Wild Coast
We have spent the last few days at a resort called Trenerys on the Wild Coast just near the Kei River Mouth. It is very relaxing staying here - no cooking to do. Just relaxing, going for walks, swimming ( a bit of cold water never deters the Etheringtons) canoeing, horse riding etc.
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
Monday, September 30, 2013
Hey, sorry to all of those people who have enthusiastically looked at our blog to find nothing new there. We had some internet connectivity difficulties but here at last is some news.
We have had a lovely week based in Somerset West near Cape Town at my mother's house, catching up with a couple of friends and driving up to the West Coast National Park to see the amazing floral biodiversity, and a good amount of wildlife too. The mountainous scenery of the Cape is spectacular and it is home to an entire plant kingdom, one of just 7 in the world, so is incredibly diverse (and threatened by climate change as it is a small area of Mediterranean climate vulnerable to the winter rains shifting south into the southern ocean).
Richard and I also enjoyed ducking out a couple of times on impromptu dates in Stellenbosch where a number of great new restaurants, ice-cream parlours etc have sprung up since we last visited. We found a very interesting shop which sells fantastic bread, coffee and biltong - we have stocked up on enough Eland and Beef biltong to last us the entire visit, though Richard doubts this! (For those who don't know about the marinated and dried meat national dish of South Africa - shame on you - Google "biltong"). Anyway, you may also get a chance to taste some as Richard managed to sweet talk the butcher into disclosing her secret biltong recipe (yes, she. Katryn is not your regular butcher. She studied agriculture then did a masters in meat science researching pastrami in Italy with a view to working for a major food processor. "But one day I had my arms in a bucket of meat and thought, no, THIS is what I really love... so I opened this gourmet butchery processing locally grown meats," she explained. And just to complete the picture, she is no butch butcher but a stunning blonde model!)
We have had a lovely week based in Somerset West near Cape Town at my mother's house, catching up with a couple of friends and driving up to the West Coast National Park to see the amazing floral biodiversity, and a good amount of wildlife too. The mountainous scenery of the Cape is spectacular and it is home to an entire plant kingdom, one of just 7 in the world, so is incredibly diverse (and threatened by climate change as it is a small area of Mediterranean climate vulnerable to the winter rains shifting south into the southern ocean).
Richard and I also enjoyed ducking out a couple of times on impromptu dates in Stellenbosch where a number of great new restaurants, ice-cream parlours etc have sprung up since we last visited. We found a very interesting shop which sells fantastic bread, coffee and biltong - we have stocked up on enough Eland and Beef biltong to last us the entire visit, though Richard doubts this! (For those who don't know about the marinated and dried meat national dish of South Africa - shame on you - Google "biltong"). Anyway, you may also get a chance to taste some as Richard managed to sweet talk the butcher into disclosing her secret biltong recipe (yes, she. Katryn is not your regular butcher. She studied agriculture then did a masters in meat science researching pastrami in Italy with a view to working for a major food processor. "But one day I had my arms in a bucket of meat and thought, no, THIS is what I really love... so I opened this gourmet butchery processing locally grown meats," she explained. And just to complete the picture, she is no butch butcher but a stunning blonde model!)
Flying on the top deck of the A380 and catching up on screen time!
Snow capped mountains and fertile valleys as we arrive in the Cape of Good Hope
Elephant made out of wire and beads - Cape Town Airport on arrival - we were all exhausted
The "Cape Dutch" houses and views where my sister lives on a wine estate (grapes in foreground)
Visiting a bushman village up the West Coast
Monday, September 23, 2013
Our next trip to South Africa September 2013
We left Canberra on a beautiful Spring day on Saturday and drove to Sydney in a hire car. The children were very excited to find out that we would be sitting at the top deck of the Singapore Airlines A380 plane that we were taking for the flight to Singapore. Unfortunately this did not mean that we had been upgraded as there are some economy class seats on the top deck, however we felt it was special anyway. The trip to Singapore went well, but then reality hit that we still had another 12 hours of flying to get from there to Cape Town! For the next flight we did not have top deck seats and we realised again how difficult it is to get any sleep sitting upright in cramped conditions. Our youngest got the most sleep on that flight, but the rest of us were feeling rather shattered by the time we arrived in Cape Town.
It was a beautiful day on Sunday when we flew from Johannesburg to Cape Town (on the same flight we had caught from Singapore). We dropped some passengers off in Johannesburg, so had a lot of leg room and were able to move easily around the plane to look at the views which were spectacular. There has been a recent spate of very cold weather in the Western Cape and a large dump of snow on all the taller mountains. Flying over these snow-capped mountains we realised again how small our Australian mountains look in comparison. It was a very good welcome to the Cape. We would have loved to have enjoyed the rest of the day out and about but were unfortunately all too tired to go anywhere other than the cosy beds and couches at Mom's house in Somerset-West.
We have some photos to add, but will add these when we have worked out our technology. Have fun reading the rest of our adventures over the next few weeks. We will enjoy having them.
It was a beautiful day on Sunday when we flew from Johannesburg to Cape Town (on the same flight we had caught from Singapore). We dropped some passengers off in Johannesburg, so had a lot of leg room and were able to move easily around the plane to look at the views which were spectacular. There has been a recent spate of very cold weather in the Western Cape and a large dump of snow on all the taller mountains. Flying over these snow-capped mountains we realised again how small our Australian mountains look in comparison. It was a very good welcome to the Cape. We would have loved to have enjoyed the rest of the day out and about but were unfortunately all too tired to go anywhere other than the cosy beds and couches at Mom's house in Somerset-West.
We have some photos to add, but will add these when we have worked out our technology. Have fun reading the rest of our adventures over the next few weeks. We will enjoy having them.
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