ELF Travel To …

Feb. 21st – 22nd: One of our favourite lunch destinations is Fynboshoek Cheese Farm which is 2 1/2 hours from Wilderness. We decided that we didn’t want to drive that distance so we hired John (Wilderness Express) and combined a tour with our lunch plans. This worked out so well as John introduced us to sites along the way that we would never have found on our own. He was knowledgable of the area, accommodating and entertaining so the drive did not seem long at all. We left at 9 a.m. and arrived back at the apartment at 7:30 p.m. – we did lots of sightseeing along the way. Larry especially loved it as he could enjoy the scenery, have wine with his lunch, and relax knowing he did not have to drive us back.

Fynboshoek Farm Restaurant is a rustic, hidden gem. Alje, the owner, prepares and serves a variety of raw Fynboshoek goat and cow milk cheeses with freshly baked breads and homegrown garden salads. Farm to table at its best – so fresh and delicious. We brought our own wine, Cederberg Chenin Blanc, which is our current favourite white. We have been to Fynboshoek many times so we wondered if it would still be as good as we remembered – it definitely was!

Pictures from our tour and Fynboshoek:

Our time in Wilderness has come to an end. When we decided to stay in Wilderness for 13 days, we didn’t know if it would be too quiet as we normally stay in Knysna or Plettenberg Bay. Without question, Wilderness was the right decision. We loved our apartment at Wilderness Waters because of its close proximity to the beach, restaurants and the small grocery store – we didn’t need to use our car unless we wanted to do a day trip. Ruan, the Owner of Wilderness Waters, was a delight – always a smile and available to assist as needed. Thank you Ruan for a wonderful 13 days. We will return!

Feb. 19th & 20th: I was very spoiled this year – I celebrated my birthday in one of our favourite vacation spots, and the celebration stretched over two days.

On the 19th, we had brunch at the elegant Fancourt Golf and Country Club. The Fancourt property is over 600 hectares, with 3 golf courses and stunning landscaping. We ate at Monet, one of 3 restaurants – our table overlooked the 1st tee of the Outeniqua Course. The course was in excellent shape – most golfers had caddies – definitely over our golfing ability but a lovely place for brunch.

After brunch, we took our little Volkswagon back to Avis and our friends, Barry and Sissy, picked us up. Barry and Sissy live in Oudtshhorn – we first met when we went to Magic Moments, their dinner theatre, on one of our early trips to SA. Barry is a talented musician and Sissy has a beautiful singing voice. When they saw our SA Facebook post, they got in touch. Thank you Barry and Sissy for helping me celebrate my birthday.

Feb. 20th: We really enjoy our morning beach walk – a nice way to start the day. On our way back from the beach, we stopped at a small cafe and enjoyed a cappuccino and the live music. We arrived back at the apartment to find roses, wine, chocolates (thank you TnT) and a birthday cake and hand cream (thank you Ruan).

Tonight we went to 101 Meade restaurant in George which Ruan recommended. What a wonderful experience – our waiter was knowledgeable and attentive, and the food was delicious and beautifully plated. A lovely end to my birthday celebration.

Feb. 17th: There are many world-class golf courses close by. Fancourt, in George, has 3 of the top 20 courses in South Africa. Knysna also has 2 stunning courses which Larry has played in the past. Since we hadn’t played much golf lately, we decided to start with a lesser course, Sedge Links Short Course in Sedgefield.

Calling Sedge Links a golf course may be a bit of an exaggeration as it is really a field with randomly placed pins, little ponds and moguls everywhere and thick grasses that eat your balls. It started out fine – we picked our clubs from an assortment of “well used” clubs. Larry noticed my bag was missing a putter so he found a putter in another bag and added it to mine. We purchased 6 balls (3 each) and 2 tees each which we thought would be ample for 9 holes on a short, fairly flat course. Off we headed for a leisurely 9 holes before dinner at Rosie’s Upstairs.

