A Traveler's Photo Journal

March 5^th;  The Cederbergs to Cape Town

Bushman's Kloof open air breakfast

A weaver attending to its nest.

Very reluctantly, after an early morning breakfast on the open air patio watching the weavers dart in and out of their nests, we packed our bags, loaded up the bikes and bid farewell to Bushman’s Kloof.  We both wished we had more time at the resort, but the bikes were due back in Cape Town by 5 pm and everyone told us that it was a five hour drive back to Cape Town on the direct road, and of course we didn’t want to take the direct road.  We had planned our route to head south initially, and then to turn west towards the coast, and then south again on R 27, through the West Coast National Park and into Cape Town.

Packing up the bikes for our last day of riding.

The bikes in front of reception at Bushman's Kloof.

Ready to hit the road.

We left Bushman’s Kloof at 8 am, on schedule.  We had to backtrack on the 8 km of dirt road, then the R 364 to the N7.  More backtracking southbound until we saw the town sign we were looking for at the bottom of the pass, and turned towards the west.

The red dirt road from Bushman's Kloof the main road.

Me and my little red F650 on our last day of riding.

My sister and her little orange F650.

We had to come through the same construction on the pass and one lane areas that we had driven through on our way northbound.  At the bottom of a one lane construction site, a tanker driver first in line pulled over and motioned the entire line of cars past him, and then continued up the hill.  Both my sister on her bike and I honked and waved in thanks for the kind gesture.  Personally, I have seen more courteous driving practices here than back in my home state of Florida.  We were both warned, prior to our arrival, of how dangerous it would be to rent bikes and ride from Cape Town around the Western Cape (ok, so the warnings may have been part of the draw to do it.)  We are both convinced that only people who have not been to this area would think like that.  Our experience here has proven otherwise.  The roads are cleaner, the drivers more courteous and the road crews more prolific than what we see back home.  We were treated with respect and kindness at all our stops, even just for fuel.

The bikes along R 364.

We enjoyed the drive south, and the area around the westward turn.  The scenery started out with red rocks and baboons, and turned into rolling hills, small towns and farmland.  We stopped for fuel in Velddrif and then turned due south along the coast.  Unfortunately for us, the winds were terribly strong, and would stay that way nearly all the way into Cape Town.  In Langebann we pulled over for fish and chips at a roadside take out place.   It was true road food, greasy and filling.

Entering the West Coast National Park.

Inside the West Coast National Park.

Shortly after our lunch stop, we left the main highway to take the alternate through the West Coast National Park.  This area is mostly known for its Spring flowers, and the land was rolling sand hills and scrub, but not terribly scenic in the autumn months.  We did see some Ostriches, tortoises, and nice beaches and the Atlantic Ocean, but we continued without stopping.   We reconnected with R 27 and again were headed due south.  The last two hours of our ride were mostly battling strong winds.  It takes a lot out of a rider to brace against not only the forward relative wind of the bike, but also a strong crosswind.  By the time we reached Cape Town I was utterly exhausted, but I still hated to see the bike go.  I could have spent another week exploring the area on that sweet little F650, and was very sad to turn it in.   But we did.  We dropped off the bikes and took at taxi to the Avis rental car office and picked up a car for the last three days.  It really wasn’t too hard to switch driving from the right side of the road to the left, but it was harder to do in the rental car than the bike.  I had a mantra that I chanted every time I had to make a turn or change lanes “Look right, keep left.”  It really worked.  The hardest part of all was using my right hand to signal a turn.  I kept turning on the windshield wipers instead of signaling a turn.  Eventually, after about one full day, I got the hang of it.

We drove the hour out of town to our home for the next three nights, The Elephant Lodge in Franschhoek.  Franschhoek is the gourmet food capital of the Western Cape, if not all of South Africa, and also known for its historic vineyards and wineries.  That is why I chose it for our last three days, with good food and wine in mind.  We arrived at the lodge at 6 pm, with the wind howling so strong it was hard to stand straight up. It felt cool too, up in the mountains.  We checked in and decided to get a quick meal at a pub and call it a night.  It took a lot out of us to battle winds for so long on the bikes.  We got a pizza and some local wine at the Elephant and Barrel Pub on the main street of Fronschhoek, then headed back to our comfortable room at the Elephant Lodge.

