came across a bridge and we pulled off for a quick stop, to stretch legs and to take a breather.  We saw some great birds under the bridge.  The problem is that this really delayed us quite a bit.  But anyhow, not much we can do about that.

We carried on with our game and talking nonsense.  Saw lots of wind turbines.  These machines are enormous.  Hard to imagine how they actually work.  A true engineering feat.

Mom called Rob and Shirley to say that we were running late and we will call them when we get to Willows.  They were not too phased as they were still waiting for Pick n Pay deliver food.  They live in a retirement village and they do not allow any visitors.  The management even recommend that the residents don’t go to do their own shopping.  It is suggested that they have their shopping delivered.  So far their village has been COVID clear.  Really amazing how people can stay healthy when you are not permitted to do certain things.  I really think that if we can all do this, then maybe we can get rid of COVID.

We arrived at one of my favourite resorts …  The Willows Caravan Park in Port Elizabeth.  This is a huge caravan park and I highly recommend this resort to anyone who wants to travel.  For me I believe that they could be a 5 * resort, but that is my opinion.  You need to try them out.

We pulled into Willows around 4 ish.  Rob and Shirley arrived around 4:30ish.  At one point they were going to have dinner with us, but then they said that Rob did not want to drive home in the dark, so they left us around 6:30.  By the time they left us, we were frozen.  No clouds or wind, but the ground was really so wet with dew, that the cold just came up through your feet and froze your body to the core.  We just made fish cakes for dinner with not much else.  Very nice, but no vegies, but I am not complaining.  We decided not to go for a shower because we were so cold.  We crawled into bed and headed off to dream land.

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We rushed to the beach for sunrise photos.  We had to be back at the Museum by 9:45 to meet up with Kevin.  We were going to have a treat of a day with a guided adventure.  The plan was to go and look for the Castle Point location at the harbour with a look at Nahoon Lighthouse and a look at the excavation site of some foot prints plus a few other things.

Well things went slightly wrong and we landed up running late.  We got to the Museum, I was sorting out my camera gear, and a few other bits and pieces when Kevin arrived.

We all bundled into an official East London Museum car and headed off to the habour.  Kevin through around a few names and we were allowed to head into the harbour, we found the 3 markers that I had marked out on a map.  The one was near to the Grain Silos, one was at the end of the break water pier and the last one was on the other side of the harbour.  The problem was that I actually have no idea where Castle Point was actually situated.  I had to take all these photos and hope that I had photographed the correct one.

We then headed to the Nahoon reef road to photograph Nahoon light house.  What turned out to be was not quite a lighthouse but a Beacon.  The history of the beacon was very interesting.  Kevin will send me the history of the beacon.

We landed up the an educational centre which has been designed as a foot print after the foot print that was discovered in the excavation site which was discovered by Kevin and his team. 

While we were here at the Centre we were treated to display for tail slapping and breaching by 4 or more Humpbacked whales.  What a site to behold.

We went back to the museum and we headed out to Yellow sands Caravan Park to have dinner with some friends who were with us in Benoni.  We had an amazing evening with them.  We got back to Nahoon Caravan Park well after 9:30.

Crawled into bed and crashed.  We were totally exhausted through all the information that we had obtained from Kevin, all the walking in the fresh air and the excitement of this new adventure to search for Castle point.

Today will be a day that will not be forgotten too soon. 

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We woke up to a very overcast day.  Sometime during the night we had rain which had really dirtied my car windows more than I would like.  But anyhow, we did need the rain.

We had some muesli for breakfast, packed up and headed off to East London.

We left, said good bye to Mbuli and thanked her for the beautiful accommodation and we headed off into the sunshine.  The wind was really hectic and very cold.  Although the sun was shining we had to wear out jerseys, but we still enjoyed the sunshine.

One thing I have learnt from driving through these major cities is that there is always a truck bypass route.  This route goes around the city and it is definitely better than having to deal with animals, people cars double and triple parked, trucks that just stop to off load and hectic pot holes.

We hit Butterworth on a Monday morning to quite busy city road, but we managed to get through quite easy.

Heading towards the Great Kei and we saw the Turbines in the far distance.  We crossed over the Kei River which was almost totally dry, but still flowing very slowly.  I need to do some research on the rail way line that runs next to the N2.

We arrived in East London just before lunch time and we headed straight to the East London Museum.  We got there and the security guard told me that the museum is closed.  I begged to meet with one of the managers to explain my situation about why I was there.

Geraldine came down and chatted to me.  I explained my reason for being there.  We went into the museum where I met Kevin.

We all chatted for quite a long time and we all decided that tomorrow will be a better day.   If mom and I will come back at 9:45, Kevin will take us on a true hunt for Castle Point Lighthouse plus the Nahoon light house and a few other places.  I was thrilled by this and we left.

We headed to Nahoon Caravan park for the next 2 nights.  Another awesome Park.  Lovely staff, nicely kept grounds and beautiful sites.  I have to admit that all the parks we have ever been too have been great with the exception of one that was in the Kei/Morgans bay area.

Sorted out the van, and our camp.  Mom made dinner and we were lights out for the day.  Really looking forward to tomorrow.