Remi on the Road

As mentioned in a previous blog, DNR in medical terms means Do Not Resuscitate, however this is a story about Daniel and Renata traveling through South Africa. This was Dan's second road trip with me and the only difference this time was that we were both visitors.

Cape Town has become my home for the past 6 months and sometimes I day-dream that it is still my home and I will return very soon. I fell in love with the city, the people, and once DnR traveled coast to coast, I fell in love with all of South Africa. Our travels only covered 3 of the 9 provinces: Western Cape, Eastern Cape and Kwazulu-Natal, but with less than 2 weeks as our time frame, I was happy to have witnessed approximately 3500 km of culture, nature, and beauty. I will try to capture each of the provinces through pictures and detailed descriptions however, forgive me if I fall short of the real deal.

Cape Town and near by attractions

November 2-9, 2011

Dan arrived to Cape Town on a Wednesday, November 2, 2011, much less hectic than our first reunion in Canada. I was only *10 minutes late this time as I waited at Domestic and not International arrival gates. This time I made sure to be 2 hours early and greet Dan on time, so I blame those 10 minutes on local airport assistance for misguiding me.

*Note: I was at the airport at 8:30AM. By 10:30AM I have asked 4 airport attendants to kindly double check: “if Air Singapore has landed, and if so, which door would people come through?” You see, they all told me: Ma'am, if the plane has a layover in Johannesburg, then he will come through the domestic arrivals doors." At 11:10AM I receive a text from Dan to tell me at he's waiting at the international arrival gates. I was off, running across the airport.

I had our first week planned to the max with activities within the city and surrounding areas. I was still in the midst of finishing my internship so we had to juggle work and play. My last day of work was Monday the following week, so we had the weekend to discover Cape Town and surrounding areas before starting our road trip on Nov 10th. There was a long list of adventures to cover in all of South Africa and I didn't want to leave any later than the 10th.

We spent the rest of the day unwinding, and introducing Dan to my apartment which he has only witnessed via skype. There was a general consensus by everyone who spoke with me through skype that my apartment looked as if I lived in an institution of some sort. Walls, furniture, sheets, kitchen stuff, all was white. Towels too. It was nice for him to finally see where I was hiding out for the past 6 months. And to say the least, I had fallen in love with everything else that was outside my apartment anyways :-)

Thursday, November 3 2011

I was lucky enough to find 50% off on helicopter tickets, and what better way to introduce Cape Town than from above. There is so much to show all at once, downtown, beaches, cliffs, markets, where would I even begin? So I really thought this was more strategic for us. By showing Dan what is out there from above, he can priorities on what to see as our time was limited.

To save our feet for later hikes and mountain climbing, I suggested we take the City Sightseeing bus. Again, this would give us an overview of Cape Town, and allow us to select places of interest. Of course, the wine tour at Constentia ended up consuming majority of our day. I still feel that we managed to cover majority of the city. We ended the day with dinner at my favourite Ethiopian place (suggested by a colleague and since then I have adopted as my regular spot). One of the chefs there loves to spoil me, just a light hesitation with the menu and the next thing we see is our table filled with wonderful Ethiopian, Congolese, and Kenyan dishes. With Dan we had about 6 dishes, all finger licking, since you consume them with your hands. But calling them delicious is an understatement. YUM!

Stuffed and satisfied, we stopped by my friends at the Green Elephant backpackers. There, a dear friend helped us figure out car rental. We were ready for a weekend road trip. Manual AND driving on the left, should be interesting (Dan's fine with it as his from a backwards country himself).

Friday, November 4, 2011

After Dan's delicious breaky, we picked up our rental car and drover over to a friend's place. Heidi and Mona were hanging out and together we decided we needed some food; off to Indian Bazar ! Bunny chow and peshwari, yum !

Having breaky and lunch back to back, I suggested that Dan and I take a stroll on the promenade at Sea Point. There is a nice story told via art statues on Freedom and South Africa finding one another over a long and difficult time. Of course, shell searching was also part of enjoying the beach.

The evening was, you guessed it, dinner at my most favourite place in Cape Town. This place requires a 3 week advance on reservations. I booked our spot as soon as Dan purchased his plane tickets. Bombay Bicycle Club was wonderful and enjoyed it with most of my lady friends, and Mike joined us a little later. After some great wine, food, and friends, Dan and I decided to hit up a concert at Trinity (very cool night club, shockingly racist girls stood near us at the entrance). Heidi suggested for us to go to the concert, but I knew of the band before hand (also from Heidi). Locals to South Africa, and some of the 'sickest' beats I have ever heard in a long time. Techno, house, with a mix of wonderful instruments like the saxophone, flute, a rapper, and some powerful female vocals. GoldFish is the bad and I highly recommend a listen for everyone.

Saturday, November 5, 2011

We are headed to Cape Point today, but we made stops where necessary. We only stopped for pictures in Muizenberg because surfing wasn't on our schedule today. Instead, we strolled around Boulders beach and visited the penguins. From there we drove straight to Cape Point because there was a long hiking ahead of us. We visited the lighthouse, the edge of the cliff, and from a distance I pointed out to Dan where we played frisbee on my last visit. Cape of Good Hope is a popular tourist attraction, so we only took our picture and continued with our driving in order to make it to Chapman's peak before sunset.

