We’re finally here!

What’s included: from now on, I’ve divided the trip blogs into sections:

A quick-fire facts and stats and highlights at the top – for those of you low on patience!

And a longer form narrative below; with a very short summary of what’s coming up next right at the end.

Highlight: all of it so far! Feeling very over-excited and grateful to be here
Lowlight: delayed flights from London causing 15 hr delay and an extra flight via Dubai
Kms driven: 127
From: Cape town to: Hermanus
Scenery highlight: Views from Table Mountain (surprisingly impressive); the coast drive along R44/Clarence Drive from Cape Town to Hermanus
Writing this blog from: the veranda in our Airbnb in Hermanus
Feeling mostly: excited; anticipation; awe
Fear of the week: will Penelope be ok when we pick her up?
Wildlife encounter of the week: beautiful Southern Right Whales – not just so close from the boat, but all along the coast.
Wildlife fact of the week: only 4% of Southern Right whales are born quite white – it’s not an albinism, they will go slightly darker grey as they get older. They are known as brindles. And we saw a baby one!
Food highlight: our meal in Lizettes in Hermanus. European/Asian fusion deliciousness
Mistake of the week: sunscreen error
Chore of the week: repacking and reorganising all equipment and luggage in Penelope so that we have what we need in the right places
Simplest pleasure: watching the sea (always a favourite), hearing frogs croaking in the twilight as we watched the crashing waves
Fact of the week: South Africa currently has an energy crisis, which results in regular ‘load shedding’ where power is turned off for a certain number of hours a day
Car maintenance: the drainage hose for the air conditioning has come off, causing water to drip into the passenger footwell. A simple fix.
Piece of gear of the week: John’s new binoculars – perfect for this trip, SO much to see
We are right to… have had a week’s holiday at the start. Realised how much we needed it.
Budget note: relief that my calculations on fuel costs of filling Penelope seem to be accurate thus far, and on the conservative side. Phew!
Why on earth did we bring? So many clothes!
New hashtag alert: follow #jolope2021 * #penelopecruiser

It was the smell of the kelp. Sitting in our infinity pool in the early morning at the extremely good hotel at Cape Town that we’d treated ourselves to at the start of the trip (which turned out to be a smart move after a 34-hour journey due to storms and delayed flights), the briny smell simultaneously reminded us of home by the sea in Brighton, and also signalling that we were somewhere very different.

And that’s how Cape Town felt overall – some European familiarities with enough differences to know that we had finally arrived. This balance gently easing us into the next three months, and I was very glad that I’d made the decision to have more of a ‘holiday’ for the first week.

Having done a previous trip, I already knew the natural parts of overlanding life which would become tedious, and was also aware that more adventurous trips require more from you than a holiday. More planning, more thinking, more being ‘on alert’ at times, more logistics, more responsibility…and of course, all of that comes with more reward.

This infinity pool overlooked the dramatic scenery of the Cape – the waves crashing loudly into the rocks and sea defences, the strong wind taking the tops off the waves, and me watching in admiration as sea kayakers paddled strongly out – then surfing the waves back in.

Due to quite a bit of wind and cloud, the sunscreen error occurred – despite my history and generally being super careful – I was overtaken with joy in the moment of swimming and watching the mesmerising waves, time passed so quickly and I caught the sun on my face. After John joined me (he’s usually a later riser than me) he also caught, and we’re almost glad that happened on the first day – it’s reminded us of the need to be vigilant, particularly as we head, in the coming weeks, into temperatures nearing 40 degrees (or more).

Before we left Cape Town, our Table Mountain visit was surprisingly good – that isn’t to say that we thought it would be rubbish, purely that big tourist attractions are sometimes overhyped/priced. True to its’ nature, we had all weathers at the top, gorgeous sunshine and spectacularly clear views, as well as freezing mist, eerie in its disorientating mass.

We took the cable car rather than hike – we both wanted to hike it but with weather looking changeable, we thought it wiser to get the car. I was also still knackered and would rather tackle the three hour hike when feeling fitter – or at least slightly more alive! I did quite well in the cable car, despite having a few ‘moments’ (my fear of heights ever lurking). We also witnessed a proposal at the top of the mountain– which was very sweet. There was a round of applause and people taking pictures and the happy couple were quite taken aback with the attention.

We enjoyed just two nights in Cape Town before heading off to Hermanus. The destination was on recommendation from a friend (thank you, Elspeth), this is where is best for whale watching. Despite all his travels, John had never seen a whale, (or travelled south of the equator) and I can never pass up an opportunity to see such magnificent creatures.

In order to make the journey, we had to first collect our baby! We’d both been saying that we’d been really looking forward to seeing her – which seemed silly – but we wanted to check she was ok after her (also much delayed) journey here. We’d used an agent, Duncan, from African Overlanders, to ship her, and he had kept her at his farm until we arrived.

