I’m finally sharing with you all our INCREDIBLE trip last summer to South Africa and Namibia! This was one of the most incredible trips of my life. I tend to plan our trips around countries and continents that have an animal I’m obsessed with and since my husbands spirit animal is the Honey Badger, we were on a mission to see one! It took us one full year to map out our trip. We knew since we were driving we had to study the route and roads to plan our stops. Initially, we wanted to get a Toyota Hilux with an attached camper so we could alternate between hotels and campsites. We wanted to camp some nights at the NWR Campsites but we had a difficult time acquiring a camper. It ended up working out better for us and well if I’m being honest I’m not as rouge as I used to be. I always tell my husband that “I’m more rico than Eco” !!! I prefer comfort as I’m sure many of you feel me on this!
In August we departed from our home in Italy and landed in Cape Town. It was a 15-hour flight and really comfortable on Emirates. I had the pleasure of sitting next to a wonderful woman who relocated from London to SA and opened an Artist Space in Muizenberg called The Commons.https://thecommons.co.za . Such a cool spot that I highly recommend! This Beach community is so freaking cool. There’s a lot of fantastic food options here also for Vegans. Every week there are different live performances so check their site for live music, poetry, art, yoga and meditation classes. We stayed at The Raddison RED Cape Town V&A Waterfront for our first few nights in Cape Town. From The rooftop bar you can see Table Mountain,which we hiked the next day and being in the Silo District we were walking distance to everything.
Breakfast here is also REALLY good. I’m not a breakfast person outside of vacation but when you’re on holiday you need to start your day with something right ! Instead of walking we rented an E-Bike through Electrek http://www.electrek.co.za and it was so fun! Like after a 15-hour flight, indulging in amazing food and hiking table mountain we decided that checking out CapeTown on an E-bike would allow us to cover more ground and we had so much fun doing it! A few dinner spots we had a lovely evening at were Belly of the Beast http://bellyofthebeast.co.za great tasting menu and excellent wine list, Gold http://goldrestaurant.co.za, a fun place with really amazing real African food. Bouchon http://bouchon.co.za it’s like tapas style (UM no the plates were good size and filling!) But the service was very good and their local wine recommendations were wonderful pairings for our lunch.
On that wine note we picked up our 4×4
and drove along the SA Whale Coastal Route to our next spot Hermanus then Stellenbosch. I’m the queen of pamphlets and guides I have to take one from every spot we go. I get that I phones are amazing for this kind of stuff but guys I get so much joy from reading an actual pamphlet and guidebook. Also maps. I LOVE maps and globes. You get the idea. I took some shots of the ones I took and they were (aside from locals telling us what was up) REALLY helpful and also give you some good insight and history about the area. I’m dorky and love this info. We stayed at Whale Rock Luxury Lodge http://www.whalerock.co.za.
This is without a doubt one of the most incredible places I’ve ever stayed at. The owners were so kind, everything was fantastic here literally every detail. Mind you it’s winter time and being on the coast it’s freezing cold our room was so warm and cozy with the most comfortable bed and linens. We had our whale watching and shark diving excursions the next two days so we took a beautiful walk around the cape and OMG you guys for me my first animal trip out were the DASSIES!! The Dassie / Rock Hyrax is the cutest coolest animal EVER with it’s sweet cranky face. So much fun to see these critters around.
We had a beautiful lunch that day at Perlemoen. It had just opened a week prior I believe but it’s located in the Old Harbour on the harbour’s edge. It’s such an incredible view hiking down to the rock platform and then you’re hanging with dassies , and eating the most incredible , fresh caught fish and seafood with DASSIES and it’s the most spectacular view! The old Harbour here was the first abalone hatchery how cool is that! For dinner we went to The Fisherman’s cottage http://fishermanscottage.co.za and we had the most incredible Malva pudding of our life. It was our first time having it and let me tell you this place spoiled me because for the rest of the trip I didn’t have any other Malva Pudding that lived up to that one!! I also had their Thai Red curry and it was so fresh and 100% authentic Thai.
Whale watching was eventful and we spotted many Southern Right Whales as August is their breeding season. Shark Diving was cancelled due to bad weather and I’m NOT mad about it. I mean yes it would have been cool and scary fun but it was off to Boulders Beach to see the African Penguins
then the Cape of Good Hope!
What a beautiful drive. For real though this western Cape side of SA is just wow. So Blue, green, the most incredible sunrises and sunsets. We saw so many Baboons in the road on our way in and they have zero fear of cars and people so make sure you take your time driving through the park to the cape point. The Cape of Good Hope left me feeling so peaceful. I’ve always wanted to come here and now I can check that off! We had our last lunch at a cozy fun spot called Lizette’s http://www.lizetteskitchen.com and caught the first half of the Springbok’s vs New Zealand match which was so so fun with the locals. We had really good Thai and Vietnamese food here which was a nice change because unless I cook it myself I never get to have it back home so I’m always happy in our travels when we find my food!! The next two days we stayed in Stellenbosch at the http://eendracht-hotel.com and did two tastings one at http://creationwines.com and Stellenbosch. Creation had a lovely lunch and tasting menu so we did that and then just strolled around town a bit. It’s small but with a lot of cute shops, cafes. We kinda just chilled out knowing that we had an entire day of driving to get to Namibia so we recharged here and did our laundry, got SIM cards, you know the life errands you do to make your holiday smooth.
South Africa was super fun and safe. Totally go ladies even solo! There’s SO MUCH I’m probably forgetting because we literally found so many cool spots but if you’re planning a trip and you want any tips I have way more I can send your way! I’m working on my camera skills forgive me as I’m NOT a professional BEHIND the camera and I was truly in the moment savoring every second as we should when we are traveling. It’s about the journey isn’t it? XO