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2023 - South Africa

November 2023
- 3 day Safari in Sabi Sand Game Reserve at Umkumbe Safari River Lodge
- Camping Trip from Port Elizabeth to Cape Town - via Garden Route
- 3 days in Cape Town - Hotel The Bay in Camps Bay Read more
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  • Traveler2023 - South Africa
    Day 7

    A grey cloud in the blue sky

    November 12, 2023 in South Africa ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    Today was the day we were picking up our camper. We got up and had a massive breakfast (omelette and all the trimmings) - then we made our way to the airport to meet representative of Bobo Camper (true name of the rental company). We met the guy and he quickly handed me the phone over: that is when we got informed that our camper suffered a break down on arrival in Port Elisabeth the evening before. The company was trying to get more info and we were told to wait. After 45 min, we were called back and told that since it was Sunday, the car was locked up in a garage and they could not access it til Monday. Since we had a booking in Addo Elephant National Park for the night (a tent site), the company offered to pay for the rental of a car (until they found out what is wrong with the camper) and the extra charge to change our accommodation from a camp to a cottage.
    That is how we ended up making our way to Addo elephant park in a brand new VW Polo rental car- annoyed as this was not the experience we wanted. Nevertheless, the park made us forget this incident! There, you drive around loops and tracks and if you are lucky, you see animals- not as close as in Sabi Sands- but actually, we got lucky: wildebeests, zebras, warthogs, ostriches, kudus and 3 out of the big 5: elephants, lions and buffalos!
    We managed to secure a cottage (last one) in the park and got to the info to pick up our keys 5 min before closure.
    The night in the cottage was peaceful only slightly troubled by a small bat flying around the room (we were told in advance about it).    Read more

  • Traveler2023 - South Africa
    1
    Day 8

    Addo - the South & Plan C

    November 13, 2023 in South Africa ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C

    After a quiet night at the lodge we started to explore the Southern part of Addo Elephant NP. And we were welcomed straight away from a family of Buffalos! The closest we have seen them so far! On our second loop we passed by a tree full of monkeys! Some of them carrying little ones…super cute! We passed by zebras, warthogs, red hartebeest and kudus. And when we entered the Northern part we saw again plenty of elephants far away in the trees having lunch. We arrived at one of the park’s waterhole and saw an elephant family arriving for a drink. So cute to see the little still trying out how to drink with the trunk 😃
    More and more elephants arrived, it seemed to be a gathering. Suddenly we saw a big shade passing in front of our car. An elli just came across the road and used the gap in between us and the car in front of us. Suddenly a second one arrived. Quite “excited” as you can see on the video 🤣.
    Plenty of dung beetles were crawling around the streets, some with dung. So funny those hard workers.
    We spent our afternoon in the parks steakhouse to sort out Plan C for our holidays. The original plan didn’t work out and BOBO Camper had no Plan B and therefore cancelled our booking - neither reparation nor backup vehicles…Very bad service. The suggested Plan B - traveling by rental car wasn’t our favorite either. So we looked for Plan C by hiring last minute a camper from another provider. Nothing small available, so we had to go or a 7m camper then. The only problem was that they are all based in Cape Town so it takes them a while to bring it over. All the paperwork we managed to sort out with the help of all gadgets from our iPhones🙈

    We returned to Port Elizabeth, checked in a cute lodge with a nice host (who drives also a Caddy Alltrack like us at home). He gave us plenty of tips for our journey to Cape Town. We had dinner at a nice Sushi Restaurant and felt a bit less disappointed than yesterday morning. Plan D seemed to work as of Thursday!👍😎    Read more