At Cape Point is where I became brave enough to try driving manual with my left hand. Since the roads are perfectly paved, and traffic is minimal I decide it's time to practice before the big road trip ! Dan was patient and encouraging. Within a few minutes we were off to Chapman's peak and this time Renata was driving ! We stayed near Chapman's peak, and watched the sun setting over Hout bay. Once we reach Camps bay and Clifton beaches it was dark, but there were fireworks being shot up everywhere. I yet to find out what was being celebrated on November 5th. Nice end to our day.

Oh, but not so easy now. We ended up eating Steers for dinner (South African McDonald's) because I had to get some things done extremely last minute. Not so fun for Dan, but it is always nice to experience local fast food.

Sunday, November 6, 2011

We missed beach frisbee but definitely made it for brunch ! Food doesn't ever seemed to be missed by Dan and I. Two hours later we decide that it's now or never for hiking one of the 3 mountains. Lion's head supposed to be the smallest of the 3, so I vote to hike that. Took us about one hour hiking up and 45 minutes down. From there we drove to Table Mountain and voted to take the cable cart both ways. Especially since they had a sun-set special for taking the cable cart. We ran around the top, trying to see everything before darkness took over. This night for dinner I ended up making red curry.

Monday, Nov 7, 2011

Today is my last day at the uni, and though I'm excited to see everyone I really don't want this internship to end just yet. I enjoyed working with my team and we are still in the process of getting things published. It was nice to have Dan with me and introduce him to people at UWC. We ended up staying for lunch and discussed some of our upcoming travel plans. After some gift exchange we said our good-byes and I still wasn't really ready to leave everyone but we drove away. We picked up Heidi and went to Camps bay to easy our seafood cravings and distract me from the day.

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

I had to get everything packed and cleaned up before tomorrow's apt inspection and key hand over. I had to get rid of extras and wanted Vafa to look through everything before giving away to a second hand store. Since Mona was over, we drove her to Heidi's and met John there for a last good-bye. He really wanted to meet up with Dan and I in J'burg, but unfortunately our busy schedule would not allow time for that. I took most of my stuff to Heidi's so the next day the apt would be clean and empty. Last dinner in Cape Town was at my regular place, Coco Wah Wah's with Alan and his roommate, plus a friend. Good-byes that go on for an entire week, suck so much !

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

It's finally CRICKET day, a surprise to Dan who also happened to be super sick on this day. Bummer! After the apt hand over and final good-byes from people there, and James and Jamie, we were off to the cricket at Newlands Cricket Ground. Here we meet up with one friend, Jason, to enjoy the game. My first cricket match ever, beautiful view of Devil's peak behind the cricket ground. I enjoyed the day, both sunny and windy, but Dan is not having a good time. Once he takes matters into his own hands, and after a few minutes to himself on the loo, he comes out much more alive. After the game we met up with Dan's friend for a few drinks.

One more sleep till our South African road trip !!!!

R :-)

Jonkershoek

This place is a dream land. It is filled with waterfalls and beautiful green rolling hills/mountains. On a sunny Saturday, seven of us ladies got together and headed for an all-day-hike among the hills of Jonkershoek which in Afrikaans I believe it means Young corner. Living in Cape Town, I managed to learn a bit of Afrikaans but not enough to navigate myself around town. I have spent great amount of time researching words which are repeated in many of the geographical areas or land marks.

However, I have also come up with my own definitions for these land marks which can be found in many of the suburbs and parks names: -bosch (meaning bush), -hoek (meaning corner), or -kloof (meaning cliff/mountain pass). But by definition from Afrikaans it translates a little differently.

Rodebosch, Kristenbosch - around the bush is what I get from Rodebosch, and the latter is a botanical garden's name

Jonkershoek, Fish Hoek, Franschhoek, - these are places which represent corners aka: hoek

Kloof street, Kloof - to me sounds like cliff, but in Afrikaans it actually means gorge

Living in Cape Town, you get used to hearing these endings quite frequently. Many of the suburbs, if not all, have an Afrikaans meaning to it. I loved trying to pick up the Akrikaaner accent however, most times I failed miserably. The only time it was life-saving to speak the accent was the mini-taxi stops (I don't remember if I ever blogged about these mini-taxis in Cape Town which hold almost 2x the maximum capacity, but I will definitely explain in another post). These taxis would stop at your request but it HAD to be those which were commonly used by locals. So, my most significant stop was home-bound at a store called Shoprite. Now, instead of pronouncing it in English, try the Afrikaans phonetic version: Shopraeit (I wish I could attach audio to my blogs at this time). Cape Town becomes Capetyion and get this, (Heidi you were right all along) Bellville becomes Pyelvol. It might be hard to phonetically imagine all of this if you have never been exposed to it, but to me it's music :-)

But back to hiking Jonkershoek. The beauty of this place is just magical. It's hard for me to look back at these pictures and believe that I was there. Hope that you enjoy a little taste of this magical land through some of my pictures.

Silvermine

A dear friend and I decided to hike Silvermine in search of the Elephant's eye. It's not an actual eye, but instead it is an amazing hole in the side of a mountain. After a little disoriented, and a sun which seemed to be setting faster than usual, we finally found the eye. We were both extremely glad that after our picnic with delicious cheese and wine we decided to continued our journey, not giving up on our set destination. We had faint hopes but only on our return we realized we hiked 1.5 hours extra, which could have been driven in 5 minutes, leading us to the eye that much sooner.

The day was wonderful, and we enjoyed the hike so nothing was lost by walking more :-)

Here are some pictures to prove our amazing day !