Doug and Kerry Hudson in Cape Town, South Africa

Kerry hates flying. There are no two ways about it. You would think that with all this travelling we had been doing, she would be more accustomed to it by now. But no, no matter how much Doug tries to calm her down and make her see the positive side of flying, she still hates it. It’s a miracle she ever made it England on her own, back in 1999. (We are very glad she did though!) So it was a very nervous Kerry that stepped onto the plane at Durban airport, bound for Cape Town.

The flight turned out to be spectacular, as our route followed the Little Karoo desert and then we came in over the Drakenstein range on our approach. The people sitting on the left-hand side of the plane got a really good view of Table Mountain, but we were on the right and had to make do with some other mountains. Some of them had a light dusting of snow on top, which did not augur well for good weather. However, it turned out to be a sunny day in the Cape, albeit with a stiff breeze.

We collected our hire car and the kind man bumped us up two grades because he thought we were on our honeymoon. Well, we were so excited it felt like it! Kerry had already forgotten all about the traumatic flight, and some of the blood had now returned to Doug's hand, which had been in Kerry’s vice-like grip the entire flight.

We set off in our Toyota Tazz 1.6, complete with rasping exhaust and only 22 kilometres on the clock, in search of our accommodation.

We arrived safely to a chaotic Ashanti Lodge, our hostel right at the foot of Table Mountain. The beleaguered girl on reception checked us into a private room that turned out to have someone else’s belongings in it. This was not our idea of private, but the receptionist reassured us he was checking out that day. She sent someone over to remove the bags, who turned up at our door annoyed that he was being treated like a porter when he was really the handyman. When he’d left with the bags, we discovered some underpants in the chest of drawers that should have gone with the bags. While we were trying to sort this out, the room’s former occupant turned up thinking he was booked in for another night, and was greatly annoyed to find someone else in his room and his belongings distributed all over the building! So in summary, everyone was annoyed. We had also formed a very dim view of the receptionist and the hostel in general, despite its gorgeous location.

The day improved later in the afternoon, when we drove out to Bloubergstrand for a walk on the beach. We took some photos of the fantastic view across the bay to Table Mountain, and then indulged ourselves at the Spur restaurant with some delicious milkshakes and steak and chips. When we returned to the hostel later on, we were relieved to find that no-one else had been checked into our room, and we had a really good night’s rest.

The next day there was a big cloud over Table Mountain and the weather was miserable, so we decided to drive to Hermanus. After all, it was the last day of the Whale Festival there.

The following morning we had a lie in. Well, it was a Sunday after all. We eventually headed out for Kirstenbosch botanical gardens. Here we enjoyed the incredibly beautiful flora, some very tame guinea fowl and some pretty strenuous walking. We also had a delicious lunch at the restaurant, and decided to make a booking there, for the following evening when we would celebrate our wedding anniversary. We briefly visited the Rhodes Memorial, and then met up with Doug's parents Margaret and Dick at their very posh hotel, The Peninsula. They had just arrived there after a week travelling along the Garden Route. They excitedly described all their adventures over the previous week, and we tried to tell them our news although it was difficult to get a word in edgeways!

Some inconsiderate neighbours disturbed our sleep that night. Given Margaret and Dick’s invitation to stay in divine luxury with them at The Peninsula, it wasn’t too difficult a decision to check out of the hostel the next morning. We were soon installed in the suite at The Peninsula, where we had our own separate bedroom and bathroom. We looked out at the sea from the balcony and guess what? We saw a whale! We went to Hout Bay, and showed Margaret and Dick the fish market there, with its live lobsters. If the weather had been less windy, we would have gone out to see the seals at Seal Island. The wind had already prevented us from going up Table Mountain. On the way home, we visited Groot Constantia with its lovely manor house in the Cape Dutch style. In the evening we celebrated our second wedding anniversary with a delicious dinner of gourmet food at the Kirstenbosch restaurant. Back at the hotel, we had a bottle of Cold Duck champagne ready to drink, but we were all so full of food that we couldn’t face it!

The next morning we awoke to a calm sea and a gorgeous, sunny, clear day. We headed off together to visit the Cape of Good Hope National Park.

After lunch and a lovely walk, we headed north back to Table Mountain, where we found that the cable car was in operation. So naturally, we had to go up, despite Margaret and particularly Kerry being terrified. It turned out to be an exhilarating experience for everybody, and gave us such magnificent views over Table Bay and Cape Town. We ended our perfect day back at the hotel with a delicious dinner and far too much wine. We also polished off the Cold Duck, and giggled our way into bed for a well-earned sleep.

We returned to the Cape of Good Hope National Park the next day, without Doug's parents, in order to visit one of the shipwrecks.

The day after that the weather was grim again, so it gave us an ideal opportunity to visit some vineyards along the wine route. Kerry elected herself as driver, so Margaret, Dick and Doug were able to sample various wines at all the different wineries we visited: the KWV distillery in Paarl, the Simonsvlei, Nederberg and Fairview (of Goats Do Roam fame) vineyards just outside Paarl, and the L’Avenir vineyard just north of Stellenbosch. At each one, we sampled a selection of different white, red and rose wines. Nederberg and KWV also had brandy to try, and at Fairview they had eleven different cheeses to try as well. Nederberg made our favourite wine, and despite being such a major commercial producer we received a very friendly reception there, as well as being allowed to pour our own tots from as many bottles as we liked. Needless to say, we were well wined up by the end of the day, although Doug’s stomach was really sore that evening from the overindulgence. He required several trips to the toilet to ease his suffering!

We parted from Margaret and Dick the following morning, as it was time for our Namibian trip. It was a very sad moment, as everyone was sorry that the holiday was over. We gave them a little gift to thank them for letting us stay with them in their luxury apartment. They were well chuffed, and gave us an early Christmas present of a book about Namibia and some sedatives for Kerry’s nerves. By the time we were on the plane to Johannesburg, Kerry’s nerves were shot to pieces, despite the Rescue Remedy, and she needed some very tight handholding. We made it to the gate in time for boarding, at which point we were separated in the crush. By the time Doug reached her in her seat, Kerry was in a blind panic, fearing that we were seated apart. Doug spent the entire two-hour flight to Windhoek trying to calm her down, but he thinks it was the enormous gin and tonic that finally did the trick. A very nice man called Alice collected us at Windhoek and drove us to the Windhoek Country Club, where we crashed out absolutely exhausted from our stressful day. Welcome to Namibia!

World Trip >> Africa >> Cape Town

Last updated: Sunday August 27, 2006