  • Traveler2023 - South Africa
    Day 9

    Home of VW Polo

    November 14, 2023 in South Africa ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    From our host and Caddy-driver we heard about the VW Factory in Uitenhage and that you can visit the oldest VW factory outside of Germany. So we went there to visit.
    After opening in 1948 on August 31, 1951 the first VW was built - a Beetle of course. The factory was of great importance and has built models from VW, Audi and Studebaker over the past 75+ years.
    Worth mentioning is the Golf MK1, which can currently be found on the streets. It was still built there as Citigolf until 2009. Golf 1 on the outside and Golf 4 on the inside. They used the MK1 factory facility until the bitter end 😃
    We visited first the Auto Pavilion museum to learn about the history of the factory and there were a few beautiful vehicles there too...Beetles, Ghia Karmann, Audis, Golfs, Bulli's and some prototypes.
    Today they only focus on the Polo. The New Polo and the Polo Vivo. The Vivo is again a continuation of an old Polo model (MK5) with very spartan equipment! Ventilation still has rotary switches and only the window regulators are electric. Nothing else is needed. You can see the Polo Vivo on every corner here. Options such as aluminum rims or sports versions can also be ordered.
    Of course, we seized the opportunity and took a free factory tour (as usual, without photos). You can see everything, from ancient, gloomy brick workshops to the very modern paint factory. Older robots work hand in hand with around 5,600 employees. Polos are produced here for the world market- mainly all right-hand drive ones as well as GTIs and all these Vivo's - every 2 minutes a Polo like rolls off the assembly line ready to drive...Very impressive!
    By the way, depending on the model, a Polo Vivo costs between 12-15,000 CHF😮💪    Read more

  • Traveler2023 - South Africa
    Day 9

    Every cloud has a silver lining

    November 14, 2023 in South Africa ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    Continuing with weather related metaphors…😉 yes - having swallowed the disappointment of the camper van story, we then checked what we could do in the vicinity of Port Elizabeth, aided in that by our host at the lodge. We went first to VW factory (see previous post) and then drove to Schoenmakerskop, as we were told we could walk a trail: the Sacramento trail. We were itching to move after almost a week of car/safari and 3 full meals a day (waistlines expand fast).
    Sacramento refers to a Portuguese boat that sunk there in 1647, there were 72 survivors who decided to walk to Mozambique, only 7 survived the journey.
    The village is by the ocean and large posh houses (with less security than the houses you see in towns) are everywhere.
    The hike followed the coastline and was 8km long, we were faced with massive sand dunes along the way. We were a bit tired fighting against the wind but happy to have moved.
    We took the road again and drove to Jeffrey’s Bay to check in our next guest house.    Read more

  • Traveler2023 - South Africa
    Day 10

    Surf paradise & St Francis

    November 15, 2023 in South Africa ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    After a quiet night in our new guest house, we set out to explore first Cape St Francis, which is a 30 min drive from Jeffrey’s Bay. We found ourselves once more in a wealthy neightbourhood - we parked at the lighthouse and walked a bit on the rocks, watching the waves crashing. Cape St Francis is the most southern eastern point of Africa, so a sign says. We could not visit the lighthouse and stopped instead in the adjacent coffee shop called “Nevermind”.
    We drove back to Jeffrey’s bay to finally visit the place: it is a surfing mecca and you can even get bargains on outlets stores from Billabong, Rip Curl and Quicksilver. Shopping was on our mind but we first had a quick lunch by the ocean in a nice restaurant and for the first time, we could walk around in a town. No major damage to the credit card was done. Tired, and because of an early start the next day, we went back to the guest house and only got out for a tasty seafood dinner at Nina’s.    Read more

  • Traveler2023 - South Africa
    1
    Day 11

    Finally we camp

    November 16, 2023 in South Africa ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    We started early (6:00h) to leave Jeffrey’s Bay back east to Port Elisabeth again! Today we should finally receive our Plan C Campervan. We arrived on time at the airport, returned our beloved Polo Vivo and received a massive (as Claudine said) Travelbox. It’s a 7m camper, based on a Iveco TurboDaily. Far too big for just the
    two of us. But that’s what was left…
    We started by shopping in a food store and continued then back west, passing again by Jeffreys Bay and entered Tsitsikamma National Park. We checked in at Stroms River and got an amazing spot just on the shore of the Indian Ocean. The wind was still strong and the Ocean agitated!
    We went for our first walk and hiked to the Suspension Bridges crossing over the Storms River. We passed by the visitor center (a new one is under construction) where plenty of tourists were present. We shared the path to the bridges with many of them and met some furry dassies (animals). It was a 2.5km walk. Back at the campsite we had our first meal, thanks to a microwave we had some tasty food from Nina (restaurant in Jeffreys Bay). It was warm enough to eat outside and enjoy the nice sunset scenery accompanied by the sound of a wavy ocean!
    That was what we wanted! 😍    Read more

