29 December 2010
My Christmas present from David was a two night stay at the Shelley Point Country Club. Not having enough time to visit Namibia this at least would give us an opportunity to see a small glimpse of the west coast. Heading north out of Cape Town we entered the gate to the West Coast National Park paying our 80 Rand for the privilege. The price goes up even more when all the spring flowers are out but it must be well worth it for the whole region becomes a carpet of flowers. The sun shone down from a clear blue sky and the shallow Langebaan lagoon was many shades of turquoise. At Kraalbaai beach in the north western part, dozens of Capetonians were here to picnic, swim or kitesurf. On the Atlantic side there is a beach that stretches for sixteen miles. Today the wind was blowing like crazy, the beach deserted. With just under two weeks to go before we head out there, we both expressed the wish that it will be a whole lot more benevolent when the time comes. We lunched at the Geelbek restaurant, a Dutch style colonial house which is within the park's visitor centre and finally arrived at our hotel late into the afternoon. The whole development had been built on a sandy peninsula jutting out into St Helena Bay. It was five star luxury but sadly with two star catering. On our second day we drove to neighbouring Paternoster via a gravel road hoping to find the sleepy peaceful fishing village that was described in my guide book but the place had been "discovered" and again Capetonians had turned out in force for the day. Well it was their holiday too! This whole stretch of coastline has been mapped out for development on a massive scale, not surprisingly for it has endless deserted beaches backed by high sand dunes. But already many of the small communities have become "water stressed" by this over development. We headed inland and found ourselves driving on the same endless, empty straight roads that we had driven with Sue and Donald on our East Cape travels. For many miles we saw nothing but flat arid land but nearing the mountain range, the Swartland, to the north of Cape Town, vast fields of wheat, were interspersed with cattle, sheep and ostrich farms. Swartland is translated in Afrikaans as Black Ground in reference to the fertile soil that supports a flourishing wheat and wine industry. Returning to Franschhoek we found the place heaving with holidaymakers, the restaurant where we wished to eat packed with people. In peak holiday season the best restaurants can be booked up weeks in advance. Clearly the time to visit places like this is after the Christmas and New Year period. Back at Hout Bay marina Voyageur remained securely tied to her berth. The wind had been blowing relentlessly for the three days that we had been away, the 'tablecloth' firmly wrapped around Table Mountain.
Never, say the residents of Hout Bay have they known it to be like this. The wind unabated, now into its fourth day looks set to continue and get worse! It has even made front page news in the Cape Times. As David and I drove for our final dental appointment this morning a JCB was vainly attempting to clear the main road of sand the way it would of a snow drift back home. Roland of Ariane has renamed it "horror" bay. I could think of a stronger term! Last night Basia recorded wind speeds of 70knots. Come daylight we saw the roof of the marina office blew right off but once again all our yachts were perfectly safe and secure. The locals here simply shrug their shoulders and say it is something you just get used to. We have been here for nearly two months now and I do not think that I will ever get used to it. David however has. He slept blissfully throughout the worst of the storm while I lay fretting in the main saloon.
Susan Mackay