We’ve already come to understand the Winter weather in Cape Town can change in seconds! So coats and hats on, we were ready to head out in search of food. We also stopped at the Tourist Information centre where the loveliest man with the friendliest smile laughed and joked his way through welcoming us to South Africa and advising us on what we should see and do during our stay. Thankfully he agreed with our plans!

Stocked up on supplies, we headed back through the rain and spent the evening cooking, eating and enjoying the view while we read our books and planned our trip to the Cape peninsula for tomorrow.

The drive itself was nothing short of jaw dropping. High rise mountains circle the Cape of Good Hope with clouds drifting across them.

We arrived at Boulders Beach where we were treated to meeting the Jack ass penguins. From one breeding pair in 1983 there are now over a thousand living on the beach. We were lucky enough to arrive during breeding season and spotted many fury chicks. We followed a boardwalk to the beach spotting countless penguins.

On our journey back we were treated with a sighting of a Dassie. They look like rats, hamsters and mice all rolled into one. This one was very friendly and was literally eating out of Chris’ hand. The weather played ball and we avoided getting wet whiling away the hours with the penguins.

We had lunch in our stylish car over looking False Bay keeping an eye out for Whales. However, the weather turned as promised and rain poured down for the rest of the day. Consequently, we drove back to Cape Town and went to the water front and explored the shopping area.

Ellie had a great time in H&M as did Chris watching foootball using free WiFi! We then nipped to the shop to buy hot chocolate and headed back to our flat. The traffic was mental in the city centre at this time of night and we witnessed for the first time the crazy South African drivers.

The ferry crossing, although choppy, was a treat in itself. Before we’d even left the port we spotted a playful seal swimming alongside the jetty, and another lazing in a tyre hanging from the harbour wall.

Lucky with our seats, we had an amazing view of Cape Town’s famous landscape as we set off, as well as penguins fishing out at sea, a couple more seals popping their heads up, and our first shark sighting!

We had a very warm welcome on Robben Island from our very charismatic and comical but knowledgable guide. He explained to us how Robben Island has had many different uses... starting as a refreshment station for European merchants sailing to India, then a leper colony, then most recently, the maximum security prison for political prisoners, including Nelson Mandela. A fascinating afternoon!

We also stopped off for a hot drink and another amazing view of Table Mountain!

We were then shown around the prison itself by an ex prisoner, who again was fascinating to listen to. He showed us around the different sections to the maximum security prison, the garden where Nelson Mandela hid the manuscript to his book, and we visited the actual cell in which Mandela was imprisoned for 18 years out of his 27 year sentence.

On the way back from Robben Island we were lucky enough to spot a whale in the distance!

We spent the rest of the afternoon at the V&A Waterfront until the sun started to set, a lovely place to end the day.

However, we crept slowly up the gorge with many others who were trying to conquer the mountain. Not all would succeed as it seemed a never ending staircase and a few turned around. We soldiered on and after a very hot 2 hours we reached the top of the gorge.

The climb was instantly worth it as we took our first steps out onto the plateau. We were greeted with an incredible view of the Indian Ocean. We watched a whale in the harbour using our binoculars (the envy of other walkers) and strolled around the top of the mountain.

We ran into a troop of sunbathing Dassie’s overlooking the bay. After taking far too many photos of them we went to the other side of the mountain and saw an amazing view of Cape Town and the Atlantic Ocean.

We took the photo above on an overhanging rock which a group of British guys convinced us to climb onto for a perfect shot. We are both petrified and trying very hard not to show it.

After having a very scenic lunch on top of the mountain we started the descent back down the gorge. With tired legs the way down was slippery and harder work than anticipated. Overall we managed a cool 25,000 steps today.

After we got down we decided to go to Kristenbosch the Botanical Garden and stroll around and have a beer or two in the cafes. The views from the gardens were amazing and we saw some rare and beautiful birds.

We had a little stroll around the dinosaur garden which did look right out of Jurassic park. We eventually got back to our apartment exhausted but happy we managed to climb one of the oldest mountains in the world.

