Über Hermanus und Betty's Bay nach Camps Bay

Wednesday 20.1.2016

In the morning it is somewhat cloudy and it is lucky that we can still take a warm shower. Because of the enormous wind, the electricity for the whole town had to be shut off somewhere central. Our hostess conjures up coffee on a gas stove and the omelette turns into scrambled eggs and tastes absolutely delicious.

The somewhat strange couple from yesterday are the only other guests and they turn out to be very nice and talkative. They live half a year in Toronto and the other half in South Africa. He was born here, she has Dutch roots. We talk about school systems (he was a teacher) and refugees in Europe.

At half past nine we loaded our luggage back into the car and set off towards Struisbaai. We want to take another look at the rays there, but they continue to hide and the town's factotum with the dachshund, who was sitting so beautifully on the small pier yesterday, is not there either.

So we drive again on the endless country road to Bredasdorp, refuel there and turn onto R316 - shortly afterwards we drive through Napier. A pretty little town with cute shops and beautiful facades. Renzo, the manager of the Hillsnek Lodge, had raved about it. A few kilometers further we drive over a small pass, while everything was brown and barren before and red earth was visible up to the horizon, behind this pass we now have trees along a river, lots of green and vineyards and wine cellars again.

By half past 11 we are in Hermanus, find a parking space and walk towards the water. Hermanus is located on top of the cliffs and during whale season, you can apparently see lots of whales with the naked eye here, as they stay in the bay of Hermanus to mate.

Hermanus

The couple from this morning recommended Bientang's Cave, a restaurant located directly in the cliffs at water level. It offers a great view and the water is practically splashing onto the table.

Espresso, iced coffee - the prices here are significantly different than in other places J We take a short walk through the town, visit a small market, and get shoulder bags as additional hand luggage called "handbag", which is actually bigger than a handbag... I also buy a beautifully polished large seashell and a handmade wooden bowl made of mukwa wood. The tree is used to make furniture and utensils, it is so hard inside that it cannot be attacked by termites. Beautiful reddish-yellow wood.

We continue our journey at 3 pm towards Betty's Bay. Just behind the town, which is more of a collection of large scattered houses, there is a colony of African Jackass penguins. For an entrance fee of 10 Rand, you walk along a wooden walkway in the nasty wind, passing hundreds of penguins lazily sitting in the sun.

Juveniles molting

Some are year-old animals, which can be recognized by their gray faces. Surviving a year at sea is quite an achievement for a penguin. They come here and many are molting and look chubby and fluffy. Then they have to stay on land for 4-6 weeks, as their matted feathers do not repel water. That means they also have to endure without food.

Further along the walkway, there are lots of black cormorants sitting on high rocks, of which there are apparently only 5,000 left in the world.

And there are countless rock dassies hopping around here and lazily lying between the rocks. Interestingly, they are not called rock dassies here, but dung dropping dassies :-)

In the end, we have many photos and are windblown, and we are now in the midst of an absolutely beautiful drive. On our left is the False Bay, and behind every curve there is a new view of endless, wide bays, steep slopes, and blue sea.

So much more beautiful than Chapmans Peak Drive! The surf in many bays prevents swimming here as well, and the beaches are practically deserted.

Here, you should stand and watch whales - that would be a dream! Every 500m along the road, there are lay-bys for whale-watching, so that people don't stop in the middle of the highway.

We soon notice the proximity of Cape Town from holiday resorts with ugly high-rise buildings, but also from the silhouette of Table Mountain, which has some clouds around its head.

In Cape Town, we drive to Kloof Street to a shopping center to check a health food store there for the Healing Earth shower gel that we found at the Hillsnek Lodge. According to the internet, there are only a few stores that offer it, and this health food store is listed. It takes a while until we finally find a parking space, and then the selection of Healing Earth products is so limited that they don't have what we are looking for. After 10 minutes, we are back on the road and now we are stuck in traffic towards Table Mountain and struggle up the hill, only to go down on the other side to get to Camps Bay.

When we arrive at the Lemon Tree Cottage, the wind is unbelievable and you have to hold the car door firmly with both hands when you get out.

Lemon Tree Cottage in Camps Bay

The accommodation is great. Huge rooms, great bathroom, the whole house is super modern with enormously high ceilings. Small garden with pool. Suki, the house dog, is currently wearing a collar due to some surgical corrections. However, she good-naturedly enjoys getting petted.

We walk down the street towards the water in the relentless wind when a car stops next to us and the woman offers us a ride because it is too dangerous to walk around here in this wind. The 3-minute drive is of course comfortable, and on Philipp's advice, we go to Ocean's Blue and I can finally have my birthday meal.

The sun is setting dreamily over the sea.

Camps Bay

We dine extremely deliciously (baby klipfish) with super good white wine from Boschendal - the pretty winery we visited when we left Stellenbosch. Lazy and well-fed, we take a taxi back to the accommodation for a flat rate of 50 Rand. The wind is constantly raging, so you can't sleep with the window open.