Day 6: pap, a wee church and bunny chows

Morning allows us to view our surroundings; we’re in the Free State, central South Africa.  

The region is yellowed and dusty at this time of year, but completely different during the rainy season.  

We eat pap with margarine and biltong for breakfast, which is nicer than it sounds.

The drive back to the highway passes miles and miles of fields, a few bok and wild horses, windmill, the occasional house and one overturned grain truck.

The scenery changes again, as we pass through the Drakensburg Mountains, stopping to visit the worlds smallest Catholic church, enjoying tea and scones in the garden beside the church.

We have a photo stop at windy corner for the gorgeous views.

As we approach the coast, the landscape becomes greener, and the road leading into Durban feels like a 4-lane roller coaster, winding its way down to the Indian Ocean.  Our hosts are Sam and Merencia, who live in a lovely house perched on the side of one of these gullies.  There is a little confusion finding the right house and we meet the neighbour’s aggressive dogs...  ("Sorry for alerting you, Sir....")

We all head out for Bunny Chows, a local specialty: half a white load with the inside scooped out and replaced with curry. Eye-wateringly excellent.   

The large group of us: Michelle, Dane and Bruce, Sam, Merencia and their two kids, and us 6 girls made for quite a rowdy table enjoying their meal.

Later we drive to the waterfront at Umhlanga Rocks (the “hl” pronounced kind of wet/lispy), a picturesque lighthouse, but no icecream for sale (it’s winter, don’t you know) so head home to fresh muffins, cream scones and orange with masala.

Day 7: Durban

We set off towards central Durban, to the Golden Mile – a long stretch of built-up coastline, very popular in the warmer months. 

We walk out onto the pier to watch surfers battle the waves, when a fin causes much excitement: thankfully it’s a fin whale (shark attacks are reasonably common here), which in itself is unusual – a special treat for us!

One of the famous Zulu Rickshaws gives us a ride – the rickety rickshaw is a bit of a white-knuckle ride…  

Then head along the coast to uShaka – a large aquarium and water park, where we brave the cold water to ride the tube flumes and the lazy river.   (A favourite memory is watching Anthea and Jill drifting off in a double tube – the former with a cup of tea in hand!)

We dry off to watch shark feeding and the dolphin show – both amazing.

Invited to a real SA Braai that evening, we head through the city, stopping to take in a panoramic view, then for BBQ supplies.   

We are warmly welcomed to our friends’ house, for a great meal and fun evening.

Day 8:Transkei

Taking the inland road, we leave Durban early, heading south into the Transkei.  The yellowed hills are dotted with thousands of pastel painted houses, with animals, washing lines and children playing outside.  

Where there are clumps of trees by the road, we often spy monkeys – sometimes sitting on the road signs!

In places, the long dry grass is being cut and neatly prepared, to be sold as thatch – perfectly lined up by the roadside.

We pass through bustling towns where market stalls are set up all along the routes, selling everything you could possibly imagine…  

We pass many children immaculately dressed in school uniform, despite the poverty, there is huge pride in sending children to school, and a child may be kept at home if something is wrong with his or her uniform.  

By mid afternoon, we’re at Mthatha – a chaotic and overcrowded town where obeying road signals appears optional… We stop at the Nelson Mandela Museum, and later (out of town) the village where he grew up.   He still has a house here, (substantially larger than the one he grew up in) where he and his family spend some holidays.

That evening, we are staying Anthea and Bronwens’ parents, Tony and Naomi – who are wonderful hosts and welcome us into their home in Butterworth.    Naomi runs a small nursery and primary school in the building next to their house, and Christel and I meet some of the youth group (most of whom are ex-students of the school) in their Friday evening devotion.  

They are in training for a race, so we join them in a couple of laps of the (extremely hilly!) block.  There is lots of laughing and cajoling as we struggle up the steep incline together.   Later we are fed wonderful home cooking and sleep well. 