First hole, Larry’s ball went in a pond, and his second landed on the tee box of what we think was the 3rd hole (very narrow fairways but thank goodness only a few people on the course). My first shot only went a few yards so at least I could find it. Putting was a bit challenging as my putter (which we took from another bag) was for a leftie as were a couple of my other clubs. We managed to finish the 1st hole with 5 balls left. As we looked around for the 2nd hole, we were hopeful for better shots now that 1st hole jitters were over. Little did we know that even finding our next hole would not be easy because of a very confusing layout e.g., the 2nd hole tee box was behind the first tee box. Sadly, shots did not get better. By the 3rd tee, we are down to 3 balls between us and 1/2 a tee. A fellow, who thankfully played through, gave me a few tees, so we thought we were set; however, by the 5th hole we had only 1 ball left (but 5 tees). Luckily a couple wanting us to play through gave us a ball (that is all they could spare as they were also struggling). Larry hit ….into a hidden pond. I then hit with the only remaining ball …..yes, the grasses ate up my florescent orange ball, never to be seen again. 5th hole, no balls, but we do have tees. Only one thing to do – head back to Rosie’s for well deserved drinks. We are definitely not ready for a real course nor are the courses ready for us. Many laughs at dinner remembering a disastrous, but fun “golf game”. Rosie’s was as good as we remembered.

A few pictures from our morning beach walk, Sedge Links, Rosie’s, and sundowner at Views Bar in Wilderness.

Feb. 18th: We decided to go for pizza at the Deli – Hops Valley Farm. It was a scenic drive along Outeniqua Pass.

February 15-17: We rented a car (Volkswagen Polo) for 5 days – perfect little car for our “out and about” travels.

This blog will be mostly photos.

We have settled into a comfortable routine. We eat breakfast at the apartment – there is a Nespresso machine (with a frother) so we don’t even have to go out for our Cafe Latte. While Noomi is cleaning we head to the beach for our morning walk. We have been blessed thus far with sunny days in the mid to high 20s and always a cooling breeze.

On Saturday a local club was conducting Paragliding lessons in the park in-front of our apartment. It was interesting to watch – we were surprised by the number of lines they have to control – even preparing for take-off was complicated. A lady (Jen) was watching so we chatted on the way by and she mentioned her friend John was taking a lesson. John joined us after his lesson and although there was no way he was gliding alone, he had booked to do a tandem-flight in the afternoon. As we carried on with our walk, Jen caught up with us and asked if we would like to have dinner with them. We met for dinner at 6:00 and didn’t leave the restaurant until after 9:00. It was a lovely evening, dining in the garden at The Girls restaurant, hearing (and watching a video) of John’s paragliding adventure and sharing stories of our times in SA.

On Sundays the Sea Rescue group do a training session – first the helicopter was performing sea rescue exercises. Once we were at the beach we watched the rescue boats (mostly zodiacs with 50 hp motors) manoeuvre the waves – so many times I thought that they would flip. The sea rescue members were friendly and interesting to watch. Sunday was busier on the beach with local families enjoying the great weather.

Having lunch or dinner out is working out well. As I mentioned, there are numerous good restaurants within walking distance.

It’s breezy today so we decided to take a different route – we walked along the lagoon path and it joins onto Wilderness National Park. There is a wooden trail running parallel to the lagoon/river – so peaceful. We will definitely do this walk again.

Although we haven’t missed having a car, we are going to rent one for 5 days and do some more local exploring and also drive to Knysna to our favourite lunch spot – East Head.

We enjoyed a Valentine’s Day lunch at The Girls (we love their salads and calamari). Tonight for our Valentine’s Day dinner, we are having filet which Chef Larry is preparing on the BBQ.

Feb 10th – 12th: I first connected with Ruan, the owner of Wilderness Waters, in October 2019. At the time we were planning our 2021 trip to South Africa and we knew we wanted to stay in Wilderness for a longer period of time than in the past. On our last two visits to SA, we stayed 2 days in Wilderness and a week in Knysna or Plettenberg Bay. Prior to that, we would drive by Wilderness on our Garden Route journey not even noticing the beach and small village.

From October 2019 to January 2022, Ruan and I exchanged many emails – first to plan our 2021 time in Wilderness, next to move our 2021 trip to 2022, then to cancel our 2022 trip and finally a month later to “un-cancel” our 2022 trip. Through all the changes, Ruan was extremely helpful and accommodating – he even held our reservation when I cancelled as he had a feeling we would somehow make it to SA this year.

