Two Oceans, Two Capes & Christmas in Cape Town!

Since arriving in the Republic of South Africa (RSA) in November we have explored by car and also sailed 800 miles around the coast from Richard's Bay in KwaZulu Natal to Cape Town in the Western Cape and we have been enthralled by the wildlife, amazed by the scenery and enjoyed great hospitality and friendliness where ever we have been. Our week in Knysna (silent K, y =eye) was wonderfully relaxing as we took no major outings and limited ourselves to exploring the charming resort town, as well as doing the usual boat maintenance chores, laundry and cleaning.

We were berthed directly on the pontoon by the yacht club, where the Commodore Mike was very friendly and welcoming, and we berthed for free. For us, the prices in RSA, are very reasonable for everything that is produced in Africa. Some imported goods are expensive and fuel is moderately priced, there are some very smart housing developments but townships still exist which have very different standards of living. In Knysna, Scott became friends with a young guy living aboard his yacht and they went dinghy sailing a few times in the lagoon, which was fun for him. We visited several local restaurants, including the Turbine Hotel on Thesen Island. Formerly, the power station for the saw mill, which used the waste wood chippings to produce electricity, the hotel has been designed around the dynamos and engines. It really was fascinating.

In fact we liked it so much we finished our third road trip in Knysna, driving back from the Cape of Good Hope with Laura and Scott and enjoying a dinner out together in this unique place. Exiting Knysna by sea through the heads was white knuckle stuff, the advice we had from Mike was to stick to the West side of the channel, “close enough to pick mussels off the rocks”! We duly followed his good advice, hoping and praying that our efforts to clean the fuel in our tank had worked. We had been having issues with the revs dropping and the engine cutting out due to dirty fuel, not something you want to happen in a narrow tidal channel with seas breaking onto craggy rocks! When we visited a couple of weeks later our guest house had a wonderful view of the lagoon and you can see the gap through the "Knysna heads" on the left at the back, and the yacht club is the white building mid left of the picture, Thesen island is between the two.

pOur next port of call was Hout Bay, 20 miles south of Cape Town and a 36 hour sail from Knysna. We passed the most southern point of the African continent which is Cape Agulhas and then rounded the promontory of the Cape of Good Hope. It was a dark, rainy, gloomy passage and frankly cold, we had planned to round the Cape of Good Hope at dawn but due to weather conditions we could only just make out the spectacular scenery and high mountains as the sun rose behind it. I did not even see the lighthouse and was not sure if that was due to load shedding, as the power cuts due to limited electricity are called. R.S.A. has so many positive aspects and resources; climate, farming, wine, a reasonable cost of living but the politics remain a struggle. Although it seems it is better than in other countries, we have talked to various immigrants from Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Somalia, who make a better living working in the service industry, taxi drivers, waiting staff, even road side sellers in RSA. The most obvious and impactful practice is the load shedding. The electric is turned off completely for up to 4 hours at a time, sometimes more than once a day (four times a day at worst). An example is on our first night of the road trip, we were given oil lamps in the bar and dim torches for the bedrooms from 8 pm until midnight. Industry, restaurants and residential areas are all included, some have generators but their seems little evidence of sustainable power from solar or turbines and we heard talk of investment for these projects disappearing into political pockets! We made the most of the situation and enjoyed an atmospheric family music night!

Having rounded the Capes we headed to Hout Bay, 20 miles south of Cape Town where we arrived at first light and were blasted by strong katabatic winds, greeted by a pod of dolphins and then surrounded by Cape Seals, which appear more similar to Sea Lions than our Northern Seals. They are amusing and noisy creatures and this one was reluctant to move over so we could get off the boat!

Hout Bay is a fishing harbour and seaside resort on the City Sightseeing bus route. So we hopped on a double decker and the first place we visited was Llandudno, which of course made us smile! We hadn’t come as far as we thought! We drove through Cape Town along the front and around table mountain before we alighted at Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens. Here we enjoyed a late lunch and a few hours wondering around these gorgeous grounds.

Things I miss living on board a boat are my garden and visiting our local botanical gardens, at Bodnant. We enjoyed our visit to Kirstenboch so much that we booked tickets for a carol service on their concert lawn on the Sunday after Laura had arrived from the UK.