Our room at The Elephant Lodge.

March 3rd;  Inverdoorn to the Cederberg Mountains:

A cactus flower at Inverdoorn, near the Tankwa-Karoo National Park.

Loading up the bikes in the morning.

This was taken at about 730 am before leaving Inverdoorn. We found that between 6 am and 8 am, and 6 pm and 7 pm were the best times to take photos.

We left Inverdoorn early, 8 am.  We had experienced the warmest temperatures so far here, in the Karoo, and the coolest hours to ride were the early hours.  The first 15 km were gravel and we wanted to get that part over with.

We backtracked along R356 to R46 and headed west.  The town of Ceres was a large orchard growing, fruit packing town.  We descended into Ceres, and saw the “low gear” sign for trucks.

My sister on her BMW f650, overlooking Ceres.

The "low gear" sign before descending into Ceres.

From Ceres we took R46 through some passes, past olive and wine farms and along the Groot Winterhoek Wilderness area.  The first time I saw a “Baboons in the road” sign I thought it was funny.  We saw the sign a few more times, but no baboons.  We started to disregard the warning.  As we headed north on R44 we passed through a few more passes.  I had just passed some cars and accelerated to 120 km in order to have some fun on the curving pass road when I rounded a corner and saw not just one or two, but an entire troop of baboons in the middle of the road.  I braked hard and maneuvered around them like cones on an autocross track, while they seemed unfazed by my bike, my sister’s bike behind me, and the cars behind us.  From then on, I took the baboon warning sign much more seriously.  I later asked one of our guides why I hadn’t seen any dead baboons in the road.  He said in the 10 years he’d driven in the area he had seen only one hit on the road, and that they are quick and agile and you would have to really try to hit one.  (I really wanted a photo of the baboon warning sign, but each time we came upon it, the location was too dangerous to pull over).

We followed R44 northbound, passing Portersville, until we connected with the larger N7, where we hit major road construction.  We saw quite a few road works projects, and they seemed to handle the traffic and delays rather well.  The road was down to one lane, and the traffic had to be stopped periodically on each end, and the waiting traffic sent through.  We didn’t really wait too long, ten minutes at the most, and then were climbing the pass into Citrusdal. We continued on the N7 which runs along the Olifants River and is a very pretty valley with rolling hills and farm land.

The N7 in this area is also known as the Cape Namibia Route.

The Cederberg Mountains were off our right side.  When we reached Clanwilliam, we turned off on R364, expecting gravel.  Our map was somewhat out of date, as it had been tarred.

The bike along the R364.

The stretch of R364 from Clanwilliam to the gates of Bushman’s Kloof were very scenic, curving mountain roads, red rocks and baboons in the rocks watching us pass.  We reached the gates of Bushman’s Kloof, our destination, and they buzzed us in.  The next 8 km were all red sand, and we had to continue at a pretty slow pace.

The Bushman's Kloof road.

Bushman’s Kloof, http://www.bushmanskloof.co.za/, was the spot I had chosen as my birthday location.  It was voted “Best Hotel In The World” by Travel Leisure in 2009, and Condé Nast Traveler USA World’s Best Awards Top 50 Resorts in Africa (2011).  It looked like a nice spot to celebrate my birthday and the right distance for a comfortable and fun ride.  We rode straight through, stopping only for fuel or to check the map, and it took us 5 hours from Inverdoorn to Bushman’s Kloof.  We arrived at 1 pm, but our room wasn’t ready.  So we had lunch and they showed us around the place while we waited for our room.

Lunch at Bushman's Kloof

The room was beautiful, perfect.  We had a nice pool to share with 3 other villas and a wonderful patio.  We used the pool, relaxed, and enjoyed a bottle of champagne while waiting for High Tea.

Our room at Bushman's Kloof

Our pool.