When we arrived at Wilderness Waters, Ruan was waiting for us and I could see his smile through his mask. He was as friendly and enthusiastic in person as he was in his emails. Ruan was excited to show us the apartment and we loved it from the moment we walked through the entrance. The apartment has everything we need and more, plus Ruan made it special with a fresh bouquet of roses, tiny, fancy cupcakes and sherry, a bottle of champagne, two pieces of fancy tiramisu, and a rose and chocolate on each pillow. The actual apartment is much nicer than the pictures show. We have a sweet cleaning lady (Noomi) who comes daily. We made our bed ourselves the first day, but she remade it as we didn’t do it quite right – so we now leave it to Noomi. She also likes us to leave the dirty dishes so she can do them (even though we also have a dishwasher) – wow are we spoiled.

We can see the beach from our balcony – it is a 5 minute walk away through a tunnel under the roadway. There are numerous restaurants in the village plus a small grocery store, liquor store, pharmacy and shops – all an easy 5 minute walk away. George (where we flew into) is a 10 minute drive and they have a large, modern mall – today we did our grocery shopping for the week at Woolworths (like Whole Foods) in the mall.

The restaurants we have tried thus far have all been very good, and reasonably priced. All have outdoor dining which we love. Today we ate lunch in the garden patio at The Girls – the food, ambience and entertainment (a gal singing) were all wonderful.

Feb. 8th: Our friends, John and Margaret (J&M) have a condo in Hout Bay as well as one in Ennisclare/Oakville. Their son and his family live in Hout Bay, so they spend most of the winter here. It is so nice to have friends close by. J&M planned a wonderful day for us.

We met for cappuccinos at “Georges”, J&M’s morning coffee spot. We can see why they go to Georges regularly, as he makes a really good cappuccino (just the right amount of foam). Next John drove to two of the wine estates on the Constantia Wine Route, Constantia Glen and Steenberg. We always comment on the beauty of the wine areas – today was no exception. A relaxing lunch at Bistro Sixteen82, which is adjacent to the Steenberg estate, was followed by a drive to Kalk Bay fishing village. We meandered along the main street of the village visiting the interesting little shops along the way.

John took the scenic route home, driving along Chapman’s Peak which winds its way between Noordhoek and Hout Bay on the Atlantic Coast – the scenery is stunning. We ended the day with drinks at Twelve Apostles in Camps Bay – it is right on the ocean so the views are wonderful. Thank you John and Margaret – we loved our day together.

February 9th -10th: Derwent is conveniently located within easy walking distance of restaurants and the stores along Kloof/Long street. One of my favourite stores is Tribal Trends – there are so many beautiful things, it is hard to browse and not buy.

After our morning walk, we took an Uber to Twelve Apostles for lunch – we sat outside on the balcony with an unobstructed view of the ocean. After lunch I headed to the spa while Larry relaxed and read his book. Margaret, we will have to leave Larry and John in the Leopard Lounge and head to the spa when we are back in Cape Town in March.

The owners of Derwent, Anahid and Armin, invited us for drinks and then dinner at Black Sheep (a trendy, local restaurant) on our last night in Cape Town. Anahid was born in Parry Sound (small world) and she met Armin in Cairo (Armin is Austrian). They travelled extensively for both work and pleasure and finally settled in Cape Town and opened Derwent about 16 years ago. This was a nice way to end our February stay in Cape Town.

We flew to George on February 10th and Ruan, the owner of Wilderness Waters, arranged for a transfer to our apartment. We are looking forward to spending a couple of weeks in Wilderness and surrounding area.

February 7th: We woke up to another sunny, gorgeous day. After a relaxing breakfast, we decided to walk to the Mount Nelson Hotel and then through The Company Gardens.

First Stop on our Walk – Mount Nelson Hotel: Painted pink in 1918 to commemorate peace and the end of World War I, Mount Nelson is an icon in its own right and has welcomed many famous guests over the years. We had heard that the hotel closed in 2020 due to Covid, and at that time there was no reopening date. We were pleased to see that it is open again, although it was extremely quiet around the hotel.

Next stop – The Company’s Garden, a park and heritage site – a peaceful place for a morning stroll. Once again there were so few tourists and as it is a Monday, few locals. We visited the South African Museum along the way (thank you Jan for the recommendation).

