We (Cor and Grietje van NoFear Travel), travel with our Toyota Hilux 4×4 camper. The African continent is the Mecca for 'overlanding' with many challenging routes and beautiful destinations. The first African country we visited during our trip to South Africa is Morocco, followed by Mauritania, Senegal, Mali, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast en Ghana. After a stopover in the Netherlands, we continue our overland journey through Africa. We drove on Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, Congo-Brazzaville, Angola, Zambia en Botswana.
We continue the second part of the overland tour South Africa. As you are used to from us, you now start watching the video again.
Continuation
After a fantastic visit to Namibia it is South Africa's turn to be (re)discovered. We were here once in 2004, when we visited a number of highlights in a rental car in 2 weeks.
Now, in a completely different setting, we are allowed to stay for a maximum of 90 days. We'll see how it turns out and how long we stay.
A bit of history
The entire history of South Africa can of course be found everywhere. But to provide insight into the current situation of the country, here are a few striking facts.
Originally the area was inhabited by the San and Bantu tribes.
The relationship with the Netherlands began in 1652 when ships of the then VOC docked at the Cape.
Later, when the British took over the Cape, the Dutch migrated inland where they continued as farmers.
Since the 50s, an apartheid regime has been implemented by politicians. In practice, it means that the white population has many more advantages than the black population. So racial discrimination. The policy and the resulting violence have caused much grief and loss of life. The leader of the ANC, the party that fought for the rights of the black population, Nelson Mandela, was imprisoned on Robben Island for years. Since 1994, there have been free elections for the first time and the ANC is the largest party to this day.
Negative stories about the government are currently being heard from many sides. That is about enormous unemployment, cronyism, corruption and high crime rates.
Hondeklip Bay
We enter the country in the northwest at Vioolsdrift. The border crossing goes smoothly and we do some shopping in the village of Springbok.
From there we go directly into the Namaqua National Park. Enjoy a relaxing drive through a beautiful landscape, turn on the radio and enjoy.
We arrive on the coast at the town of Hondeklipbaai. A small fishing village where we only meet friendly people. On the beach in the bay, a few boats are just coming in with their caught pike. Large fish that are transferred into a “bakkie”. (African for pickup truck)
There is a nice atmosphere around the beach. Some of the caught pike is filleted and pickled on site. We eat lobster in the restaurant, a specialty. The village grew up because of the lobster fishing, but since the time that the sea was plundered here, there is only a ruin of the former factory.
On the other side of the village we watch the waves crashing on the rocks, spectacular!
Repair
Overlanding, discovering the world, is not just challenging and adventurous. Of course, we also have to take care of our daily needs such as eating, drinking, washing and car maintenance. This is much easier in a country like South Africa than in West African countries. But buying a new windshield for our car turned out to be quite a challenge. In Namibia we had gained a spot on one of the many gravel roads, which had now become quite a crack.
I asked around everywhere, but couldn't find a suitable window anywhere. Toyotas drive a lot here, but the steering wheel is on the right. And that also means that there are -minimal- differences in the window.
In the village of Vredendal we find a glassmonger who can import such a window. Lightning fast, within 4 days, but three times as expensive. But okay, we are happy with the new windshield. In the meantime, we have time to take walks through the vineyards around Vredenburg and Grietje can give the inside of the camper a fresh coat of wall paint.
Poison Mountain
Not far from Vredendal is our next goal… The Gifberg.
The Poison Mountain turns out to be a rock formation that suddenly rears its head out of the relatively flat landscape.
Beautiful rock formations and a challenging route to get on top of them.
Challenging views and unspoilt nature await us above. And all that under a clear blue sky.
Yet there is some activity in the form of tea plantations…rooibos tea!
We decide to go for a walk on the Gifberg. Finally an area where there are good hiking trails, but more importantly... the temperature is pleasant. We choose a walk of 20 kilometers. That's a bit of a risk. How are our fitness levels, we haven't run in a long time.
We are accompanied by 4! dogs, which belong to the owner of the campsite, three labradors and a small dog.
The dogs are wonderful, fiercely loyal, sweet and know their way better than the markings.
Even for the dogs the journey turns out to be difficult because at the end their speed also becomes slow.
There is plenty of drink for the dogs in the form of the many rock pools that we encounter. But we don't have food with us for four dogs. And so we decide to divide our own bread and cookies fairly.
The walk itself is great and we have a beautiful day together with the dogs!
Rooibos tea
The area around the Cederberg and Gifberg is known for its production of rooibos tea. The South Africans are very proud of it. The tea is shipped worldwide in large bales. We take a look at a plantation where they are busy with the (late) harvest. The top part of the plant is cut off and tied into bunches. The substance is then finely ground. Then it is still green. The crushed plant is then spread on a large concrete slab where it dries and changes color.
