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| December 2006 - South Africa Part 1 | |
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went to South Africa for the wedding of Craig and Janine - friends from
London, but as well as the wedding we did some touring around, here are
some pictures from the first part of our trip, in and around Capetown,
then along the Garden Route.
Now South Africa doesn't always get the best press at the moment, and sure enough they do have big issues to deal with in regard to crime and violence - but what the international media (and some expat Saffers) don't mention is that South Africa as a country is amazingly beautiful, very friendly and totally welcoming - and definitely worth and adventure (or two or three). |
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| Leaving
from Vic Falls we flew via J'burg onto Capetown where we based ourselves
in the beautiful wine town of Franschhoek for the week around the wedding.
After the wedding we drove along the stunning garden route to Kynsna, then onto Craig's hometown of Port Elizabeth, from where we flew back to J'berg to start Part 2, for those of you a bit rusty on South African geography here it is: |
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Here's Greg standing right in the way of an otherwise beautiful picture of the Capetown waterfront and Table mountain in the background: |
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| The city is really pretty, but not half as nice as the beaches just south of the city - here is Cath on Camps bay, and yes the horizon around Capetown always looks this dramatic: | |
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| We headed down the peninsula to the cape of good hope, here is the view along the Chapmans Peak Road: | |
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| The peninsula is edged by stunning bays and beaches, here is the beach at Noordhoek: | |
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Here we are (greg still hiding from the sun after his sunburn in Zim) standing at the lighthouse on the end of the Cape of Good Hope - sure its not quite the southern most point of Africa - but its close enough! |
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| Heading back up the coast we saw lots and lots and lots and lots of penguins (and took lots and lots and lots of photos of them too) - yes they are cute cath - you're right! | |
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| In Franshoek we stayed in this beautiful ex-slave cottage, now if the karma in that building aint going to give you a good nights sleep, I don't know what will! But seriously it was beautiful and Franshoek is one of the most beautiful towns we have seen: | |
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| Not everyone in SA gets to live in a town as beautiful as Franshoek, here is a picture of the massive shanty town along the N2 heading out of Capetown, | |
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| Here is pic of the scenery from an amazing restaurant Janine and Craig took us to called Moyo - apart from being the biggest restaurant we have ever seen - it also served an amazing range of African food with live music and great cocktails: | |
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| At Moyo obviously the first thing we had to do was paint our faces, so everyone knew were tourists! | |
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| Luckily Craig and Janine played along so we didn't feel quite so stupid: | |
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| Their wedding was two days later, here they are at the alter, getting a few marriage tips from the priest: | |
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| Here
is a sideways view of Janine leading the wedding dance:
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| The reception was held at the historic Boschendal wine farm, here is just one view from the vineyard: | |
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| After the wedding we headed east to along the garden route to Kynsna, where we stayed in the Phantom Forest resort, this place is reason enough to visit SA - here we have Greg getting ready to take a dip in our balcony hot tub: | |
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| We were staying in one of their tree houses, here can see Cath sleeping a hard day off, just behind is the glass walled shower area - definitely not for the modest: | |
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| And heres a picture off our balcony at dawn on Christmas morning - just stunning, here is link to their website to check out the views and other pictures: | |
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| After three days of doing nothing, we tore up the coast to PE, where we caught a flight onto the J'Berg and onto our Safari - more later. | |