We decided to carry on, and started our road trip at Camps Bay, where the rich and famous live. The fog had started to lift by the time we arrived, but a thick cloud still hid the mountains from us. Tactically, we sought out a coffee shop and waited for the sun to break through before continuing our tour. We did manage a couple of good pictures.

We pressed on down the coast to Llandudno. The Welsh name must have brought us luck; as we rolled closer to the bay the clouds parted and the sun shone through.

We stopped at Hout Bay and played with the seals who were sun bathing and frolicking in the sea. One took a fancy to Ellie and tried to make a dash for her. Ellie politely declined his advances by screaming and running away.

He was a handsome fella mind...

Leaving the seals to their sunbathing, we srove along an incredible stretch of road leading to Chapman’s Peak. At our first stop we looked back across Hout Bay. This was a breathtaking view and the remaining clouds added to the scene.

Although a little (very) windy, the views in all directions were incredible at this little stop.

Most of our journey was spent on the winding coastal roads which meant that we were lucky enough to enjoy these views at every bend!

We continued to Noordhoek and had a lovely lunch in a recommended bakery owned by a well known South Africa chef. (We hadn’t heard of him!) The food was great and filled us with energy for the next leg of our road trip.

We took a couple of detours but kept running into spectacular views of both oceans either side of the peninsula.

We eventually meandered down to the tip of not only Cape Town, but the whole of Africa. We walked to Cape Point after catching Africa’s only funicular and watched the two oceans meeting.

We then drove to the Cape of Good Hope (named for the opening of the spice route to India). A rugged coast line with a spectacular sunset.

On our drive back to Cape Town we ran into some of the local traffic, a giant ostrich taking a sunset walk.

We passed through other beautiful seaside towns and ended up having dinner in a restaurant next to our apartment building to cap off a memorable day.

We are sad to be leaving Cape Town tomorrow. But we can’t feel too disappointed as we are heading to Hermanus, whale capital of the world! Hoping to catch a closer glimpse of the Southern Right Whales 🐳

Our next host suggested we stopped off at Betty’s Bay to see another penguin colony, so, always happy to accept a reccommendation, and excited to see more penguins, that’s exactly what we did.

A boardwalk took us past nesting penguins along another idyllic coastal location...

There was just the tiny matter of the practically gale force winds we had to battle against!!

We still had a great time and enjoyed watching the penguins either snuggling to keep warm, or battling against the winds themselves on the rocks. They didn’t seem to mind too much and were very entertaining manoeuvring the rocks with little hops and jumps.

After a lunch stop at Betty’s Bay and warmed up from the crazy wind, we continued to Hermanus. Our host, Johan gave us an incredibly warm welcome and was so apologetic about the incoming storm which sadly meant our whale watching trip this afternoon had been cancelled.

But eager to see us enjoy our time here, he sent us off on the cliff path in the hope of spotting whales from the shore.

The route was so serene and we both enjoyed stopping at the many benches along the way and just soaking up the view. (And of course, keeping an eye out for whales!)

By the time we’d reached the end of the walk and were ready to walk back, we’d almost forgotten the possibility of spotting any whales.

But just before we veered off for home, in the distance we spotted a huge flipper, poking out from under the sea as if it was waving. We ran down to the sea’s edge, binoculars in hand, to get a closer look.

We’d managed to claim a great lookout point and spotted 4 or 5 more whales coming up to the surface and diving back under while the sun set behind us. So even if we don’t get to make our whale watching trip before we leave on Wednesday, we had a lovely evening of DIY whale watching instead!!

Following another recommendation, we headed to a local grill restaurant for dinner. Johan told us it was more of an experience than dinner and he was probably right!

The restaurant was fully booked when we got there so we sat in the bar, where a gin smelling/tasting station is set up looking like a chemistry experiment.

We didn’t have to wait long though, and our quirkily dressed waiter came and presented us with a plate of the day’s dry cuts of meat, which are butchered and prepared in the restaurant.

Chris of course opted for the biggest steak on the plate, and Ellie, predictably, opted for the burger coated in cheese fondue! The food was absolutely delicious and we really enjoyed our evening.

Unfortunately the blue skies didn’t last very long so we took shelter in a cafe where we had hot drinks and a warm lunch while Chris kept an eye on the sea and Ellie read her book.

