Almost Ready to Hit the Road!

Kuilsrivier, Cape Town, September 28

A Cape dwarf chameleon found living in a tree at African Overlanders

It's 8:30 pm and we're installed in our new home for the next four nights, a small guesthouse in the Cape Town suburbs. We are much closer to departing on our around-Africa adventure than we were two weeks ago; when we check out of this guesthouse on Sunday, we should be ready to start driving north towards Botswana.

My former physics student Michelle and her fiance Carl

Five new Goodyear Wranglers to carry Stanley north

When I last updated the blog, I was in a holding pattern, waiting for Terri to arrive, and waiting for our car to come back from the garage with a new differential. Terri arrived on time on Friday, September 16th, but our bakkie (as a pickup truck is called here in South Africa) did not arrive that Friday as originally promised. We waited, waited some more, did some video editing for our new YouTube channel, sorted through photos, got our Carnet de Passage en Douanes from the South African AA, and did a lot of reading, drinking tea and braaing (grilling) delicious steaks, boerewors sausages and sosaties (meat skewers). We also got to reunite with my former student Michelle to whom I taught physics in Switzerland 12 years ago, and who now lives and works in Cape Town; it was great to get away from African Overlanders and into the genteel surroundings of a Stellenbosch winery!

Stanley put back together again at DB Custom Welding

We ended up waiting an entire week longer than initially promised, until finally, late on the afternoon of Friday, September 23rd, we got Stanley back. It was a frustrating wait, but at least he came back in working order. We immediately raced out and got new tires installed (most of ours were pretty shredded!) and then, only a day and a half later, we handed over the vehicle again, this time to Dewald, an aluminum welder who repaired, strengthened and re-seated the camper canopy back in the loadbed of the truck. On Monday of this week (only two short days ago!) we finally got the vehicle back, its two halves reunited into one whole unit. An hour and a half of frantic wiring by Danie, the mechanic at African Overlanders, and we finally had a working camper.

Terri on top of the huge map of Africa at Cape Agulhas

Most of the gear that will get carted around in the camper is locked into a container at African Overlanders, as we were under instructions from our differential guys not to overstrain the new differential for its first few hundred kilometers. We packed a minimal kit into the camper yesterday morning and set off for Cape Agulhas, the southernmost point on the African continent. It was a longish drive (about three hours), good for testing out the diff, the engine and the general operational readiness of our setup. Stanley passed the test with flying colours, and we got to Agulhas happy with Stanley's performance.

Straddling two oceans at Cape Agulhas

Yesterday was a perfect day in terms of weather, and Agulhas looked stunning, with sunshine glinting on the big breakers crashing onto the shore. Big kelp forests bobbed in the water, streaming through the swell of the waves, while cormorants and gulls sat on the limestone rocks that studded the shoreline. There was a well-conceived monument to Africa's southernmost point, in the shape of a 16-metre-long concrete map of the continent, with a few big landmarks like Kilimanaro, the Zambezi, the Nile and the Atlas Mountains standing out. We wandered across the monument, visualizing our own upcoming journey, then drove a bit further along the coast to a picturesque shipwreck just offshore. It was a really beautiful spot, and put us in a good mood after too many days spent waiting for our vehicle.

That evening we drove partway back to Cape Town and slept in the beautiful tourist town of Hermanus. The town of Agulhas looked wealthy, with plenty of grand houses, but Hermanus looked even more well-to-do, with grand houses lining the clifftops that wouldn't have been out of place in wealthy New Zealand or Australian beach communities. Both towns run on tourism, both domestic and international, and also seem to attract well-off retirees from all over South Africa. They are also visibly less worried about crime than a city like Cape Town, with far fewer razor-wire-topped walls and security gates to be seen.

Sunset over Hermanus

The clifflined shore of Hermanus

This morning we walked along the cliff-top walkways that encircle the bay in Hermanus, past the hundreds of species of endemic plantlife that make the Cape Town coast one of the most biodiverse places of earth, particularly in terms of botany. There were a couple of dozen of species in bloom, and I took lots of photos of colourful flowers, as well as cute and cuddly rock hyraxes (dassies) who were soaking up the sun and munching on the vegetation. This was, however, only a sideshow; the main event was taking place out in the waters of the bay, where a couple of dozen Southern right whales were swimming along lazily, surfacing frequently, turning sideways to stick fins out of the water, blowing spouts of water into the air, and generally making great photographic subjects. It was really very pretty, and made for a memorable walk.

Thar she blows!

A pair of Southern right whales

A somnolent rock hyrax

Kelp forest

Then, after a luxurious seafood lunch on the shore, gazing out at the whales, it was time to head back to Cape Town. We still have a few things to do before leaving town: a small crack in Stanley's chassis needs to be welded, we have to get his steering tightened up, we have new stickers for his side hatch to be applied to smarten up his rather road-worn appearance, and we need to get all of our gear safely squared away inside the camper for transport, plus our diff guy wants to have one final once-over on the diff to make sure there are no unexpected problems in the future.

By Sunday we hope to be northbound, headed towards the Kalahari and wildlife. This two-day interlude in Agulhas and Hermanus has reminded us how much more we prefer beautiful open spaces and wildlife to the humdrum existence in big cities like Cape Town. We look forward to even more wide open vistas and more wonders of the natural world as we make our way north into Botswana and Zambia!

Me and Stanley at Cape Agulhas; it's all northbound from here!