Duncan told us how – at the start of Covid – with many overlanders in Africa either having to head home or make other plans or risk being stranded – he had over 100 vehicles at his place. He’s still got an impressive collection, as people leave their rigs for a few weeks or months whilst they do other things, knowing that they’ll be safe.

It was great to see her again – and my favourite thing is how she smells. Because she’s 27 years old, she has that ‘old car smell’ that you just can’t really describe or replicate. It’s a sort of dusty, musty, diesel-y mixture (sounds delicious, right?! But when you know, you know!) And when I sit in her, I love it – it smells of adventure, of the open road and of possibility. (Back in lockdown winter last year, I just used to go and sit in her, on the drive in Brighton, inhaling the smell, and dreaming. It definitely helped lift my mood on some darker lockdown days).

We chatted quite a while with Duncan – I was feeling excited and a little nervous…now that we were really here, and all was well, we now had to set off. On our own. Out into it. I was relieved when John confessed later that he felt the same – and that he kept asking Duncan questions because as long as we were chatting, we weren’t having to set off!

But that soon passed as we hit the road – the scenery helped. Driving through Stellenbosch (a famous wine region), and with mountains continuously in view, with cloudless blue skies, it wasn’t hard to feel happy. Having taken Duncan’s recommendation to take the R44 along the coast (Clarence Drive), we enjoyed more spectacular views, reminding us both of some of the roads in Turkey last year, of the west coast of California, and, in places, reminiscent of the Pacific Coast Highway in NSW, Australia.

Having now spent a few days in Hermanus, there is more that reminds me of other places. A delightful seaside town, I recall many similar on the east coast of Australia, and the cliff walk with the gorgeous views very similar to parts of the Coogee to Bondi coastal walk in Sydney.

We stayed in a delightful Airbnb, Garden Cottage, with lovely host Annie, and we were their first British guests as they set this up and then COVID happened. We had a gorgeous veranda with extremely strong and beautifully smelling jasmine and honeysuckle surrounding it – a gem of a place to write a blog, drink a morning tea or coffee (obvs not for me, tea and coffee = bleurgh!) and simply relax.

The highlight has been the whales. It is never guaranteed how successful a boat trip will be, but we were informed that the Southern Right whales also come in right close to the cliffs as it is quite deep (but shallow enough for the mothers to be raising their calves here, in Walker Bay, which is why there is such a healthy population). Some of the whales have started their journey south to their feeding grounds already, but there are quite a number of mother and calf pairs remaining at the moment. To be honest, neither of us feel that you can ever really have a bad day on a boat, so it was simply a pleasure to be out on the water – particularly as there will be very little coast or swimming action for us in the next two months (any water is likely to be riddled with hippos and crocodiles and we’ll be staying as far away from them as we can!)

We were apparently ‘extremely lucky’ on our trip, according to our excellent and very knowledgeable host, Brandon, of Southern Right Charters. We saw a number of pairs, and some were right next to the catamaran at times, but we also saw a rare ‘brindle’ (a white calf, only 4% are born this way), and a ‘nutter’ of a youngster going crazy with upside-down tail slaps and manic activity! At one point, it looked as if the mother came over, and turned him the right way up as if to say “that’s enough now, dear”! I’m sure many parents can relate.

On a cliff walk later that day we then saw many whale pairs – as promised – and spent quite some time watching them with John’s new binoculars. Having never had a pair myself, I can now understand why people spent hours glued to them, just taking in the scenes, it’s incredibly relaxing and quite mindful – caught in the moment, just observing.

For anyone considering a trip down this way, I’ve remarked a couple of times how one could easily spend a couple of weeks on holiday in this area, depending on what your interests are. Plenty of wildlife; stunning scenery; easy to get around; safe; great food; world class wine; opportunities for hikes, boats, kayaks, cycles, drives; gorgeous beaches; a lot of history, and, Hermanus itself has a lot of artists and artistic events. It’s also a great place to just ‘be’.

What’s next:

We’ve finally got clarity on whether or not a version of the Matriarch Adventure that I was hoping to join in Namibia is going ahead (sadly, it isn’t). Inspiring host Catherine Edsell FRGS has done all she could, but it is not to be this time, thanks to Covid complications.

This means that we’ll be heading straight into Botswana (VERY exciting!) by the start of November, and that exact route is still TBC, but it is likely we’ll be heading up to Moremi (and the Okavango Delta) via Kubu Island and Nxai Pan in the Makgadikgadi National Park.

As with everything on this trip from now on, it will be road condition/weather dependent and we shall play it by ear. From there, we’ll spend a few weeks in Moremi Reserve and Chobe National Park and head to Victoria Falls. After that, it’s back west through the area of Namibia known as the Caprivi Strip, (just above the top of Botswana), and into Namibia.

*#jolope2021 = Jo(John) + Lo (Lottie) + Pe (Penelope) = Team Jolope :)

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P.P.S. If you haven’t checked out our beloved Penelope yet, the YouTube Channel has an introduction to her and our set up.