Ken and Patrice
The 2006 trip
Below is the 2006 South African itinerary. Essentially it
reproduced much of our 2004 tour but with more time in
places we liked and much less "seeing every
sight".
Sunday 9/4: Brussels-Frankfurt,
Frankfurt-Jo'burg.
Monday 10/4: Arrival. Pick up
car. Get out of Jo'burg. To Malkerns in Swaziland and
the very comfortable Foresters' Arms.
Stay two nights and eat and drink too well.
Wednesday 12/4: Head for
Bergville in the Drakensberg mountains and the Sandford Park Hotel for
three nights and two days of serious hikes. The hotel fine
but less good than we had remembered.
Saturday 15/4: A really long
drive, with 7.30 start, to Die Tuishuise in Cradock.
Get there very early in the afternoon against
everybody's advice on the odds. Stay again in the
best hotel in the world, where you get
your own whole house, unfortunately only for one night. A
great meal is provided in the convivial main hotel with
fresh flowers in abundance and a particularly gracious
hostess. Took the opportunity to visit the more fashionable
Graaff
Reinet and discover that Lennons were there, in terms
of an omnipresent pharmacy.
Sunday 16/4: To vicinity of
Addo Elephant
Park and stay in Chrislain B&B for
two nights. Weather bad. Elephants hiding. Many cars get
stuck on unmetalled roads but our bottom of the line VW
Chico gets through when permitted!
Tuesday 18/4: Headed to the
coast. Stayed at Mossel Bay very cheaply in a train by the beach
with the backpackers. For a railway enthusiast some great
SA numberplates on display.
Wednesday 19/4: To Stellenbosch.
Stay in De
Oude Meul in the center of town for two nights. Wine
tasting already started on the way there. Nice meal one
night in the Stellenbosch
Hotel.
Friday 21/4: Two nights in the
Mooikelder in Paarl, visiting Franschoek again on the way.
While the town of Paarl, apart from wineries, might be
missed, the Mooikelder is
something special - an ex-Rhodes domaine with most pleasant
hosts.
Sunday 23/4: To Cape Town taking
in
Groot Constantia again and the Victoria and Alfred
waterfront mall, with a fine meal at our favourite
Ocean Basket. Stayed in the Airport Lodge - very
functional, apart from the usually absent wake up call, for
a 7 a.m. flight home.
Wineries visited and sampled:
Boschendal,
Simonsig, Vergelegen, Fairview (great
athmosphere with the goats and friendly pourers), Ridgeback, KWV (hard
to find), Muratie
(special), Delheim,
Delaire,
Franschhoek
Vineyards, Nederburg, La Motte,
Kanonkop, Blaauwklippen, Groot
Constantia, Seidelberg, plus a few
unrecorded others.
Go to
Lennon Ltd., Chemist, South
Africa page
Skip to Sri Lanka
trip page
Return
to main South Africa page
Or go
to data for the index to Lenn*n
entries.
Alternatively, go to my
railwayana.com pages
for Irish railway data
Or even, go to my railwayana auction price pages
