South Africa Trip, 23-29 March 1994

By: Lisa Petersen & Rick Hagen

We flew from Germany to Capetown, South Africa, in March of 1994 to meet a German research vessel and go on an expedition to Antarctica. We rented a car for a week and drove around the Cape Province. There were about 3 South African Rand (ZAR) to a US Dollar at that time. When we returned to Capetown after our expedition, South Africa had a new president and a new flag. Here are the trip details:

23 March, Wednesday, clear, windy & hot, temp about 85F

We arrived in Capetown at about 12:30 local time (2 hours ahead of Greenwich). It was 45 min from Bremen to Frankfurt, 1.5 hours layover at Frankfurt, about 10 hours to Johannesburg with an hour waiting on the plane there, and 2 hours to Capetown. A 4-door Citi Golf (962.38 ZAR per week) was waiting for us at Avis at the airport, but the tourist office there was closed. Avis gave us a map but we wanted info on the Cedarberg Mountains, so we drove into the city to visit the tourist office there. Rick went to the bank (got 979 Rand for 500 DM) while I went to the tourist office. There they had lots of free brochures on commercial tours and everything else cost money. I didn't have any money, but it didn't look like they had anything worth buying. Found out that we could buy a map of Cedarberg once we got there, and that there aren't any campgrounds in the Cape Nature Reserve. So, we drove north on N7 for 4 hours. Very dry like a desert. We stopped at Citrusdal for food at the Spar Market and drove to Algeria Forest Station, arriving a little after 5, only to find out the office and gate to the campground was locked up at 4:30! We drove back to N7 and then north some more to Clanwilliam where we stayed at Clanwilliam Dam Municipal Campground & Chalets. Camping was ZAR18.24 for 2 people without electricity, and cost goes up ZAR4.50 per person. Chalets are ZAR93 for 1 person, bedding included, going up ZAR25 per person. Telephone 027 482 2133. Only 2 other people besides us, and 10 cats. Seemed like all the facilities were new, and they planted trees.

24 March, Thursday, a little cloudy but hot & windy

Left the campground and stopped in town for some food. Drove out to the highway and into Cedarberg again. Found the Forest office open, bought 2 nice maps for ZAR7 each and got a permit for 1 night in the campground for ZAR20. Nice campgroud with tall shade trees, cool green grass, etc. About 10 out of the 46 camp sites were occupied. Ate lunch and then hiked to the waterfall above the campground (1 of 2 hikes they let you do without a permit) which took 2 hours. Went back to the forest office for information about driving on to Ceres, and the lady called about availability of campsites at Kromrivier where we wanted to stay the next night. Walked over to see mama cat & 3 kittens in the bush. They don't allow plastic ground sheets or music, but they did have toilet paper. Didn't see any animals, including the 2- legged variety, on the hike. Quite a few protea trees.

25 March, Friday, clear, hot & windy

It got cold last night...glad we brought the down bags. Drove on to Kromrivier (scenic over the pass, but otherwise dull) which turned out to be a privately-owned farm with camping facilities, chalets and horseback rides for tourists. At the office, a very nice English lady told us about things to do in the area, including short walks, and told us to go look at the campground. It was kind of a sad campground. Grass was dry, few trees, toilets looked like they hadn't been used in days and no one else was there, but we stayed. Went back to the office to get a cold coke, and the lady told us she's lived in South Africa since 1940 and doesn't like it because of all the violence. She gave us a map and gate key to go to the Bushman cave paintings nearby, and we went to see those. They weren't very impressive. She wasn't sure how old they were, but she mentioned something about them being made around somebody's great-grandfather's time, so they're not too old. Came back, returned the key & map, bought homemade bread and juice from the lady and went back to camp. Didn't do much else the rest of the day. Played with the guinea hen, went for a short walk in the evening.

26 March, Saturday, cloudy, cool, some rain

Got up a little after 7 and were driving out at 8 am! Packing up goes a lot quicker when you don't have anything to eat (actually, we had some bread and grape juice). Drive to Ceres was much better than N7!! No traffic, nice mountain passes, even saw some animals (5 deer-like animals, perhaps called the Common Duiker, and 2 black baboons). The dust was not too bad, but we didn't see any restaurants, stores or petrol stations until we got to Prince Albert Hamlet. We stopped there to buy gas (ZAR66.30 for 38.3 liters of leaded 97 octane, or about US$2/gallon) and to fix the driver's windshield wiper that had gone off the windshield to the right and wouldn't come back! The gas station guy found a loose bolt, and another customer loaned us a wrench to tighten it, so we were all set. Then we went to Ceres to try to buy food, but stores were mobbed with shoppers (all black) and Rick couldn't get in the door (11 am on Saturday)!! Found another store on the other side of town with few customers (all of which happened to be white), so Lisa ran in there and got some goodies. Stopped for more food in Paarl. Then we drove to Franschhoek and to Grabouw (more nice scenery) and then to N2, Highway 310 (the drive along the ocean). We saw a large shanty town called Cape Flats built upon sand, thousands of 1 story shacks with tall street lights sticking up here and there. On the beach were fishermen and some surfers. In some areas we saw miniature golf, waterslides and picnic areas. We ended up camping at Imhoff Park in the town of Kommetjie for ZAR41. We walked along the beach for about an hour and played with a large German Shepherd who liked to play fetch with kelp sticks.

27 March, Sunday, clear, windy, hot, and really windy at night

It rained last night but it was clear this morning! Took showers, finished off the watermelon (cheap - only ZAR.59 per kg), then took off to the Nature Reserve. Entrance fee was ZAR5 per car plus ZAR3 per person. We drove on all the roads. Saw some bonteboks, ostriches and red hartebeests. Stopped at the self-serve information center and picked up some pamphlets. Went to the old lighthouse on top of the hill (a tourist destination) that has been replaced with a lower one because it was too often up in the mist and not visible. Bought a coke there for ZAR2. We saw some shipwrecks at some of the beaches. Funny that they don't allow plant-picking but they do allow fishing. Left the park about 1:30 and drove the rest of the way around the Indian ocean side of the peninsula to Simons Town. Stopped at what I thought was a t-shirt shop and it turned out to be a native handicrafts shop run by a (white) woman in her late 50's who was born and raised on a ranch in Botswana. Had an interesting conversation with her when I asked her how South Africa is different from the rest of Africa. She said she's not so convinced that influencing the blacks with the European way of life is such a good thing, and she's afraid a lot of tribal culture (art) will be lost with time. She said about 16% of the population of RSA is white. We walked around town a little bit more, saw other tourist shops but none seemed as authentic. We drove south in search of a campground and ended up at Oatlands Park. We stayed there for ZAR25. Nice place with TV room, pool, trampoline, and hardly any campers. Ate in Simons Town at an "Eastern" restaurant that didn't have most of the menu items available, but the calamari turned out to be really good.

28 March, Monday, windy morning, clear, temp about 80F

Drove the scenic way back to Capetown. Amazing how big and nice the beaches are but there's no one on them!! Once in Capetown, we searched for the ship in the harbor and finally found it - way out at the far end.

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