We whiled away the hours scanning the sea for whales in between the rain showers, before heading back to the apartment for some dinner.

When we returned, Johan came out to meet us, eager to share the good news that we, weather permitting, had a spot on a shark dive trip for tomorrow morning, if we would like it. Chris had said yes before the question had even been finished and rushed inside with our friendly host, who spent the next hour or so planning out our next few stops with his recommendations and tips for travelling the Garden Route.

So all in all a quiet day today to end our time in Hermanus, but we’ve really enjoyed the peaceful atmosphere in this beautiful and immaculately kept town.

Fingers crossed for calm seas tomorrow... 🤞🏻🦈

We were lucky enough to be accompanied by a marine biologist and so got the low down on shark behaviour. Apparently, sharks had almost disappeared from shark alley as Orcas had been targeting them, flipping them over (which knocks them unconscious) and eating their liver.

However, there is one place the sharks still frequent if you’re lucky, and boy were we lucky.

We were taken out on a 15 minute journey on a very bumpy boat. When we stopped, the water was chummed to entice the sharks and it wasn’t long before we saw a big Bronze Whaler shark sniffing around.

A Great White sighting was not a guarantee and when we spotted the first one nick named “scar face” they asked for volunteers to get in the cage first. Chris put his wet suit on like his life depended upon it, ignoring the fact Ellie had started to put her wet suit on back to front, and jumped straight into the cage, leaving Ellie to film from above. But what a great video.

After seeing an incredible Great White shark pass by Chris climbed out of the cage giddy as a school boy. Ellie’s turn had come.

After climbing into the cage and giving a wave to the camera a shark leapt out of the water to grab the bait. This made for an amazing video.

The next time we both got into the cage and remembered the GoPro and we managed some shaky but amazing underwater footage.

We returned elated and exhilarated from the close encounter. The marine biologist said we were lucky to spot 3 Great White sharks; ‘Scarface’, ‘Captain Hook’ and a new shark to the bay never spotted before.

When we arrived in Wilderness, we were both equally surprised to discover that Ellie had booked us into a mansion. For once, the photos on the website undersold the place! Certainly one of the best places we have ever stayed and cheaper than a night in a Premier Inn!

We felt horrendously out of place being ever so slightly bedraggled from shark diving as we crossed the lit up bridge through automatic gates with our elegant host, Martina. If she noticed, she hid it well! She was very welcoming and insisted she organise a shuttle to take us to the town so that we could relax after our long journey. (Maybe she had noticed our bedraggled appearance after all.....)

Our driver, another incredibly friendly South African, chatted to us the whole way, barely stopping for breath, clearly excited to share his local knowledge. He dropped us at the Blind Pig for a ‘couple of beers’..... Very merry, we then had a great meal in a local restaurant. We were told to try the Cape Malay Bobotie spring rolls and were promised that we would enjoy them. We absolutely did and will be hunting them down in every restaurant we go to for the rest of our trip... 😋

We played Trivial Pursuits in between courses, with a few more craft beers for good measure, which defeated Chris in the end...

After we said our goodbyes (we were quite sad to leave behind this guest house) we headed down to the town of Wilderness.

We strolled across an amazing beach (South African beaches are the first we have come across to rival that of South Wales). The locals were lovely and we met many dogs on our morning walk.

We then hit the road, moving on to our next stop; Knysna. It was recommended by many locals to stop off along the way at Buffalo Bay. A beautiful white sand beach, which apparently is a popular swimming spot for locals. We decided to pass on that on account of the shark attack kit on the beach 😳 but it was worth the detour.

We reached Knysna early afternoon and met our new enthusiastic host. Armed with maps, leaflets and local insight, Tina helped us plan our next two days in great detail.

We headed down to the ‘Two Heads’ guarding the mouth of the lagoon; named so because the rocks look like two heads talking to one another. Chris took a rather risky trip across an old wooden bridge while Ellie fell down some steps 🤣 worth it though because the views, as per usual, were stunning.

The waterway between the lighthouse below and the cliffs has been dubbed as the second most dangerous waterway in the world. Strong currents and a hidden reef have made a ship graveyard, so we decided to admire it while safely on land.

