A slogan made for us...TulbaghOn Tuesday June 28 we wanted to do the historical walking tour of Church street in Tulbagh. But this week is also school holidays and for a small group of under privileged children from Cape Town it meant the opportunity to spend some days visiting different towns with lots of heritage and Tulbagh was on this list. Normally the historical tour last for an hour or so, but we joined the students on their tour and it lasted for more than three hours. We also learned a lot about the colonisation of the Dutch in South Africa during this tour. After Tulbagh we drove back to African Overlanders campsite via the Bain’s kloof, which originates from 1886. This kloof was the first road to go ‘over the mountain from the West Coast, meaning that travellers could bypass Tulbach saving a lot of time. This was unfortunate for Tulbach as this new road let to their economic decline. Our car has arrived !!!And then on Wednesday June 28th we finally collected the car in the port of Cape Town. But it was a close call as we arrived at the port at 16.30 and around the same time the workday in South Africa ends. Luckily after some convincing by our agent we were allowed to get the car out of the container. The next day we went to R&D offroad to start work on the car with the last fitments, such as fitting a new 270 degrees awning, a new table at the back door made from stainless steel, a outside side table on the driver side, replacing the canvas of the pop up roof and we decided also to replace the rear bumper so it can hold two spare wheels, a high lift jack and a shovel. And for some extra storage we bought a new storage box for the roof. All these fittings will be ready by July 12th. As South Africa is 4x4 and camping heaven we decided to also visit some specialty stores and got us some really cool stuff, such as a small braai (bbq), a Dutch oven, a cover for our fridge for better isolation. Wilfred also did some work on the car over the weekend and has fitted gas shocks to hold up our bed. And also steel cables to protect the windscreen from branches and serves a clothing line as well. On the tourist track again - Chapman's Peak and Simon's townAfter all this shopping and work on the car we drove to Constantia, which is one of the most prestigious suburb Cape Town and home to some really nice wine estates. We visited Buitenverwachting, a wine estate that is renowned for taking excellent care of their employees. After that we drove to Simon’s town via Chapman’s Peak, the only toll road in Cape Town. This scenic drive is a coastal road with some amazing views towards Cape Point and of Houtbaai. Development of this spectacular road started in 1915 and took seven years to finish. It was officially opened in 1922 and cost £20.000,- to built at that time. In Simon’s Town we visited Boulder Beach, a place were you can see the famous colony of Jackass Penguins, so called for their hilarious braying call. These penguins are 50cm tall and weigh approx. 2-3kg. It was the end of breeding season and a lot of penguins took care of baby penguins. And as we camp in the middle of the winelands of South Africa we decided to visit other wine estate. At Vrede and Lust we chose a wine and chocolate pairing and tasted six different wines and Lindt chocolates. All in al a very relax afternoon. Table MountainLast week the weather got a bit better every day and on one of the clearest days of the week we visited Table Mountain, a prominent landmark in Cape Town. Every morning form our rondavel at the campsite in Kraaifontein we have an amazing view of Table Mountain from our bed. You can take a cable car up and down to the highest point or walked up or down the mountain. To make it a little bit easier for us we took the cable car to the top and decided to hike down. Table Mountain is on average 1055m high with the highest point being at 1085m above sea level. It is the northern end of a sandstone mountain range that continues to Cape Point in the south. We remember hiking down ten years ago, but this time was very different then our memories of that hike. Normally the hike down takes about 4 hours (at least twice as long as we remember…) and it was a lot steeper…so after 3 hours and 40 minutes we were back at the car park. Looking at each other…how could we have forgotten that the hike was this strenuous. Maybe we took the cable car down as well ten years ago…
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