When it is sufficiently dry, it is baled again and shipped. The area recently patented the name “Rooibos tea”, so consumers know for sure where it comes from.
By the way, rooibos tea is not real tea, because it is not made from the real tea plant.
Cederberg, the Arch and Cracks
The route from the Gifberg to the Cederberg is flanked by endless fields of orange trees and grape vines along the Olifants River. Everyone benefits from the river water. We are on our way to the Cederberg, a mountain area about 200 kilometers north of Cape Town. We understand that we can enjoy beautiful mountain hiking here, so we let ourselves be surprised.
We take a walk to “the Arch”. A challenging walk where we first climb 500 meters steeply. We regularly look back and enjoy the shrinking valley. But then we are suddenly faced with a choice...The narrow or the wide cracks. We choose the “narrow” route on the way out so that we can do the wide gorge on the way back.
From that moment on we crawl straight through the mountains, climb over rocks and then through the narrowest crevices. Breathtaking experience! Several times we have to take off our backpacks to conquer some passages.
When we get out of the crevice after an hour of climbing and crawling, we head for the next challenge. One of the most beautiful naturally formed arches…the Arch.
It's still quite a walk, but the feeling under the arch is phenomenal.
A nice moment to eat our sandwich.
On the way back we take the wider crack. Not as close but certainly as impressive.
We put this walk firmly in our imaginary top 5. Maybe number 1!
Cederberg, so much to experience
After we had recovered a bit from the walk, we continued exploring the area. We pass the isolated village of Wupperthal, once founded by two German missionaries. The people there live from small-scale agriculture, especially the cultivation of rooibos tea.
We also do two (shorter) walks. We go to the Disapools, great rock pools where we are the only ones to take a refreshing dip after a strenuous climb.
We also walk to the Middelberg Waterfall, an incredibly beautiful waterfall whose water is drinkable. We are happy to take advantage of that!
Cederberg Mountains has stolen our hearts a bit, we will not soon forget the fantastic views, the unimaginably beautiful rock formations, challenging walks and the pure unspoiltness.
Kaapstad
The city of South Africa? We can't judge it yet, but it is very pleasant to say the least.
Camping in and around Cape Town is challenging. There are no campsites, or they are far from the city. Wild camping is not allowed or simply unsafe. Initially we will stay at a campsite north of the city, about 45 minutes by car. The suburbs we see no longer have anything to do with the Africa of poverty and misery. No, great wealth here, translates into huge houses and big cars, expensive clothes and nice jobs. But because of crime, these houses must be shielded and monitored several meters high. We don't think that is wealth! We are invited by a white couple whom we had met before, for a typical African braai. Very nice, and it also gives us an insight into the (rich) life of this sweetest couple.
We are transported to 'Waterfront' by Uber taxi for next to nothing. The Waterfront is the area with various piers crammed with luxury (tourist) shops and cozy eateries. Because of the many languages you hear around you, you can be sure that you are in a real world city. But if you let white Cape Town residents know that they are from the Netherlands, they feel a connection. Afrikaans and Dutch are still so related that you can follow each other fairly easily.
Cape Town and its surroundings radiate wealth and organization. You will hardly find any rubbish on the street and everything is neatly laid out and cared for.
Later we move more into eastern suburbs where we also encounter a few slums and begging vagrants.
Cape Town, entertainment
The city is located at the foot of the world-famous Table Mountain. An icon that can be seen almost from every street corner. We thought that such a flat mountain was fairly unique, but we now know better. We have seen many of these types of mountains in Angola, Namibia, but also in other places. But its unique location and history have made it a huge tourist attraction.
Later we will climb the mountain.
There is a Ferris wheel in the Waterfront area. We think it would be nice to take a look at the immediate surroundings from above, if only to orient ourselves. For just under twenty euros we can participate in about 8 laps. We stop at the highest point and have a nice overview. Oh well, it was fun, but you don't have to do it again.
We take a nice walk along the coast, enjoy the crashing waves and have a view of Robben Island in the distance.
Back at Waterfront we are surprised in the sea aquarium, Two Oceans. Yes, two oceans, because the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet here south of South Africa.
The Atlantic Ocean is known here for its cold sea current and the Indian Ocean for its warmer water, which produces unique flora and fauna.
Underwater life is depicted in a fantastic way in this aquarium, with many species of fish and other unique creations. Definitely worth it!
We end the day with a drink on a terrace with friendly servers.
We continue our journey across the Cape Peninsula and visit various highlights there, but more about that in part 2.
