Pea Green

Our last day in Cape Town was a stunning summers day: really hot with not a breath of wind. Pulling into the carpark at Noordhoek we were confronted by a pea green sea coloured somewhere between mauritius and hawaii. A sincere goodbye from dearest Cape Town being that the water temperature was only 11C!

Any road trip through the Cape demands certain stops and Vic Bay is definitely one. Testing my new fins on a frothmonster (thanks Baza they work!) before heading inland.

Leaving Plett we headed along Route 62, back to Cape Town. R62 twists and winds its way through tones of Karoo nothingness before opening out into tale end of the Cape wine route. We skipped stopping at Montagu or Robertson (which didnt seem particularly interesting), but spent the night at the Du Toits pass.

R62: soul search somewhere between here and nowhere.

A late afternoon beer in a tunnel, seemed to make sense at the time.

Post-Karoo winelands and mountains.

An early start the next day took us on a stroll through the mountains up a deserted (baboons dont count?) gorge for a quick swim before hitting Franschhoek for some wine tasting.

Du Toits kloof is only about 1hr out of Cape Town.

The heat wasnt enough to keep us in this lovely pool for very long.

Fraschhoek about to get even sweeter...

Nothing better than pink champers at 

11am (unless you are the driver), a delicious lunch at Le Petit Ferme and an awesome ending at Vrede en Lust (thanks for the free bottle of wine!). 

We still had itchy feet, so instead of hanging out in Cape Town we turned North up the West Coast and into the Cederberg for a couple of days of nothingness hoping to score waves before moving away from the coast.

 

Not much goes on out here, yet the possibilities seem endless...

Ebay wasnt really on, but it was great to surf some lefts again and relive memories of trips years ago. 

Driving through the Karoo had already blown our mind, but we still werent prepared for what awaited us at Traveller's Rest. Our drive in from Clanwilliam lead us over valleys passes littered with rockfigures and fynbos to our cottage in the middle of a wide open plane, a small damn and nothing else. At night the lack of noise was so intense that every single sound woke us.

Pass up from Clanwilliam.

Even way after the spring flower season the fynbos was incredible!

Our cottage at Travellers Rest... 

...and the solitary view. 

During our time there we walked one of the historic bushmen trails exploring some of the caves, habitats, kraals and hunting grounds of these nomadic people. Fearing too much culture, we quickly headed back and cooked some meat on fire not once considering the possible irony.

One of many bushmen paintings in the area which date back between 1000 and 2000 years, unfortunately deteriating with age and constant weathering.

We also drove out to the old missionary station, Wuppertal. It boggles the mind to think how people ever reached this valley in the first place, but also explains why the town still seems to be living in the previous century. Unfortunately, the veldskoen factory was closed but we could peak through some holes in the windows at the old machinery that was being used.

This endless dirt road running across valleys and over passes eventually brought us quaint Wuppertal and the shoe factory.

Back at our cottage enjoying another mandatory wood braai.

Once back in cape town and surviving that last frigid pea green surf, we returned our faithful rental car after 4 weeks, several thousand kms on the clock, a few kgs of beach sand, karoo and cederberg dust, 1 flat tyre, a cracked windscreen and a floppy fuse box which kept dangling in front of the brake (not so good for stopping!), boarded our plane and flew back to Zurich.

Our 4 weeks in South Africa was incredible, but also seem to be over as soon as it began. Simone and I are back in Zurich today with our bags already packed to leave for Los Angeles tomorrow morning...  

12'000 ft

Attempting to describe how getting married felt, would be the same as trying to explain how it felt the first time we went skydiving: intense emotions and time passing way too fast.

Newlyweds welcome welcome mojito. 

On the day of our wedding we were woken at 5.30am by the sunshine happily burning into our room. After 6 months of planning the last thing that we wanted was a rained out ceremony.

Despite our nerves, everything turned out perfect and we could share an incredible day with our friends and family. 

Anticipation.

The skydiving mission that unfolded 2 days after we had recovered from the party was another event that none of us will forget easily. Jumping from 12000 ft gives about 45 seconds of free fall (covering the first 7000 ft) and reaching a top speed of 220km/h before my tandem buddy Jeff pulled the chute. 

Adrenalinized birds-eye-view.

SkyTeam: Simone, Peter, Felix, Tatiana, Cornelia, Tobbe, Genie & Max.

The next day we did a hit-and-run up to Addo to meet up with Simone's family and share their first gaming experiences. We were a bit concerned that our trip to Kruger earlier this year might have lessened Addos charm. Despite the thicker bush, we still managed to get our fare share of incredible animal action. 

If you went to Addo and didn't see Elephants you are probably blind. These were 3 of about 100 that we saw. 

I'm thinking biltong.

Breath mint anyone?

At the end of our first drive we had a spectacular show by a group of Zebra either playing a funny game, or trying to kick the shit out of one another. It wasn't clear exactly which. Just before leaving the park the next day, when we thought that we had seen it all, we took a wrong turn and found Mr. Lion at the side of the road smiling sweetly. 

An empty road promising new adventures...

Cool sandcliff reminding us how much we love biking. 

All in all, Addo did not let us down, but gave us new reasons to come back especially discovering the awesome southern parts of the park where the vegetation and landscape change.

Back in Keurbooms with our friends and family gone, we have been enjoying the last few days in paradise before heading back towards Cape Town.

1 down, 1 to go...

friends and family sharing sunny skies, 

a pineapple, a pinotage and pie (or two),

black labels, biltong and wood braais,

our 1st week in SA has flown by!

(sorry, nothing rhymes with the GP number plates on our rental)

Cape Town is a city of  colourful emotion and excitement.

After arriving in CPT and a quick dash through Cavendish (a final attempt to find rings) we headed off down the coast heading for Keurbooms. First stop Mossel Bay.

"da is net twee dinge..." and this is the third and its called mossel bay.

mossels always delivers: offshore, empty but seals and a racy inside section at outer pool.

We spent most of this week finalizing arrangements for the big day, choosing flowers, vows and wine. Thinking that everything would go according to plan would have been foolish. But still we were surprised when we discovered that our beach venue for the ceremony simply wasn't. It had been washed away by a storm several weeks before, not particularly convenient...

yes, it wasn't difficult choosing Plett as the scene for the crime: welcome to paradise!

Despite being early summer, the south coast has been lit up by a series of low pressure fronts, bring cranking surf down the coast. So in between planning we have been rewarded with a couple of cooking sessions around Plett.

sometimes the grass is greener: an empty peak cries for friends, and we gladly answer.

everyone said saturday, and for once they were mostly correct.

slipping through the inside sandslab at Lookout during the afternoon session.

So 1 more week to go...

life in the fast lane: enjoying sunnies at the end of the day.