At 4 pm each day High Tea is served, which includes light sandwiches, tea, coffee and cakes.  At 5 pm each day an afternoon game drive sets out.  The 18,000 acre spread has a perimeter fence, but nothing else.  Leopards and a few small predators such as Caracal and African Wild Cat are in the area and free to come and go.  The staff have seen them on occasion.  Mostly we came to see the Cape Mountain Zebra (endangered), the Oryx and the Rock Art of the ancient San people.  On our first drive we did see the Cape Mountain Zebra, Eland, Bontebok, Springbok, and Hartebeast.  We saw the Oryx on our second drive the following morning.

Cape Mountain Zebra.

From the Bushman’s Kloof brochure:

Bushman’s Kloof has been instrumental in the quest to save the rare and endangered Cape mountain zebra from extinction and is the proud owner of one of the larfest privately owned herds among the estimated total population of 1200 animals worldwide.

Two other guests, Marton and Vivian from the UK, joined us on our evening game drive.  As our guide Regardt pointed out some Ostriches and explained that they are constantly grazing, Marton observed that the guests at the hotel were much like the Ostrich.  Breakfast is served from 7 am until noon, lunch from noon until 3 pm, high tea at 4 pm, and dinner at 8.  God forbid you ever become hungry.  Impossible.

Springbok.

Bontebok

Eland

Sundowners were served, as usual, on the tailgate of the Toyota Land Cruiser.

Sundowners.

Happy Hour was at 730, at the River Boma.  We sat and watched the stars, with a terrific view of the Southern Cross.  Dinner was served at 8 pm and was  very tasty.

Happy Hour at the river boma with the Southern Cross in the night sky.

Klippe Rivier Country House.

March 2^nd;  Swellendam to Inverdoorn, Through the Waboomsberg

We left Klippe Rivier reluctantly, after the best night’s sleep in ages.  We loved the old country estate and wished we could have stayed on another day.  Leaving Swellendam on the R60 we rode through rolling hills of farm land and some vineyards.  From R60 we turned towards Montagu and then into the Waboomsberg Mountains.  The passes were a lot of fun, but unfortunately, it is impossible to take photographs of the best riding roads.  We temporarily forgot about the cameras and enjoyed the drive.

Leaving Klippe Rivier, over the bridge.

Consulting the map.

We followed R318 through several passes, then a short stint on N1 before a turn off onto R46.  Our destination was the Inverdoorn Nature Reserve and Western Cape Cheetah Conservation project and guest lodge.

The crossroads of R355 and R356.

The road turned from hard surfaced “tar” roads to gravel on R355 and R356, which lasted approximately 15 km.  The ride took us 3 ½ hours, so a short day of riding.

The road turned from tar to gravel.

Inverdoorn is a private game reserve on 10,000 hectares (about 24,000 acres) with over 1200 wild animals.  They have three lions, three rhinos, giraffe and many of the other wild animals you expect on a safari game drive.

But it is the Cheetahs, nine of them, that we came to see.  We had bad timing on the Cheetah viewing as a vet had been there the day we arrived and the afternoon Cheetah close encounter had been canceled.  But we were promised a surprise during the evening drive.

They have done many good things here, including rescuing many of the animals you see during the drives.  The largest lion, a beautiful, huge, black-maned male, was rescued from a farm where they beefed them up on steroids and sold them for “hunting trophies.”  This handsome guy would have ended up on someone’s wall or floor.  The practice of canned hunts (lions in fenced enclosures sold for “trophies”) has been outlawed.  Inverdoorn has had their lion for almost nine years and have two females as well.  They have also rescued three rhinos, and have signs out warning poaches of the dye they have injected into the horns.  The poaches have threatened not only the rhinos here, but the workers’ lives too.    The Cheetah rehabilitation program has been in place since 2001 with specialized care, breeding, and repopulation.

Ten year old rhino male.

Four year old rhino female calf.

The sign along the outside fences.

Our evening surprise was that we were alowed to watch the cheetahs exercise.  They run the cheetahs on a dirt runway, letting them chase a rag bundle pulled along at a high rate of speed by a machine at one end of the runway.  There are viewing stands and you get to see the speed of a cheetah in action.  It was growing dark as we watched this, so my photos isn’t as good as I had hoped, but you get the idea.  The cheetahs are beautiful.

One of the four female cheetahs getting her exercise.