After exploring the lagoon and the heads we headed down to the waterfront for sundowners and some food. Tomorrow we will venture out to see what else Knysna has to offer.

Chris, as always, was on baboon watch, but they remained elusive! We did run into this guy though; a Knysna Loerie Turaco, who seemed just as interested in us as we were in him. Turning his tufted green head like a curious puppy, he appeared to be eyeing us up, and decided to get a closer look, swiftly hopping across the branches until he was directly above us.

We spotted old entrances to the mines along the way, and ended at a small waterfall and swimming hole, which felt almost eerily quiet.

After our walk, we jumped back into the car and headed back to East Head, and the cafe with the same name, which had been recommended more than once by locals. Instructed to try either the fish and chips or the curry, we both ordered the former. And it was DELICIOUS!

The beautiful views also helped....

We walked off a couple of the chips on the short stroll from the cafe to the channel between the heads, and of course stopped to admire the view.

Our last stop of the day was Brenton-on-Sea, another beautiful stretch of white sand and crashing waves. We sat on the benches here enjoying the sea breeze relaxing and reading before we headed back.

Not every day can be an Adrenalin filled, action packed, shark diving, mountain climbing day, and we stayed true to today’s slower paced theme, finishing off our evening tucked up with our electric blanket, a hot chocolate and a film on TV. It’s all about balance!!!

It was a gloriously sunny day, and the sun beating down made the views even more \240magical.

We decided to take a break for lunch about a quarter of the way around the trail, which winds it’s way around the peninsula of Plettenberg Bay.

We chose to perch above a colony of seals. Hundreds of them sprawled across the rocks, basking in the midday sun, while a few had ventured into the sea, gliding through the water as they played with each other and rode the crashing waves.

They were great lunch time entertainment; their agility and elegance in the water all the more impressive when compared to the oafish, clumsy version of themselves shuffling around on the rocks.

But the light hearted entertainment quickly became more dramatic when Ellie spotted a shark heading towards the sunbathing seals. We watched with anticipation as the shark scouted out the area, waiting for the opportunity to grab some lunch!

Not sure what outcome we were hoping for, we kept our eyes on the group of seals still playing in the shallows. The shark clearly had it’s eye on them too...

But to our surprise, there was no sense of panic from the seals, and in fact, we watched in awe as two adult seals chased the shark away! Shark 0 - 1 Seals!

We hung around watching the seals evade attack from another great white lurking in the shallows, unable to carry on with our walk when we could see the drama unfolding so clearly through the turquoise water.

Somehow, we managed to tear ourselves away and set off to complete the 11km trail. We shared the path with hundreds of gigantic grasshoppers and expertly camouflaged lizards, and had a birds eye view of a few more colonies of seals on the rocks below.

When we got to the point however, Chris almost fell over the edge with excitement when he spotted a whale launching itself out of the sea and crashing back down with a huge splash. Ellie was gutted to have missed it being inches behind as we came around the rocks, but lucky for us, this particular whale was full of energy, throwing itself out of the water another six or seven times while we stood rooted to the spot, binoculars glued to our eyes. A truly amazing sight!

Again, we had to drag ourselves away so that we could finish the walk before the tide came in and before the sun went down. The second leg, around the other side of the peninsula was a much more adventurous walk. In fact, walk probably isn’t the right word. We clambered over rocks and dodged huge waves, at times wondering whether we were still on the trail at all! But it was a spectacular hike and we even bumped into a huddle of Dassie’s sheltering from the crashing waves.

Finally, we ended back on a clear path, and stopped to taken in the scenery one more time, agreeing that it had been one of our favourite days so far on the trip.

We followed the pair up the coast. As the guide was telling us about this type of whale, amazingly, two other whales appeared on the starboard side. Two Humpback whales to our left and two Southern Right whales to our right, even the guide commented on the rarity of seeing them both together.

The whales performed and we have some great video footage as well as spectacular pictures.

As we turned around to go back to the beach the guide shouted ‘shark’ and for what now seems to be a daily routine we were treated to seeing one of nature’s best predators. A 4 metre Great White swimming right along side our boat and very close to a seal colony.

