South Africa - 2019

Tabletop Wine Safari

Tabletop is the really cool mountain that overlooks Capetown, there is a cable-car but I wanted something a bit more original. So we found https://www.durbanvillehills.co.za/buying-tasting/table-mountain-wine-safari/ which is basically a dude in an Safari truck, a pile of food and wine that takes you up the mountain.

When we went it ended up just being the two of us, we chilled out for a few hours, pounded wine and as people came up over the hill having walked up with on their own, or with animals. They were offered a glass of wine, water, something to eat and we chatted for a bit.

Robben Island

Totes Emots, and I am not even kidding (I think that is what the kids used to say), but going to where Mandela was held was fascinating and some of the former inmates are back and give tours.

Emotionally wrenching, strong recommend.

Stoney Point Nature Reserve

The Jackasses move around a little, but when we saw them they were at https://www.capenature.co.za/reserves/stony-point-nature-reserve. It was pulling in there that we first saw the wild primates.

Safari - Buffelsdrift / Botlierskop

Botlierskop Game Reserve - https://www.botlierskop.co.za/

https://buffelsdrift.com/ - This is where we did our Glamping https://buffelsdrift.com/accommodation/#Waterhole

So we had a fantastic time, but we picked these spots as we were spending our time in Capetown and had taken too short a trip. These were a reasonable drive from the town, and we still got to see 4 of the African big five. Of course, the great cat we saw, was taking a nap under a bush, so we mainly got to see its underside :) If you have more time, or are going to be leaving from Jo’Berg I am sure you will have 1,000,000 other options.

As we mentioned, we could not mistake the stars in the sky for the ones in the pond, as our pond had hippos in it. But it was really wild, we went to our “tent”, and then walked back for dinner. On that walk Bontebok or Gnu were just meandering along.

I was a bit worried about the “walking with elephants” as I feared it could be a bit exploitative, or could lead to mistreatment of the animals. In this place it 100% was not the case, one of the Elephants was in a bit of a mood, so it just went off with a handler to get fed and not interact with us idiots. I think Jess kept that top unwashed for a year, where it had the dust makes from the elephant trunks.

Had never seen an Ostrich pee/poop before, so I felt you would love to see that image :)

ML Recommendations

https://theoldbiscuitmill.co.za/ - This was great, do you miss “white people doing brunch” in DC, but this time with food you have not seen before. Pondo told us about this place (so not stealing credit) and we enjoyed it.

The Village Idiot - Bar https://thefirmct.co.za/the-village-idiot

Who are you going to listen to here, of course it is MaryLee and of course this place was a blast.

Other Stuff

District 6 museum was a short stumble from our hotel, wanna be reminded how much Apartheid sucked, this place is fascinating. https://www.districtsix.co.za/

Definitely talk to ML, I am sure she will have 100 recommendations that we missed, in particular the last wine place we went to was one she had recommended and it was great. Rooms were booked up when we looked at it, but that would have been the way to go. It might have been Boschendal, but for some reason at that point in the day my ability to keep track of places was impaired :)