12 July –
Wow. Today is such a mix of emotions. On the one hand, Mark is flying back home to China, so we will miss him. On the other hand, we are very excited that the rest of us get to head out on an exciting new adventure to Cape Town.
It's early morning when we say good bye to Mark (I sure hope he has an excellent flight home!). We're heading the Johannesburg airport to catch our flight on Mango…yes, you read that correctly….Mango. As in the fruit. It's also the name of an airline in South Africa. Cool beans!
So…check in at the airport was a little amusing- remember how Croydon's wallet was stolen? The credit card he used to purchased our plane tickets was also stolen. Unfortunately, you need to show the credit card you used to make the purchase the plane tickets at check-in. It took a while and a few phone calls but at last they let us check in.
Two happy (& slightly sad) girls. Obviously they miss their dad but it's hard not to be excited about going some place new and different!
That was a quick flight to Cape Town!
Debbie and Croydon are now picking up the rental car….
Our rental car:
Do you see that mountain off in the distance? I asked one of the men helping us check out our rental car where Table Mountain is and he pointed to that mountain. Wow! THAT IS Table Mountain!?!? Cool!!!!!!
We've got our car and we're heading first to a grocery store to pick up lunch and dinner. There's a sushi restaurant where we picked up sushi to go for lunch. Yummy!
Time to head back out on the open road.
We're heading to a rooibos tea farm – Elandsberg Eco Tourism.
It'll be a few hours of driving according to the GPS.
As we're leaving Cape Town it looks like shack town:
Views from the road:
Debbie is back with the kids; enjoying her sushi lunch-to-go:
Apparently we're getting close to our destination. We're driving down this dirt road that is lined with wild growing winter squash and sheep.
We're here! Our final destination for today:
Such a lovely and green garden:
We briefly met the proprietors, Chris and Annette (a lovely retired couple). They showed us to our rooms. Here's our bedroom:
Annika in the living space of our room:
Since it's winter it's really not the correct season to visit the rooibos tea farm (the plants have been cut back to stubs…so not much to see). Chris said we should drop off our stuff into our rooms and he'd take us on a quick tour of the fynbos before the sun sets. I'm amused and in love with his old jalopy (and it's four-wheel drive!). Off we go!
So maybe it's not the right time to visit the rooibos tea farm BUT the wild rooibos is growing. Hey, are you familiar with rooibos tea? No? You should give it a try! It's something that comes ONLY from South Africa. And this plant down below is a wild rooibos plant:
Check out the gorgeous surroundings:
fyn·bos
noun \ˈfān-ˌbȯs\
Definition of FYNBOS
Origin of FYNBOS
Taking a stroll through the fynbos:
Chris also explained that the Cape Floral Kingdom was one of the six floral kingdoms in the world – and the smallest BUT richest per unit of area. It only encompasses SA.
Tiny flowers. Even the tiniest plants make a big impact here. Somehow this reminds me of the alpine ecosystem. Both have learned to survive- THRIVE – under harsh conditions (summer heat here).
Chris shows many different kinds of plants. Each has a unique adaptation that allows it to thrive here.
Chris is showing us photos of this area in different seasons. Like I mentioned, even the tiniest, obscure plants put on quite a colorful display in different seasons.
Protea:
Another protea:
Long shadows (it IS winter here even if it doesn't LOOK like it):
Chris was great! I was really please as to how he managed to keep the kids engaged in our tour. I know sometimes these sorts of things of activities can alienate the younger crowd but Chris was great at keep it lively and interesting:
Chris's very old jalopy. Isn't it awesome? His door is held closed BY A STICK. Yes. Very cool, no???
As you can tell…the sun is slowly starting its descent:
One quick stop at these caves:
Chris tells us a little bit more about the geology in the area:
The caves themselves are a work of art:
We make one more stop before heading back to the B&B – Chris gives us a quick tour of the rooibos tea production line. It's not correctly running and there wasn't anyone there so it was just a quick walk through. One thing that struck out at me was the number of sieves/filters. The final product is very fine and without sticks.
Time to head back to the B&B.
Thankfully Annette has a fire going in their fireplace. While it's not very cold here I'm still feeling a little chilled from our fynbos ride. Annette also made a brew using rooibos tea that the girls are IN LOVE WITH. It reminded me of kinderpunsch (hot apple juice with spices and tea). Yum. They also have a variety of rooibos teas for us to try. The girls have declared that they LOVE rooibos tea. :-) What's not to like?
They have a tiny shop here and the girls and I have picked out several different kinds of rooibos teas to take home. Obviously we're going to take this tea home with us! (do you know what's weird though? They don't take credit cards. Sigh. I wasn't prepared for that.)
Check out this lovely flower basket:
Time to wind down for the evening. The grown-ups are in the living area of the B&B while the kids are off. I know Annika is off taking a shower. Huh. Ava just came in to tell us that there is a big spider in our bedroom. I think I'd better go check this out.
YEP.
That's one BIG, I mean HUGE, spider!
Thankfully Croydon to the rescue! He smacked the big old spider with a broom (the spider is the size of my hand). The spider falls on to the floor and the boys and I (who've been attentively watching this process) run SCREAMING and SCREECHING (the boys anyway) from the room. We nearly run over Debbie in the process. She's laughing her head off at us!!! Hey, a giant spider falling on the floor which appears to be chasing us is NOT funny. Okay. It is. Super funny.
Annette said it was a grass spider and that they're harmless. She said that they have two resident spiders. *gulp* Make that one. They even had names. I'm pretty sure we killed Charlotte. Whoops. Still, there was NO WAY I was going to sleep in a room with a giant spider …knowing that it could crawl over to me. EEP! That gives me the heebie jeebies!!!! Guess what? Apparently Annika saw the spider before heading into the shower and failed to mention it to us. Hmpf.
After a quick dinner we picked up at the market in Cape Town it's time for bed.
Good morning! There's a gorgeous breakfast ready for us in the living area of the B&B:
Fruits stewed in rooibos tea. Yum!
The fire is most welcome!
The girls are loving drinking different rooibos teas. Rooibos tea is one tea but they offer rooibos teas that are also mixed – with either natural flavorings, spices and herbs, or other special South African plants (known for medicinal purposes or taste). Annika likes the mint and chai tea blends. I love the honeybush and chai blend as well.
Check out our lovely breakfast…eggs and bacon with fruits and yummy bread:
Our lovely hostess, Annette:
Just outside the living area. See that flag? That's the South African flag. I really like the bright happy colors! Today is a cloudy day… it makes the area look more ethereal.
Group photo with Annette and the Jalopy:
We're packed up, we've eaten breakfast and chatted with our hosts …now it's time to load back into the rental car and head to our next destination: Stellenbosch (known for its wine!).