We have amazing footage of a group of seals spotting him and chasing him off. Just like we saw from the cliffs yesterday. This country really is crazy.

We hadn’t finished yet. The shark dissolved into the depths of the ocean and we pressed on back to the shore. However, as a final treat a family of rare humpback dolphins joined us as they were fishing just meters from the beach.

We thanked our guide for an amazing trip and decided to keep on the animal trail. We drove 20 minutes up the N2 to MonkeyLand. This is a sanctuary for monkeys who have been rescued. No cages, no chains the monkeys are free to roam around and behave like they would in the wild.

Before we even got to the sanctuary a tiny squirrel monkey greeted us. We learned later that the bigger species of monkey protect the squirrel monkeys.

As we headed through the forest we encountered countless monkeys and apes. Our knowledgeable guide explained that 400 monkeys live on the 12 acre woodland.

The most awe inspiring moment was seeing a Gibon swing from branch to branch at lightening speed.

We always suspected that we might get mugged in South Africa and today it happened. Chris was watching a giant tortoise and got separated from the group when quick as a flash a Velvet Langur (the innocent looking grey monkey below) jumped on his rucksack in order to steal his shiny water bottle. Completely taken by surprise Chris swung around and hit the monkey off. Both the monkey and Chris eyed each other for a tense moment and then ran off in opposite directions. What was Ellie doing when this was happening I hear you ask? She was literally crying with laughter of course.

After a fun filled few hours with the monkeys we crossed the road to the largest free flying Avery in the world. Again this was for rescued birds to live a life that is almost wild. 99% of parrots in the Avery were pets that outlived their owners.

Some of the birds were clearly used to human contact and flew in for a closer look.

The bright red birdS had been sent to the Avery from Disneyland as Disney had closed that section of their park.

We had a drink and admired the birds when a worker started telling us stories about the birds. They really were fascinating. The parrots had created little mobs and gangs and terrorise some guests. He pointed out some of the main suspects. He told us about a bird who became addicted to the sugar packets in the cafe and had come up with ingenious ways to break into the cafe. After many more stories we pressed on through the jungle.

As we neared the end of the Avery we witnessed the parrot gang firsthand. The parrot below is the parrot version of Al Capone. He instructs the smaller parrots to attack guests when they are dealing with the smaller parrots Al swoops in and steals a pair of sunglasses or a mobile phone. We witnessed the smaller parrots jump onto a lady in front of us as Al watched on. Luckily, a staff member came running with a squirter and the parrots backed off.

After a full day of animal spotting we headed back to Plettenberg Bay and a restaurant called the Fat Fish. We both had amazing steak and South African wine.

We have both LOVED Plettenberg Bay and will be sad to leave in the morning.

After our energy was restored, we started on yet another glorious South African hike.

The bay was beautiful, while we were looking out over the calm inlet, we noticed a man with a fancy camera taking photos. We had a nose and deduced it must have been a couple of Ganets sitting on a rock. Chris got distracted and started his daily and fruitless search for Baboons. Ellie however spotted the photographers real target, next to the idle sea birds and enormous black tail cane out of the ocean. It had been 24 hours since we last spotted a whale.

The whale was in the sheltered bay as she had recently given birth. We spent most of our walk spotting mother and child breaching or spinning around in the waves.

When we did take our eyes off the ocean for long enough, we hiked over a huge suspension bridge and up a rather steep trail to a look out. Great views and excellent whale watching perch.

For a hike that was meant to take an hour or so we managed to drag out for the whole day.

As we were leaving the park we rounded a corner and Ellie actually gasped as we FINALLY ran into a troop of baboons playing by the roadside. We didn’t have long to enjoy their exploits due to the mounting traffic jam we were causing but they were very impressive.

We headed back to Storms River, which seems like it is stuck in the 1960s and in America. We went to an American diner and ordered milkshakes that probably shortened our life span, but they were worth it.

Later that evening we went to a very quirky restaurant which made incredible Pizza and we got to choose toppings (controversially, Ellie chose pineapple). We polished off a bottle of South African red and went to bed merry.

We were up and out early, wanting as much time as possible in Addo. We received our maps again and the same warning about beetles, and set off just as excited as yesterday.