South-Africa, Dec.27th 2024 to January 16th 2025

We arrived in Cape Town on Saturday the 28th after 24 hours of travel - from the time we drove from Tonsberg until we arrived at the marina where we met Caron and Martin 😍. It was so nice, it had been more than 2 years since we parted ways on Bonaire.

There was a lot of chatting while we explored the area around the marina. We also met Kathy and Tony, their sailing friends who we will also spend some time with.

Sunday, we had an early start towards Cape Point. Here we first went up to the lighthouse before we hiked out to the Cape of Good Hope. It got hot during the day so it was nice with an early start, plus it became an incredible number of people. And when we drove from the national park it was a queue of several hundred meters just to enter 😢.

We then drove towards Boulders beach where there is a land-based penguin colony. We saw some along the fence that I took pictures of, and of course a selfie 😂. Down by the beach there was a platform for the public, but a "crazy" long queue to get in meant we skipped it.

For the next day we planned either Robben Island where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned, or a hike up the Plettenklip Trail to Table Mountain. First the hike was cancelled when we saw that there was a fire on the mountainside - at Plattenklip Trail. Then all departures to Robben Island were sold out 🤷‍♀️.

During the night Kai got sick, so the next day we just relaxed on the boat - Caron and Monica chatted a lot about everything and Martin got some boat work done.

Kai didn't get better and I didn't feel too good either, so we refrained from going with the others to the lodge we had booked for New Year's Eve. It was a good thing we stayed on the boat because we were definitely not well, most likely covid, but didn't take a test 🤷‍♀️.

New Year's Eve was celebrated with some dry crackers and a few sips of sparkling wine 😏, and we peeked out of the cow's eye at midnight to see the fireworks - we could handle one rocket.

Caron and Martin were also sick when they returned, so it was a "noisy" bunch, with a lot of coughing , who mostly stayed on the boat until Saturday January 4th. On Saturday we felt somewhat "human" again - our bodies were functioning even though the cough was still tiring 😢.

We took an "Uber" to the city center to see "The Minstrel carnival", lots of people, loud music and great costumes, (minstrel - an American variety theater form)

"Historien om Cape Town Minstrel Carnival"

On the 2nd (approx.) of January musicians, performers and families from all walks of life take to the streets in colourful uniforms to sing, dance, and play music for the crowds as they parade the streets.

This parade is a cultural tradition that dates back to the early years of colonisation and slavery in the Cape. Slaves were brought to Cape Town from all corners of the globe, from across Africa, India, Indonesia and the Middle East.

Despite their slavery, New Years was a time of the year where slaves were allowed the freedom to celebrate amongst the colonists.

Every year they would dress in colourful, eclectic attire, traditionally with a tailcoat, bow tie, top hat, and cane to mimic the British and Dutch settlers.

This same style can be seen today, but with blazers instead of tailcoats. They will traditionally play jazz instruments and play classic or cultural music passed down through generations, or play popular songs from the year.

This tradition was passed down for years, even becoming a form of competition where Minstrel troupes would compete to be the best performers.

During the Apartheid years, the National government tried their best to kill the tradition, banning all minstrel performances and parades.

The Minstrel carnival almost died out completely, until the bans were lifted with the end of Apartheid.

Finally, the celebrations could ensue again, and since then the Cape Minstrel Carnival has been in full swing each year.

Early Sunday morning we drove to Franshoeck and "The wine tram". Even before the first stop of the train we got a tasting - a rosé from Allee Bleu. At Noble Hill winery we had breakfast and also had the first (ordinary) wine tasting of the day. There were several stops and more wine tasting throughout the day, but for me (Monica), I didn't think any of the wines were particularly good 😏.

After dinner we drove to the house we had rented. It was a very positive surprise, a large house with 3 large bedrooms with attached bathrooms. Even though we are used to cramped conditions on board a boat, it was lovely to have a large bedroom with a large bed and an attached large bathroom 😊.

