South Africa

In the morning we enjoyed the breakfast that the nice lady of the hotel prepared for us and then we started our trip to reach Betty’s bay. The small village of Betty’s bay is famous for another colony of penguins that live there, much less touristic than the one in Boulders beach. But the main reason why we chose this small village was the road trip that connects Gordon’s bay to Betty’s bay. The drive is called Clearance Drive, and it is a coast road that makes you drive close to the cliffs, with the ocean on one side and the mountains on the other. The road is narrow but extremely panoramic. In the winter it is possible to spot whales in this areas.
We stopped many times to take pictures and enjoy the nature.

After the visit at the colony of penguins we moved forward to reach our next destination: the tip of Africa, the actual southest point of Africa. The road there was also incredible and particularly intense. After kilometers and kilometers of straight roads that seem taken from a coast to coast trip in the US, the GPS informs us that we suddenly have to turn left. Yes. Unfortunately on the left the only road that we see is a countryside road without asphalt. We check our destination, we check alternatives, no alternatives and right destination. So it is time to test also this car on terrain. We start driving in this desolated land, dry and golden with some trees and birds appearing now and then. The panorama is amazing and the car seems to deal quite good with the road. We do in total more or less 40 km in these conditions, with some parts with asphalt and some no, until we reach the white and red lighthouse of the tip of Africa. The landscape is incredible.

We leave the car and a wooden path that goes on the beach and in between stones takes us to the actual point where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Indian Ocean. We climb rocks and take pics and observe the incredible landscape, before taking off again to the next destination. Aniston.

Again terrain roads and infinite straight roads guide us until Aniston. It is a very small village famous for a beach with a cave where is possible to go inside from the beach side when the sea is calm. We leave the car and start the small hike to the cave. It is desert. Sand and dunes everywhere, the sea on one side and hills of sand on the other. It is very warm but definitely worth it. We reach the small beach where the cave is by descending steep stairs. But there is no cave. Apparently the ocean is too high today. A bit disappointed we take our way back to the car and we decide to stay sometime in the beach before reaching out final destination of the day. The sun is warm but the waves are big and fast and it is impossible to bathe. We spend some time playing with the waves and sitting on the sand before leaving the place.
3 more hours of driving. Today it is the longest drive we have on the plan. We are now tired and very hungry, the sun guess down and Fuffi keeps driving slow and calm until we reach Mossel Bay. We are very satisfied because we didn’t think we would actually reach so far!

Before going to the hotel we decide to go to a restaurant that was suggested on the guide “King Fisher”. The place is directly on a terrace that goes on the ocean, the weather is still quite warm and the moon is huge in front of us. We order a huge plate for two of fish! We are super hungry! Unfortunately, our stomachs are not ready to take so much food after an entire day of nothing, and in the end we leave quite a lot of food there.

We go to check in in this small hotel quite close to the beach. The place is modest, the owner too. I am quite tipsy after a huge cheap glass of good white wine and it is easy to fall asleep.Read more