African Getaways - Travels with Verne and Roy

Cape Town with the Campbells Part Three: The City and Constantia, 1-2 February

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.

Ellie, the shopping machine, in Greenmarket Square

Cape Town with the Campbells Part One: 29-30 January

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!

Incredibly, the sky stayed this blue for three days!

Nambiti Big 5 Game Reserve with the Campbells, 24-27 January

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.

Brahman Hills and Verne’s Big Birthday Bash, 17-22 January 2020

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.)

Five Days in Mauritius, 16-21 October

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.