Richard and I made use of the hire car and visited the Cape of Good Hope peninsular in daylight. It was a spectacular drive, initially the geography was reminiscent of the Great Orme but much bigger and although we did see goats we also saw penguins, ostriches and a tortoise on our outing.

We finished the day with a wine tasting in Constantia where we purchased the sparkling wine ready for Christmas Day. After collecting Laura, the four of us headed east through the magnificent mountain pass at Huguenout, visited the Caves of the Origin of Man in Mossel Bay, enjoyed a morning game drive where we had a close encounter with a rhino and eventually finished in Knysna.

It took us 2 days to reach Knysna but we drove back in 9 hours completing the loop along route 62 through magnificent scenery, hop fields, apricots and vineyards, also visiting the famous Ronnie’s Sex Shop, which is actually a roadside bar with an odd name. The hardest part of writing my blog is selecting the photographs as one of each place isn't enough!

We were all exhausted when we got back to Celtic Star late on Thursday 22nd so we had a day of rest mooching about Hout Bay and enjoying the local Springboky shots in the yacht club. Springbokys are Creme de Menthe topped with a delicious Baileys type cream liquor called Amarula, rather good. It was on Christmas eve that we cast off from Hout Bay and we made the 4 hour sail to the V&A waterfront at Cape Town, we saw two types of dolphins and many Cape seals playing and jumping as we drove up the coast, but we were too late in the season to see whales. However, it was very exciting to finally approach Cape Town harbour front under the iconic Table Mountain, Lions Head and Signal Hill and proceed into the renowned V&A waterfront area.

Christmas breakfast was enjoyed at a waterfront hotel and then we joined Anne and Dave from Amazing Grace and their delightful family, 3 grown up children and 5 grandchildren at a stunning 8 bedroom villa on the slopes of the Lions Head. It was a wonderful and very different Christmas. Richard and I were up early on Boxing day and in need of some exercise, so we climbed Signal Hill, which took just over an hour. Once at the top we were pondering on which route down, and paragliding tandem was the quickest and most fun method so we went for it! It was certainly a different Boxing Day experience and we still got a good hours walk back from Sea Point where we landed along the sea front development. The following day we jumped back aboard the City Sightseeing bus to tour the towns and vineyards of Stellenbosch, Franschoek and Paarl for wine tasting, cheese and chocolate pairings!

These were all beautiful old colonial towns and impressive wine estates, but soberingly, we also visited the site of the Victor Verster prison where Nelson Mandela spent is final years in captivity having been transferred from Robben Island. At this prison gate he ended his "long walk to freedom" on 11th February 1990, aged 71. He was first incarcerated at the age of 46.

After all the indulgences of the past few weeks our waistlines have expanded significantly so we set off to burn a few calories by visiting Table Mountain. Although we did get the cable car up, the walk down was also strenuous, challenging and vertiginous all the way and we had sore legs for days afterwards.

The top of the mountain was wonderful, once away from the bar and restaurant area, there were paths and flora was fascinating, the views breath taking, plus we were fascinated by a fog harvesting station!

Laura and Scott flew home for New Year and we have a week of preparation, abstinence and recovery before recommencing our circumnavigation on 7th January 2023, when we leave Cape Town and head north to Namibia.

We have come along way since returning and relaunching Celtic Star in the remote atoll of Apataki, French Polynesia, seven months ago! 12491 nm to be precise, 26862 since leaving Deganwy in July 2019. Our plan in May was to try to get as far as Fiji which we managed to do with Laura’s help. Following that we made it to Australia in August and as the boat and both us were performing well we re-joined the World Arc Rally which departed from Darwin on 6th of September. We have continued to have an interesting and challenging time crossing the Indian Ocean and already had a great sense of achievement after crossing the Indian Ocean and relief as we came around the Cape and re entered the Atlantic Ocean.

We only have to cross it twice more to get home, bizarrely we cross the South Atlantic in the same direction as we crossed the. North Atlantic back in 2019, heading west as we have all the way around. Laura pointed out that we are now only 2 hours ahead of GMT not 13 when in Fiji.