Sadly this was our last full day in South Africa

We headed out along the coast to Kalk Bay, a really interesting little coastal town with some fascinating shops selling old books, antiques, curios, vintage fashion and African crafts.

Further along the coast we stopped at Muizenberg beach for lunch and to watch the surfers.

The beach huts reminded me of Gorleston beach!

We went back to our villa then Andy, Kat and I went for a final walk on ‘our’ beach.

It was very windy and getting cold. There were bluebottle jellyfish on the sand.

We ended the day with a lovely meal at ‘Limoncello’, an Italian restaurant just up the road.

We took Kat to visit the chiropractor then went food shopping. We bought burgers, sausages and a huge steak. Andy cooked a lovely BBQ for lunch.

In the afternoon Andy and I had to go to Sea Point as he had left his coat at David’s apartment.

We drove the scenic route around Chapmans Peak to Sea Point.

The promenade along the seafront is beautiful – David walks it every day – very wild and rocky.

We then drove back on Chapmans Peak Drive, past Camps Bay,

We stopped at Hout bay and watched the birds swooping down to catch the fish and then we saw some seals.

In the photo above you can see the road going up to the right.

Below is a view of Noordhoek Long Beach. Our villa is hidden by trees in the foreground.

The forecast was good so we set off to Table Mountain.

It looked clear en route.

But when we arrived the cloud and mist appeared. We still went up the mountain in the cable car.

The visibility was poor.

But we had a hot chocolate and a warm cookie at the top so we still had a good time.

From there we went to Bo Kaap which is the Malay district and famous for its coloured houses.

We had a lovely lunch at The Bo Kaap Deli and then drove to Sea Point.

We had a milk shake in an old railway carriage.

We then all went to David’s apartment where we met Kat’s cousin, Michelle. David cooked us all a lovely meal and then bought ice creams from the local ice cream shop. Kat has a lovely family.

We drove back in the dark and the rain.

Today Matt, Kat and Ezra went on a shooting experience while Andy, Val and I went to the Cheetah Outreach Centre.

We drove along the coast road.

At the centre there are 7 cheetahs who have been rescued, plus meerkat, jackals, wing bat foxes and tortoises. They also breed Anatolian shepherd dogs.

Then we met up with the others for lunch at ‘Pajamas and Jam’ a restaurant suggested by Kat’s cousin.

In the afternoon we went to Vergelegen Wine Estate for a wine tasting. We tried a merlot, a chardonnay and a cabernet sauvignon, all delicious so we had to buy some bottles! We had a walk round the estate then headed back towards our villa.

The sun was going down. We stopped on the way back for a meal.

The day dawned bright and sunny but chilly at 8° C. We set off on the long drive back to Cape Town.

We followed the R62, a very scenic drive.

We drove past the ostrich farm.

We stopped for a coffee at Barrydale. By then the temperature had risen to 25°C.

It was an amazing drive over, round and through the mountains. We went through two mountain passes – Huis River Pass and the Outeniqua Pass.

We came back along the coast.

We saw a tram – quite an unusual sight in South Africa as most of the railway system has been damaged.

It was a very long day, but nice to be back with the rest of the family.

Our last safari drive began very cold and misty. We doubted we would be able to see much so we were delighted when we spotted…..

….. ‘lions in the mist.’

We were surprised to see a brown hyena running towards us, one of South Africa’s rarest carnivores and rarely seen on safari. It veered off into the bushes.

The mist decorated the many spider webs we passed.

We saw a family group of kudu usually very shy but they stayed a while, keeping an eye on us.

As the mist began to clear we saw a jackal resting not far from the track.

Lenny joked that if we couldn’t find live animals he could find dead ones!

An empty tortoise shell, a zebra skull,

and a water buck skull and spine.

As we headed back for breakfast I spotted a nyala in the bushes.

After breakfast we set off to our next stop we passed some zebra on the reserve.

Heading back in the direction of Cape Town we chose the R62 route inland through the Karoo, rather than the coastal N2 we drove on Wednesday. The scenery was beautiful.

We passed many farms, fruit and cattle and ostrich, and a township.

We arrived at De Zeekoe Guest Farm mid afternoon.

View from our balcony.

Garden and pool area.

We are off to have our dinner of ‘ostrich bobotie’.

At least we don’t have to get up at 5.45am tomorrow (although we wouldn’t have missed this experience for the world).

Up again at 5.45am to set off on our safari drive. It was very atmospheric with the mist filling the valleys.

We were on the lookout for lions when we got a call over the radio and Lenny rushed to join the other truck.

There were 3 lionesses laying down but they soon left and were lost from view in the bushes.

We also saw a young male elephant …

and a family of warthogs.

We enjoyed our private drive as there was still just the two of us. We arrived back at the Lodge for breakfast.

We walked down to the waterhole and spent time relaxing on our private balcony until lunch.

At lunch time we met the new arrivals, a South African extended family and a couple from Germany and a couple from the Netherlands. We now numbered 14 and after lunch set off in two trucks.

As soon as our group got through the gate we saw an elephant enjoying himself at our waterhole.

Lenny found some bones – a skull from a gnu and the lower jaw of a warthog.

We saw many antelope….

giraffe …

and Wildebeest (gnu).

There was a flock of beautiful blue starlings getting ready to roost.

We had looked for hippo on every drive but they proved very illusive.

Eventually two were seen.

On the way back to lodge we saw a troop of vervet monkeys.

Another fascinating drive.

After a lovely meal and some cake to celebrate Ruby’s 80th birthday we all trooped off to bed.

We woke up at 5.45am in order to be ready for our early safari at 6.30am.

If you look closely you can see a jackal to the left of the tree, with waterbuck on the horizon.

We came across Lenny’s favourite elephant who broke his tusks fighting with the big bull elephant we saw yesterday.

We then saw a male ostrich and a female ostrich.

Back at the lodge we had a delicious breakfast, much appreciated.

Our new friends left the game reserve for pastures new and we were on our own (apart from lots of lovely staff to look after us).

We walked down to the waterhole but no one needed a drink! We saw two warthogs and an elephant in the distance.

We had lunch in the open dining room with just monkeys and a tiny lizard for company.

At 3.30pm we set off with Lenny for our private afternoon safari drive.

By the side of the road we saw one of many termite mounds.

We saw lots of impala ……

A group of 6 rhinos….

and zebras.

We were very lucky to spot 3 cheetahs almost hidden in the bushes.

We also saw a tortoise by the perimeter fence.

Not exactly one of the big five! But cute.

We set off back to the Lodge and dinner seeing lightning and hearing thunder. It started to rain as we arrived back…

Another long drive along the N2 to our home for the next three days – Amakhala Game Reserve. We arrived and were shown to our lodge ‘Giraffe’.

After a quick lunch we set off on our first safari drive. We had just set off and we saw a herd of 20+ elephants.

Further on we came across the male of the herd.

Then we saw a male giraffe who was quite shy then the female with her calf.

We saw lots of Monkeys.

Lenny, our driver and guide, even brought snacks and we stopped for a while.

It was getting cold and nearly time to return to the lodge when we came across a lion!

A bit scary but very exciting! We also saw a rhino, Wildebeest, Hartebeest, Warthog, jackal, Zebra, waterbuck …….

Too far away for photos but we had binoculars.

We arrived back at the Lodge very happy. The family we were with said it was the best of the 6 rides they had been on and that we were their lucky charm!