The next morning it was time to leave and say goodbye. We, Kai Robert and Monica, were now going to start our road trip and the others were going to return to the boats and prepare for the next leg of the circumnavigation, starting on Saturday (January 11), first north to Namibia and then across the Atlantic towards Brazil and The Caribbean again.

When we passed Franshoeck Pass, we left wine country and came to farmland, a total change in nature.

We drove down to Agulhas. A small place all the way south that is actually South Africa's southernmost point - I didn't know that 🤷‍♀️. Here the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean meet, and here it can be very dangerous in bad weather.

The weather was nice when we were there 😊

We stayed in Agulhas for 2 nights and just relaxed. It was lovely after a whole week where we didn't feel very well at all.

We then drove north towards the Swartberg area. After several miles on a dirt road we arrived at Swartberg Private Game Lodge. A lovely small "hotel" with a very nice owner, and where we stayed overnight and also had a 2 hour mini safari in an open Toyota Landcruiser. In the huge area we saw giraffes, gazelles and many other beautiful animals👍.

The next morning we drove to Cango Caves - a fantastic cave system (the nicest we've seen) with beautiful stalactites and stalagmites.

We were recommended to drive over the Swartberg Pass, a narrow gravel road where we crawled up to the top in our little Suzuki. On a new demanding stretch of road down the other side we had a great ride through beautiful rock formations in narrow valleys with mountain walls straight up on both sides. Very beautiful.

After driving into the town of Prince Albert, not much to see there, we took the road towards Oudtshorn, it was quite uneventful. We drove through George and towards Wilderness.

Wilderness is a small cozy place right down the coast with beautiful beaches. We had a short walk along the beach and then dinner at a cozy Italian restaurant before we went to bed.

Restaurant prices are ridiculously cheap here, for example a bottle of good white wine costs about 100 NOK.

The next morning we took The seven passes road, it was supposed to be a "scenic road", but there wasn't much to see 😏.

We then drove through Knysna and on to Knysna Elephant Park. We decided to stay the night and had a nice experience feeding the elephants. In the evening the elephants came into the enclosure by the building. We had rooms next to where the elephants slept, with a window and a veranda above their "stall". The possibility was that they might want to sleep inside. Elephants actually lie down and sleep from time to time. At midnight we first discovered one inside the stable and eventually there were 3 of them lying down and sleeping 😍. They were snoring a lot 🙂

We drove on towards Plettenberg and had a nice walk out on Robberg Penninsula.

The weather was perfect for a 2 hour hike, a little cloudy 👍. Were we still coughing - yes…😏

We decided to turn around and drive back towards Cape Town.

We stayed overnight at a small, homely "Bed & Breakfast", an elderly couple had 4 rooms that they rented out. They had been doing this for 26 years and had received many good awards over the years.

It was quite a long trip back towards Cape Town. The trip went through a lot of farmland, there was not much else but large fields as far as we could see.

Back in Cape Town we had rented an Airbnb. A really "wow" apartment in an apartment complex right by the beach, with a view of the Atlantic Ocean, Robben Island and Table Mountain.

We were lucky, because the next day it was hardly any wind, sunny and warm - a perfect day to visit Table Mountain, so we could check it off the list. Great views and a cool cable car where the floor rotated 360 degrees on the ride up and down.

Otherwise we relaxed in the apartment and cooked dinner ourselves, i.e. Kai cooked dinner 😜.

In Cape Town we also had a boat trip in the harbor area and on the canal, a visit to the diamond museum and the colorful Art Deco houses in the Bo-Kaap area.

Apart from illness the first few days we had a great trip. It was nice to meet Caron and Martin again and nice to see beautiful South Africa too.

However, here as in many other places in the world, there is a huge difference between people - that is, the blacks in many places lived in tin sheds on large areas. Nearby there were beautiful houses where the barbed wire on top of the fence has been replaced with deadly power cables 😮.

A bit strange…… that it is still like that when the ANC has ruled the country since Nelson Mandela took over the leadership in 1994.

On January 15th we handed in the rental car and were ready to return home, and then on arrival in Norway we went straight to our cabin in the mountains 😊.

Monica and Kai Robert