SouthAfrica

Joan and Ted Johnson’s Web Pages

Holiday in South Africa

27 August – 26 September 2007

This was a wonderful month’s holiday. I’ve just picked a few highlights to feature below. At first we were staying in Kuils River in Maggie and Alvan’s rented house in Zevenwacht. The view of Table Mountain is taken from the garden.

We spent a day in Hermanus, watching the whales.

We had a wonderful day in Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens.

The proteas were particularly beautiful. (Left – King Protea and right – pinhead protea) We travelled along The Garden Route and stayed for a few days beside Keurbooms river.

The beaches along this part of the coast are stunning. The two pictures above were taken at Brenton on Sea.

Above left is Knysna Heads and right the view from The Lookout at Plettenberg Bay.

The tiny church is at Old Belvidere and the sunset is taken from our time share overlooking Keurbooms River.
Coral Tree			Weaver Bird and nests				Hadida
The most exciting part of our holiday was our Wild Coast Meander. A group of 10 of us walked from The Kob Inn to Trennery’s along this spectacular part of the coast between East London and Durban. We had an English speaking guide and local porters to carry our back packs.

The walk began from the Kob Inn and very soon we had our first river estuary to cross.

It was quite tricky as the sand underfoot was very soft.

Here’s the group about to set off from Mazeppa Bay on the second day.

We spent two nights at Wavecrest. This river crossing was much easier!!

The most southerly naturally occurring mangroves in the world. Dinner at Wavecrest.

The wild flowers were magnificent between Wavecrest and Trennery’s.

Another easy river crossing and later a picnic beside the wreck of The Jacaranda.

We had a beautiful bottle brush tree outside our accommodation at Trennery’s. Here we had our last meal.

On the way back to Maggie and Alvan’s place we spent a night at Wilderness a most beautiful spot on The Garden Route.

The blacksmith’s plover dive-bombed us when we unintentionally got a bit close to the nest.						We had a wonderful meal at a restaurant called The Girls. It had been recommended and was the best all holiday.

We spent a day near the west coast where the wild flowers were just stunning.
This time we went up Table Mountain in the cable car. It was quite an experience.								The car rotates just once through 360° as it ascends. The journey takes 8 minutes.

The views were really spectacular. We were lucky that it was windy and the smog, which had been around for days before, had cleared. The wind made it bitterly cold on the top so we didn’t linger .

We went to see the penguins at Boulders.

A last look at the beautiful spring flowers just behind the house on the Zevenwacht wine estate and the last sunset, over Table Mountain (with its table cloth) from the front of the house.