  • Traveler2023 - South Africa
    Day 12

    From the Waterfall to “Plett”

    November 17, 2023 in South Africa ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    The reason why we stayed in the Storms River Mouth National Park was obviously to do a hike.
    After breakfast, we opted for the waterfall hike - 6.4km. In itself, it is not a long distance but it was actually quite sporty as a large part of it was jumping from rocks to rocks, up and down. Took us 3 hours and upon arrival at the waterfall, we saw whales in the distance! Woaw.
    After the hike, we took up the road again towards Plettenberg Bay. “Plett” as they call it, is apparently a playground for the millionnaires- known for beautiful beaches. We first checked in in our campsite at the Keurbooms Lagoon, very nice campsite where the river meet the ocean. A few locals were camping with their 4x4 and tent on the roof. Our JJ (jay jay) the travelbox was a bit noticeable.
    We took a taxi to Plett to explore a bit. Effectively, one shop out of three is an estate agent and one can feel money is around.
    We did not stay - we only walked the main street, had a drink and came back to enjoy dinner on our pitch while watching the lagoon.    Read more

  • Traveler2023 - South Africa
    112
    Day 13

    The “mighty” Robberg

    November 18, 2023 in South Africa ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    We started our day with a breakfast under blue sky and already quite hot sun. People went swimming in the lagoon…we were tempted too but had planned to visit the Robberg Nature Reserve next to Plettenberg Bay. The place was already very busy as it was Saturday as well and we could hardly park our van. We started and were first surrounded by plenty of people, also groups! But after the The Gap (smallest loop) and the Whitsand second turnoff, where our way headed towards “The Point” only few (brave) people continued. Along the entire Nort Side of the Peninsula we past above houndreds of seals. Their noise and smell was very present. Most of them were swimming in the crystal green sea and others were just hanging around on the shore. That’s where the name Robberg comes from.
    At the most eastern point (at the end) we were lucky to see two whales passing by. They were showing their fins and made us happy!
    The tricky part of the path started now. Down and up, down and up and down again. Amazing nature but quite exhausting and hot. We climbed rocks and stairs and sandy pathes until we finally reached the beach. Shoes off and right into the sea…it was great to cool down. The air was hot, the water cool. The last part back to the car park was again up and down and we were quite exhausted back at our van! But it was worth it.
    We continued our journey to a beautiful place called Buffalo Bay. A remote place with surf beaches and holidays homes. The campsite had the prime spot at the end of the Peninsula - we were surrounded by the ocean. We enjoyed the view and spent some time around our campfire while listening to the waves!    Read more

  • Traveler2023 - South Africa
    Day 14

    Back inland

    November 19, 2023 in South Africa ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    We left Buffalo Bay after breakfast and drove away from the coastline for the first time. Our goal was the Cango Cave, one of the most famous natural wonders in South Africa. We had decided to skip Krysna and George as we realised we cannot see everything 😩
    Judging by buses, the cave are indeed famous and you get a guided tour in groups of max 50. In the earlier days of the cave discovery (early 20th century), they were allowing far too many people and had events in the first chamber. This obviously led to damages hence why it is regulated now. We saw 3 chambers and these were sooo big, very impressive, especially the amount and type of structures formed by water over time in millions of years.
    After the visit, we decided to go to the Cango Wildlife Ranch where they protect endangered species, but to be honest, it felt more like a zoo than anything else. This Ranch is supported by Mr. Zimmermann who owns a real estate company in Geneva. The temperature where now over 30 degrees-normal for that place.
    We checked in in a campsite in Oudtshoorn - no waves crashing sound as a background this time but a fairly deserted campsite. We had dinner and went to bed early.    Read more

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