We ended our day with dinner at Codfather (we love their seafood) and then drinks at Bilboa, Camps Bay.

February 5-6: Although travelling this distance is always the hard part, flying direct from Newark Liberty Airport made it so much easier. We were an hour late leaving Newark as the plane had to be de-iced, and then they announced that we were headed back to the gate so the pilot could check the wings – that was a bit unnerving but we took off soon after that so the wings must have received a good bill of health. A movie, dinner, 2 more movies, 7 hours of sleep, another movie, breakfast and we were on our descent to Cape Town. We moved quickly through the airport and our driver was waiting to take us to Derwent Hotel. Our heads were glad to hit the pillows.

Today we went down to the Victoria and Albert Waterfront. It was so nice to see no empty stores and people enjoying the waterfront. We stayed in apartments at the waterfront 3 times during our previous visits. Walking around the Victoria and Albert waterfront brought back so many wonderful memories. Sushi lunch at Willoughby & Company and then back to Derwent for a late afternoon swim. I am writing this blog from the pool deck while Larry snores away on the lounger next to me.

Derwent is a boutique hotel situated in a quiet residential neighbourhood in north central Cape Town and in close proximity to Table Mountain and to the many very good restaurants in the Kloof Street area. Our room looks onto the pool and also we have a view of Table Mountain. Sunny and 28C today – we are so lucky to be here.

February 3rd, 2022: Before we provide an update on where we are now, some background information.

Originally we planned to spend February and March 2021 in South Africa. Once we realized that this would not be possible due to Covid, we moved our trip to February and March 2022. Although some dates had to change, we were able to rearrange our itinerary.

We were excited when we found a direct flight from Newark N.J. to Cape Town, and everything was falling into place…..that is until the US put South Africa on the US Red List. Since we could no longer fly from the US, we cancelled our trip just before Christmas and submitted our insurance claim.

Then December 31st things changed again when South Africa was removed from the US Red List. The easy part was deciding to cancel our insurance claim as it had not yet been looked at by the insurance company. The more difficult part was “un-cancelling” our reservations. Some accommodations were no longer available, so once again we had to rearrange our bookings. The owners of the airbnbs and hotels were all so accommodating and we are really happy with our new agenda.

Of course, travelling this time of year is always more challenging due to weather. We left Toronto a day early to avoid a forecasted winter weather system. Not only did we have to change our Toronto/Newark flight, but also our Covid tests. Tests were negative so off we headed to the airport while the weather was still good. We were the only two going through Security and US Customs – very fast but strange. This is probably the only time we will end up chatting with a US Customs agent (only us around so he was lonely). It turns out that he was born in Jersey City so he gave us a restaurant recommendation –Light Horse Tavern.

Today is a drizzly day, but we were still able to walk around the Jersey City arts district where our hotel, Canopy Hilton, is located. We decided to have a late lunch at Light Horse Tavern, which is just 15 minutes from our hotel. The outside of the tavern is deceiving – it is unimpressive – we weren’t even sure it was open. Once inside, it is an innovative mix of fine dining and tavern/bar atmosphere. The food was very good and our server was friendly. The owner, Ron, came over at the end of our meal and we spent the next 1/2 hour chatting. Ron lived in South Africa for most of his youth. His father was the head engineer for a shipping company which operated on the east and west coasts of South Africa. Ron had many stories about his life in South Africa. He came back to the US for University and was an investment banker for the Deutsche Bank until he purchased, renovated and opened Light Horse tavern 20 years ago. Our lunch was an enjoyable 3 hour outing.

Now we wait to see if Winter Storm Landon will delay our flight until Sunday.

February 4th: Cold, windy day with drizzle/rain – not nice for exploring but hopefully good for flying – yeah! We packed up and then went to Light Horse again for a late lunch – a very cold walk but lunch was worth it.

It is 6:00 p.m. and we are checked in and relaxing (finally) in the lounge. At this point the plane is on time and from the United App I see that our bags are “on the plane” (the app lets you track your bags). The flight leaves at 8:30 p.m. and we arrive in SA at 6:00 p.m. 14.5 hours flying time (there is a 7 hour time difference). Many movies and hopefully we’ll sleep part of the time.

Not many pictures for this post. Next blog will be in a few days.