Winter whinge; my loser husband; cycling for svelteness; surf ’n’ turf birthday barbie; hallelujah for Phase 3!
Though there’s still a fair amount of sunshine, the weather has drastically cooled here in WA. We set off on our often blustery morning bike-ride to Mullaloo in temperatures of 13°C or 14°C; it might rise to 20°C or so by lunchtime, and in the wee hours it can on occasion drop as low as 8°C.
The Land Down Under; All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go; Goodbye Z4, Hello Volvo CX 40; Stayin’ Alive; The End of the World as We Know it; Blue Skies Through the Tears
Bursting with travel plans for the rest of 2020, Roy and I arrived in Perth WA on 21 February from South Africa. (For the record, we’d come via Paris, Roy’s niece Charlie’s London wedding, a couple of days with my sister Dale and her family in Kent, and then six nights in Singapore.)
Summer in the city; activist art in Parliament Lane; MCC and munchies at the Mount Nelly; exquisite Italian at Villa 47; beach babes at Table View; vineyard lunch at Chef’s Warehouse Beau Constantia
Another flawless morning dawned in Cape Town – how lucky we were with the weather this whole time! From our holiday apartment at 27 Leeuwen Street, it was only a short walk to Greenmarket Square.
Not having visited the CBD for some years, it was initially a shock to see refugees encamped against the walls of venerable St George’s Cathedral.
The character of the market, too, seemed to have changed considerably. I remembered a more eclectic selection of wares; now it was mainly African crafts and curios.
As the sign in the photo above reflects, the foreigners fear for their lives in the townships – or “the community”- where it seems that the tougher life becomes, the worse the zenophobia.
Delaire Graff for delish wine-tasting and decadent diamonds; Boschendal for Dutch-gabled perfection; Franschhoek for a fabulous lunch and a motor museum
Accommodation agent Stay Amazing – through which we’d booked the Cape Town apartment (see Part One) – also operates wine tours.
Over dinner the previous night at La Perla – our first decent meal in Cape Town – our Capetonian foodie friend Karin Jenkins had suggested a one-day itinerary to introduce Californians Ellie and Steve to the Cape Winelands.
Staying Amazing in the Mother City; horrible hire-car from the Woodford wallies; dire dinner at the V&A Waterfront; Camps Bay, Llandudno and the 12 Apostles; seal-smooching at scenic Hout Bay; climbing Cape Point; Italian feast at La Perla, Seapoint
You would never visit South Africa for the first time and not go to Cape Town, the Mother City. So, after an equally unmissable safari escapade together at Nambiti Big 5 Game Reserve, Ellie, Steve, Roy and I boarded a two-hour afternoon flight to Cape Town from Durban’s King Shaka International Airport.
Through Stay Amazing, we’d booked a three-bedroom apartment at 27 Leeuwen Street. Level 16 is the penthouse level – look at our view of Table Mountain!
For our Californian friends Ellie and Steve Campbell’s first African adventure, going on safari was a must. Fortunately, KwaZulu-Natal province has some of the country’s best game reserves for spotting the Big 5* (leopard, lion, rhino, elephant and buffalo), and they’re all a 2.5 to 3 hour drive from our Umhlanga Rocks home.
Hluhluwe-Imfolozi is one we’ve visited occasionally over the years, and possibly the most popular; Phinda perhaps the most high-end; iSimangaliso (previously the St Lucia Wetland Park) is on the Elephant Coast near the Mozambique border; as a child, I went there with my parents.
Several good hotels and spas are to be found in the green and pleasant Midlands of KwaZulu-Natal. The newest and shiniest of these is Brahman Hills, designed for weddings and conventions but also geared for girly getaways.
A few days after Verne’s Big Birthday Bash* at the Oyster Box Hotel in Umhlanga, sister Dale and our mutual BFF Julie tore me from the bosom of assembled family and friends for a magnificent Midlands Meander birthday treat. (Click here, here, here, here and here – what, so many? – for posts on previous meanderings.)
(*Scroll down to the end for a whole lot of party photos, if you feel so inclined. Plus a gratuitous video of the author busting a move.)
Sampling an authentic local curry is a must on the itinerary of any first-time visitor to Durban. With our Californian friends Ellie and Steve due to arrive in a couple of weeks, it behoved us to suss out the best place to take them.
First up, with daughter Wendy as the third member of the judging panel, we drove 20 minutes north from Umhlanga, Durban to the Sea Belle at Desainagar Beach, Tongaat, traditionally an Indian area. Mostly, the place came to mind because my sister Dale – also due to join us soon from London – had mentioned an ardent desire for its famous prawn curry.
Triple visa challenge; one night in an Athens jail; Japie-friendly destinations and a wander down Memory Lane; a toast to travel in 2020
Arriving in my home town of Durban a couple of months ago was not the time to kick back and relax, as Roy sternly reminded me. I had to get cracking on the three visas I required for our 2020 travels: Australia, France and the UK.
Rhotacism: can you say your r’s properly?; Yo ho ho – get thee to a rummery, go; The Residence Mauritius
A rhumerie is of course a place where rum is made. And the reason I wanted to start this post with Chamerel Rhumerie is that it was probably the highlight of our visit to the Indian Ocean island state of Mauritius.
