Family time (South Africa)

6:09 PM Sarah Elena 0 Comments

Before autumn of last year, there was one continent I absolutely wasn’t familiar with so far - Africa. I was always curious about it because it made me think of wide spaces, a lot of sun and wild animals. Cape Town was on my travel list for a long time as I had heard so many good things about the city and the whole area. I also found the pictures and videos (I think everyone of us was confronted with a lot of them during the soccer world championship in 2010) of the city stunning and decided to create a lot of them myself. To implement these plans, I travelled to South Africa with a very special travel companion - my mother. It was actually my last trip as an employee of an airline and therefore the last time traveling the very exciting and rather unpredictable way of standby flights. But that was matching the whole trip we had very well: a big adventure with nothing booked in advance. From Johannesburg we flew to Port Elisabeth to take the famous Garden Route from there and to end up in Cape Town where my father joined us for the second part of the holiday.

Storms River Mouth

Victoria Bay

As it wasn’t high season we were able to just book the accommodation one day in advance. During high season it might be better to plan the whole trip in advance und make bookings. So we drove from town to town always reading in our travel guides just to decide during the day where to stop over next. On our journey along the Garden Route, we had several stunning accommodations. Most of them were rather small guest houses with a very familiar atmosphere (see the list at the end of my post). The hosts were always very kind and gave us a lot of very helpful recommendations. We had a very nice and special chat with our host Wessel in Mossel Bay. His guesthouse “Lavandula Manor” took our breath away with the cozy and loving interior with an open fireplace and a wonderful garden with a view over the whole bay. We were able to enjoy our coffee and breakfast on the terrace of our room and actually would have loved to stay another night (but Daddy would be waiting in Cape Town, so we couldn’t). During our check-out, Wessel told us a lot about his house, his family and his life in South Africa. He was very interested in our backgrounds, too. His optimistic, mindful and cherishing perspective of people and all things in life is very inspiring. It has been a few months now since this holiday but I often remember his words. He told us how wonderful it was to see mother and daughter spending time together to travel the world. Everyday life doesn’t always allow us to spend that much time with our family – that’s why we have to appreciate this time even more. And we did… .

I think there are several reasons why mothers make perfect travel companions. No other person in the world has known me for such a long time. We are familiar with each other’s quirks and already have been through a lot together. After surviving all the “conflicts of puberty” designed by nature, mothers and daughters should be prepared for almost every challenging situation and every adventure. Travelling isn’t really a challenging situation to me but rather one of the most wonderful things to do. A road trip however can have some challenging moments as you are not lying on the beach the whole day just relaxing, eating and getting tanned. Just to name a few examples: One has to drive (on the Australian or “wrong” side again in our case) and the other one has to check on directions (and I feel like I do not always speak the same language my navigation system does), the daily stages have to be covered before the sun goes down (we felt save driving along the Garden Route but I think this is one of the rules that should be followed down there) and still all the places both travelers want to see should be visited. Knowing each other very well and for a long time doesn’t mean that there are no disputes – to be honest I think disputes with very close persons can be the hardest – but after all the time they can be handled very well and settled pretty fast. Gladly, there wasn’t anything to settle during our holiday. We had a wonderful harmonious time – but we would have been prepared.

Maybe the reason for that was the other advantage when travelling with one’s mother. Usually mother and daughter share at least some preferences, values and interests. Mothers shape their children and I think the older the child gets it starts to shape his or her mother (and father) more and more as well. My mother and me share a deep love for animals and nature and South Africa offers a lot of that. We can both get childish excited when we detect something cute like penguins, monkeys, baby zebras or rock hyrax. You never heard of rock hyrax? Really? Actually, we didn’t, too. We met a large number of them during our holiday and were always amazed how agile these little fatties hop along the cliffs. They are related to elephants but – to be honest – that was something I wasn’t able to see but was told me by Mr. Google. Even my mother, who is a biology teacher and knows pretty much everything about plants and animals, wasn’t aware of that fact. We both love cats of any type – that’s why our safari tour in the Plettenberg Bay Game Reserve was one of our highlights. A ranger told us everything about the “Big Five” and showed us not only this lion and his lioness but so many other South African animals. We weren’t able to stop taking pictures and almost forgot how cold it was in this open car. We stayed the night in the reserve's private lodge and as it wasn't high season yet we were almost alone. It felt like in an old movie when we were sitting next to the open fire and let nature work its magic.

Rock hyrax

This whole holiday ended up with about 3000 thousand taken pictures because there was so much to see. My mother and me always wanted to freeze the moment and therefore had to recharge many many batteries. When it comes to animals we were pretty lucky. We had a wonderful hike in the Robberg Nature Reserve where huge families of seals live. The panorama from the different stages of the hike was gorgeous. Only the famous whales of Hermanus had no desire to get to know us. Nevertheless, the lovely town was worth the stay and looking out to the sea for a long time.

Seals

Wilderness

Hermanus was our last stop before we ended up in Cape Town. After a short break in the small town of Swellendam with its wonderful church, we picked up my father at the airport and took him to Stellenbosch. This area near Cape Town is famous for the wine tastings. We visited three of them: Lanzerac, Jordan’s and Babylonstoren. Babylonstoren offers a wonderful area to roam inbetween vineyards, flower and fruit gardens. The above mentioned thoughts about travelling with my mother of course also hold true for travelling with my father although it is always different to travel with two companions than just with one and of course things are different when the head of the family joins. My mother and me were happy to show Daddy everything we already learned about the beautiful country of South Africa and had well planned what to visit with him during those last days in the “Cape area”. Traveling with my parents somehow always reminds me of being a child. Those two introduced me to the world and showed me what life is all about. Now we were experiencing an unknown part of the world together. There were some moments when we realized together how lucky we are. South Africa is a wonderful country but there are many people who aren't in a very lucky, happy or save place. We especially realized that when we saw the township areas and listened to the history on our head phones in the tourist bus.

Hermanus

Wine and Cheese Tasting

Lanzerac

Jordan's

Of course we had to do all this real tourist stuff like taking the red hop on hop off bus to get to know the beautiful city of Cape Town. It has a very special atmosphere and doesn't really feel like those typical metropolises. The view from one of the lookout points down to the city is amazing and we should have had more time to do some hiking up there, too. But we have a reason to come back now and that is always good!

As a matter of course we had to visit the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point. It is possible to drive along the whole Cape in one day and visit wonderful beaches (one of them, Boulders Beach, is famous for its lovely penguins) and the Cape Town National Park. Naturally there are many many tourists (especially queues of Asians waiting at every sign to take a picture) but it's still absolutely worth it. The atmosphere is very mystic with this ever-present wind and the wide strong sea dashing the cliffs. It really feels like being at the end of the world. Ape families love this area, too, and don't really want to share the streets or any food with humans. The little babies were playing around all the time and made us laugh a lot.

We spent the last night of our holiday in Camps Bay with a perfect last sun down. The wonderful thing about traveling is that you always keep something even after it is over. I love to share such memories with my travel companions. Reminiscing while watching all the pictures together. I admire a lot the great enthusiasm of my mother. After a holiday she is always engaged with the visited country for a long time and learns a lot about it. She also always finds something we should have done there and therefore always finds a reason for us to come back. I am sure the next trip is already well planned and I am so looking forward to it!