Electricity Insanity

Electricity in South Africa is insane. Here's why:

The country is currently going through a spate of 'Load Shedding', which is Eskoms (the energy supplier) way of saying 'OK, we can't make enough electricity for everyone so we're just going to turn it off for a while....

Here's some reading on load shedding.

What amazes me is that they can say 'OK, on Friday there's likely to be country wide load shedding.'..

This country gets more sun than I have ever seen, and yet they still use coal and nuclear power - why not solar at both a national and personal level? I can't see why people aren't using personal solar panels on their houses - it seems ludicrous. I guess that solar is expensive but given how suitable it is for this climate i'm sure it's an economically viable solution.

Sunday - Graaf Reinet

We decided to take a walk round Graaf Reinet, and it’s one of the first places beyond Stellenbosh where it actually feels nice just to take a walk and look around. We found probably the biggest collection of taxidermy this side of the Natural History Museum – I didn’t think we could get a full size Springbok including it's frieze back on BA.









We then set of on a drive to locate a meteor impact crater we’d seen on the map. By all accounts is was through a town called Aberdeen and then towards a place called Aberdeen Road – yes you did read that right; a PLACE called Aberdeen Road. To cut a long story short don’t trust anything written in an AA guidebook, they’ve clearly spent too much money on TV adverts in the UK diverting valuable funds from the factual wring department. I think a toddler born in St Petersberg would have been of more use to us on this holiday than the AA book.



Safe to say we didn’t find said crater and in fact when we looked on Google earth when we got back to Cape Town we’d been about 60-100km’s off. One thing I did notice from the drive was how interesting this part of the world is. You go though towns which on the face of it are ghost towns, but there is always people going about their daily routine, chatting on the street, shopping or relaxing. The tows made me feel like we were in Mexico, or at least the picture in my head I have of Mexico, the look, the people all had that feel.



Then back to Graaf Reinet for some Game Viewing, some relaxing by the pool and dinner in town where I had probably the best Spring Bok fillet in the world.

Saturday – Somerset East - Graaf Reinet

Saturday was a monster of a day.


Somerset East

First we drove up to the Mountain Zebra National Park which was excellent. The one thing that stood out was the vastness of the landscape we were within which was far different from anything near Cape Town. The temperature was rising.













We saw lot’s of wildlife In the park, Zebras as you can imagine, but also various antelope and the odd lizard, plus the biggest ants I think I’ve ever seen. Camping is defiantly for the brave round here.


Just in case we saw nothing the visitors centre laid on a bit of a display.










We then had a big drive to Graaf Reinet which is in the middle of the Karoo, essentially hit scrub and desert for miles. On the way we saw a wide range of road kill, most notably black and white striped tails belonging to we imagine some kind of mongoose. Baboons were around but having learnt our lesson last time we kept the doors locked and kept the foot to the floor at a steady 140km/hr – I’d like to see a baboon beat that. The road went through some amazing mountain passes.


Lots of straight roads and not a Roman in sight


Dead tree

Graf Rinet is a really nice town, very colonial. Once we got settled into the B&B we drove up to the Valley of Desolation, which is one of the towns main attractions. It was amazing to see the sun setting over these towing stone structures and then looking beyond to see miles and miles of absolutely nothing.

Friday - Hogsback – Somerset East

We left Hogsback pretty sharpish the next day owing to the weather and the fact that we were beginning to feel like we were in an episode of Twin Peaks, but not before a bit of exploring in the car. This was where the 4x4 was beginning to show itself as being a good choice. All the roads round Hogsback were gravel and mud and the amount of rain we’d had made them quite fun to drive.



At one point we ended up at a really nice little lake. Bird were flying round and swooping down onto the water picking off flies.






The birds didn't want their pictures taken.


The Madonna and Child Falls

The drive to Somerset east took us though some really interesting places, most interestingly lots of really small towns – we were beginning to get a real feel for Small Town South Africa.

Lunch was good.. Although purchasing lunch was fun too – I can’t remember the town but us and our car stood out like a sore thumb. In the supermarket it was defiantly elbows at the ready to get what we wanted – I did curse the locals for the pushing and shoving but then it’s so much easier than pleasantries and language agnostic, I might even use the technique next time I’m in the Post Office in the UK.


Mmmmmmmmmm

We nearly turned round when we got to Somerset East mainly due to the Alkatraz style fencing around our B&B, luckly though we pulled ourselves together and found it to be a really nice place.

We took a drive out into the hills, which again was more gravel, and hence, lot’s of fun.


More if this to come..


Yeah!


Pilot: Rogers, Navigator: McDougall


The Prada Sheep

We ate at the local nightspot – the Blue Crane, lots of sensible shoes and people saying Grace.

Holiday Thursday - Cape Town – East London – Hogsback

Sitting on the tarmac in a 50 seater the week after an engine had dropped of a 737 at CPT was slightly nerve racking for one of the party, but the pilot assured us that planes can fly with only one engine as was witnessed the previous week. My particular solace was observing the various ‘business fashions’ we’d witnessed in the domestic terminal; safe to say South African Business men to tend to have a unique way of dressing. After a uneventful flight we came in for the landing of our lives caused by a particularly harsh crosswind blowing at East London airport. Nicky went white and I have to say that a little colour dropped out of me but it was fun all the same.


East London Airport

First stop after leaving the minuscule East London airport in out Nissan X-Trail was a destination recommended to me by our hair dresser Biancha - Hogsback. The forsight of renting a 4x4 was not to become apparent until later I the week but that’s another story.

Driving along the highway we turned into a road signed as Hogsback. It was raining and slowly as the elevation increased so did the fog and the brown water ominously using the road as a river bed. And then it happened the road turned from Tar to gravel – the first of many to come. Arriving in Hogsback was an eery experience, not being able to see more than a few hundred metres we knew we were in a forest and we knew there we houses set back from the road but not much more could be determined.


Picturesque Hogsback

Once we’d settled into the B&B with no water and a dripping roof we headed back out to explore some of the walks and waterfalls dotted around a very wet and misty Hogsback.


Slightly More View


The 'Truck'



All good fun. We had a pint in probably the smallest pub in the world and then went for dinner at the quietest hotel in Hogsback with a the Adams Family and their 2 Stafordshire Bull Terriers…Oh a note on dogs:

Here’s a tip for anyone owning a hotel or restaurant and has a persuasion for our canine friends: Not everyone likes dogs as much as you do. You might like them licking your plate, or sniffing your dinner or following you to the bog or drooling at you as you eat your dinner, but don’t assume your guests are going to be the same. 2 places where we ate in hogback had dogs, the B&B and the Hogs Back Inn both had dogs and both we’re a real pain. What made it all particularly annoying was when the owners seemed so blasé about keeping them behaved. Nicky got the brunt of Butch the Saffie for most of dinner but the owner and proprietor just kept calling him away rather than properly removing him. I felt like slipping each one of them a poisoned date like in Indiana Jones. I like dog’s just keep them in the fricking garden..

Oh and here’s one I forgot to mention – eating establishments aren’t that abundant on the road from East London to Hogsback – lunch today was at a Wimpy. This low standard if mid day eating was to continue.

Table Mountain Sunset

I don't want to come back to London..