Day 9: Beaches, bubblegum and sticky chicken

Eating breakfast on the sunny veranda watching the birds is a real treat, then we head out on a bumpy dirt track towards the wild coast.  

It takes over an hour, passing colourful houses, washing lines flapping in the wind, people repairing thatch roofs, and cows and goats (sometimes on the road!)  


Christel and I have a bubblegum bubble blowing contest, much to the disgust of our fellow travellers.

Trannery’s beach is gorgeous, wild and windy, with waves crashing onto the rocky shore, and absolutely deserted.  

I find it magical and am content to beach-comb and watch the waves for hours.   

















We meet up with Tony and Naomi, and drive to Keimouth to take the small punt over the Kei River.  Immediately we are back on tarred roads, and there are many more brick houses and street lighting – the river was the old district boundary.

We stop and have a coffee with friends of theirs, a vivacious retire couple who live in lovely house perched above the river estuary.  
Bill chats animatedly about everything, cracking jokes and teaching us a phrase that is almost identical in both Afrikaans and English “My pen is in my hand”.  He reads us Proverbs 15:15, then prays earnestly with us.

We travel back to Butterworth watching the sunset over the Kei River for another delicious meal with the Addisons. 

Day 10:

Before daybreak we pack the bus and I pick pink peppercorns from the tree in the garden.  The sunrise over the sea is beautiful as we head south along the coast. 














We eat breakfast at a farm shop where your plate is weighed after filling up at the buffet – many traditional South African products, would have been easy to spend a lot of money in the gift shop!  

The scenery becomes greener again and we pass beautiful whiteboard beach homes, marinas full of bobbing yachts.  

This is a very popular region for South Africans on holiday.   We stretch our legs at Storm River Gorge then head into the Tsitsikamma National Park, boasting among other creatures: dolphins, porpoises, whales, otters, lemurs, duikers, bush pigs and a variety of bird life.   

With the weather closing in, the crashing waves on the rocky shore are even more dramatic, but hot chocolate is more appealing.

We head on to Knysna – we’re staying in a holiday park chalet, near to the Knysna Heads.  The weather is totally foul, and we see little from the car, then scuttle to enjoy the warmth of the Spurs Steakhouse.   (Christel attempts to order a child’s meal, quickly adding that it’s for her daughter, who’ll be along in 10 years…)

Day 11: Cape Town

 An early start (again!) to begin our journey towards Cape Town.  Forested mountains to our right, the sea on our left, we enjoy yet another beautiful sunrise as we pass through Wilderness, George, and Heidelberg, eating breakfast at Wimpy. We see thousands of farmed ostrich, and jersey cows.  After the rain, all the colours seem fresh and vivid, brilliant green grass, yellow canola flower crops and the strong form of the eucalypt trees on the hills.   

There’s even a rainbow. Our first glimpse of Table Mountain is from the other end of False Bay, though there are still many dark clouds lurking.

We say goodbye to Jill in Stellenbosch, then make our way through Cape Town to catch the cable car to the top.  It’s not nearly as windy or cold as I thought it would be, and the views are simply stunning.  An answer to prayer- it’s not raining and the cloud has lifted!  

We enjoy hot chocolate in the café after a refreshing walk around the boardwalk at the top.  

In the revolving cable car

At the cable car station there is a photo booth designed for 2 people – we manage, with much hilarity, to get all 5 of us in there. There are hoots of laughter when we find that the machine plays back the video of you getting into position while the photos are being developed!

We head across to Blauberg Bay to find a view of Table Mountain and a drink in time for sunset.  The pictures speak for themselves.  

Jo joins us for pizza and pink sparkling wine and planning the next couple of days.   She convinces us to try getting 6 people in her 2 door Corsa, then drives around the car park a couple of times, just for kicks.

We go up to a vineyard on the next ridge for gorgeous views over Cape Town at night.  Table Mountain is somewhere there in the gloom – they’re saving power in the winter.  We stay that night at Christel’s family home.