Inverdoorn was a nice experience for Cheetahs and the closest we have gotten to rhinos, but since we have had game drives in the wild, it seemed less of a safari experience knowing the area is fenced and the animals fed.  They have to feed them as the land was over farmed and has lost all its nutrients.  They are working hard at restoring the land and doing good things.  The guides are dedicated and full of information.

Inverdoorn bar with a fire pit.

The dinner was wonderful and the lodge facilities are very nice.   The natural beauty of the Karoo is a stark, empty beauty and the lodge area is set up with local vegetation that thrives in the dry climate.  With Bedouin tents and drought tolerant shade trees Inverdoorn gives visitors an oasis under the vast skies of the Karoo.

Inverdoorn dining tent.

March 1, 2012;  Cape Town to Cape Agulhas to Swellendam

Today we left Simon’s Town in our rental car, headed back to Cape Town.  After dropping off our car, we picked up the BMW F650s at Karoo Biking at the BMW pavilion on the waterfront.  We will be on the bikes for the next 5 days, and have only the room in our BMW hard bags for our luggage.  That means we had to leave two rolling duffel bags and one roll aboard bag with the bike rental office.  The hard bags hold less than you might think, and I had to really restrict the amount of luggage.  One side bag has just enough room for my camera bag and computer and the other holds just one backpack.

My sister along the R44

We left Cape Town on the N2, three lanes wide, and well-marked.  From the N2 we turned off on the R44 southbound.  This next stretch turned out to be the best biking road of the day.   It is small and winding and follows the coastline, and is also known as the Whale Coast Route.  During the winter months here in the southern hemisphere, the southern right whale, humpback whales, and sperm whales can be seen from the shore here.  The view is spectacular and the road is fun to drive.  It took us two hours to get from Cape Town to Hermanus, where we stopped for lunch.

Our bikes at the Hermanus waterfront

Lunch in Hermanus

Back on the bikes, our new destination is Cape Agulhas, the southern most point in Africa.  We took the R326 and R316 from Hermanus, through Napier and on to Bredasdrop.  Napier looked very Dutch and all the signs were in Afrikaans.  After leaving the coastline, the country became mostly agricultural with many sheep and dairy farms, mostly wheat and a few vineyards.  It reminded both myself and my sister of the Eastern Oregon countryside.

Me and my bike at the southern most point in Africa, Cape Agulhas.

From Bredasdrop it is a straight shot south to the coast.  It took us 1:45 to drive from Hermanus to Cape Agulhus.  The roads were in very good shape, the directional signs more than adequate.  We were never in question of where we were, or which way to turn.  There were many road crews out and there is virtually no litter.  We also passed may veterinary clinics and saw very well cared for dogs on leashes and with their owners.  So far we have not seen one stray dog.

Where two oceans collide.

Me on the southern most point marker

The driving was easy.  The only drawback of being on the bikes today was the very strong wind.  For at least one hour, or more, we really battled a strong crosswind.  We are on small, lightweight bikes, and it was a struggle at times.  No matter the “helmet hair”, at Cape Agulhas no one would have great hair as the winds were blowing a gale.  The monument at Cape Agulhas marks where the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean meet.  It is the southern most point on the continent.  It is rocky, wild, windy and beautiful.

At Cape Agulhas we took our photos, walked the boardwalk, picked up a few rocks, then headed north again.  We wanted to make our overnight stop before dark.  We left the Cape at 3:45 and pulled into the Klippe Rivier country house in Swellendam about two hours later, and before dark, which was our goal.  We are greeted by not one, but two resident cats.

Our room at Klippe Rivier

The Klippe Rivier Country House was built in 1820 and was the family house of past-Presidents Steyn and Reitz.  It is gorgeous, with a thatched roof and beam ceilings.  We are staying in the portion that used to be the stables.  The room is large and beautiful and we are happy to be off the bikes.  We spent 8 hours traveling today and made good time and distance.  Too tired for a sit down dinner, we drove to a near-by market and bought a bottle of wine for R35 (Boland Cellar, Trots suid-Afrikaans sedert 1947, Sixy-40, Chenin Blanc Sauvignon blanc 2011, $5) and some pasta salad, bread and cheese.  A perfect way to end the day, picnicking on our beautiful verandah.