Holidays
Somak Holidays: The Rainbow Nation Is A World In One Country
It may be a clich? but South Africa really is a world in one country. Where else would you find big game, great beaches, extensive winelands, one of the world?s most in-vogue cities and a ?Garden Route? choc-full of flowers and forests that would convert the least-green fingered among us into plant explorers. And that?s before you bring the small matter of a ?no jet lag? two hour time difference, a year-round temperate climate and an enticing exchange rate into the equation. It?s true that you get slightly less for your pounds than a few years ago, when sterling reached dizzy heights against the rand, but meals and drinks out are still a fraction of UK prices ? and for those who plan to travel during the summer ? South Africa?s mild winter ? there are great deals to be struck, with low room rates and extra night free deals available in some of the country?s swankiest hotels.
Start-off point for a tour of the Rainbow Nation has to be Cape Town: the ?mother city?, cosmopolitan, atmospheric and currently one of the most fashionable on the planet. Towering above Cape Town is the 1,087m high World Heritage Site of Table Mountain. The fit and active may prefer to hike up the city?s number one tourist attraction, using one of several marked paths, but for most of us the rotating cable-car will do nicely.
From the flat-topped summit there are spectacular views across the city and over to the penal colony of Robben Island, a monument to the injustice of apartheid and just 25-minutes by high speed ferry from the waterfront. It was here that Nelson Mandela was incarcerated for 18 years and some of his fellow inmates now act as well-informed tourist guides around the notorious prison.
Cape Town?s other big attraction is the Victoria & Albert Waterfront, its restored wharves and warehouses packed with more than 270 shops, bars and restaurants. Several of the city?s top hotels, including Cape Grace, rated best in Africa, are located in the V&A Waterfront but for a journey back into the past, it?s worth visiting the elegant Mount Nelson, at the foot of Table Mountain ? if only for afternoon tea, a civilised affair.
Beaches are one of South Africa?s big draws and Cape Town has more than its fair share: from Boulder?s Bay where you can swim with a colony of Jackass penguins to lively Camps Bay with its backdrop of the Twelve Apostles mountains and smart Clifton, a place to see the beautiful people and, if you are one, to be seen. Further afield in the Eastern Cape is Jeffrey?s Bay, with the best conditions for surfing in southern Africa ? some say the world.
One of the most compelling reasons for visiting the Cape is to taste its wine, now growing swiftly in reputation - and you can visit the country?s oldest wine estate, Groot Constantia, without leaving Cape Town city limits. Dating back to 1685, the gables and thatched roofs of the white-walled buildings found here provide a first view of the traditional Cape Dutch architecture of the area.
You?ll see the Dutch influence elsewhere in the mountains and valleys of the winelands. From Cape Town it?s an easy 45-minute journey to pick up the wine routes that lead through wine towns like pretty, well-preserved Stellenbosch, Paarl and the former Huguenot village of Franschhoek, reckoned by many to be the wine and food capital of the Cape.
Heading east from Cape Town, the ?Garden Route? is, unarguably, one of the world?s great trips ? and a place to spot many beautiful flowers that we are only now (with global warming!) able to start growing in the south of England. Traditionally the route starts at Mossel Bay, but between here and the city are two unmissable attractions: Grootbos, a 2,500 acre private nature reserve, devoted to a peculiar indigenous flora called fynbos, and Hermanus, where every summer you can spot southern right whales in Walkers Bay as you sip cocktails in the comfort of your hotel. Inland from Mossel Bay, the handsome town of George is the starting point for the Outeniqua Choo-Tjoe, a 1920s steam train that chugs away to Knysna, where it shows off by going four miles across the lagoon in a town that?s one of South Africa?s favourites. The reason for this is oysters ? served everywhere in the town and at a variety of prices, depending on where you eat them.
The famous long white beach at Plettenburg Bay, the well-established haunt of wealthy Jo?burgers, and back-to-nature Tsitsikamma National Park, are the Garden Route?s other highlights ? the park coming closest to capturing its atmosphere, with vast areas of forest and fynbos as well as dramatic gorges, which dare-devils can negotiate by boat for a close up view of huge bat-infested caverns and monster vegetation.
For many though it?s the prospect of seeing Big Game that provides the inspiration for a trip to South Africa. There?s nothing quite like the presence of wild animals, their size, their smell, and South Africa has over 200 game parks from which to spot rhino, cheetahs, lions, elephants, zebra, wildebeest et al. Best known is the Kruger, which boasts some of the world?s most luxurious game camps, where the accommodation ranges from futuristic eco-lodges to canvas tents set on stilts, and viewings of the ?Big Five? among over 140 species of mammals and over 500 of birds. But there are many other game areas to visit too, some malaria-free, like Shamwari in the eastern Cape.
And, if you?re not awe-struck after coming face to face with a big cat or a lumbering elephant from the safety of your 4-wheel drive, you never will be.
Louise Newton
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