2010 South Africa – Betty’s Bay
10th January 2010
We were sitting on the plane at Heathrow, wondering why we weren’t going anywhere, when we saw what looked like smoke or steam coming from one of the wings. Even the most laid-back traveller will have some concern about the wings being on fire, which is why I thought the pilot should have given us advanced warning, but it turned out that it was so cold that the wings had iced up, and they were using a machine with a long arm to spray them with defrosting liquid. It was taking forever because one of the de-icing machines was not working, so they had to do one wing at a time, and by the time one wing had thawed, the other one was frozen again. I don’t know how they got around it, but it was a relief to feel the plane move slowly towards the runway.
For the first hour of a long-haul flight, I always feel like I will be on the plane forever, but thanks to the personal entertainment systems built into the backs of all the chairs, the time went surprisingly quickly. The audio was bad and sounded like the actors were talking through their arses, but that was down to the cheap earphones they gave us, so I vowed to always carry my own headphones in future.
We got off the plane at a lovely, warm Cape Town airport, which was new and very impressive. By the time we got through passport control, our luggage was there waiting for us. My brother David picked us up and took us to Somerset West, where he had to do some shopping while we had a coffee and a quick look around the shops before making our way back along the beautiful coastline to Betty’s Bay.
In 2006, David and Laura bought a plot of land in Betty’s Bay with the intention of creating a cafe, four bed and breakfast rooms and an internet suite. They fell in love with the view the first time they saw it. By the time they finished the building work, internet cafés were already on their way out, so they rented out the space to a woman selling souvenirs. They ran out of money before they could finish the bedrooms and weren’t even able to fit windows into them, so they were open to the elements. Like most people settling in that area, they had underestimated the extreme weather, and at times, the wind blew the rain horizontally through the open spaces, and water started leaking into the cafe kitchen below. It was a difficult time for them, but they didn’t regret their decision for a minute and were very happy with their lives.
Just before pulling up to Jack’s Seaview Inn for the first time, David told us, “It is probably a lot smaller than you imagined.”
He couldn’t have been more wrong. It was enormous, covering three floors, and I was amazed they had got as far as they did on such a tight budget.
After a short rest, we shared a welcome bottle of champagne on their cafe terrace and then they showed us around. The Café was on the first floor and was surrounded by windows. It was a corner plot, so there was a spectacular view of the sea. When decorating the cafe, they put some of the furniture and ornaments from their terraced house in London, including a little chess table inherited from our grandmother. There was a large wood-burning fire in one corner, which was very popular in the winter, but it got through so much wood that they were considering changing it to a gas fire. Also on the first floor was their living accommodation with two bedrooms downstairs and a large living room and open plan kitchen upstairs. Windows covered the entire length of the room, offering another magnificent view of the sea. Their Great Dane, Abby, had died the year before, but Boris was still alive and strongish, so we all took him on the ten-minute walk to a long sandy beach. Borus was nine years old, which was already two years older than most great Danes lived, so it was a slow but enjoyable walk for us all.
A car was put at our disposal during our stay, so the next day we drove eight miles to Kleimond for lunch and a stroll around the shops. There was crayfish on the menu, which we hadn’t eaten before, so despite the price tag of £18, we thought we would give it a try. It was one of the most overestimated foods I had ever had. Once we took the fancy legs and head off, it looked and tasted just like a big prawn.
They say that in the Western Cape, you can experience all four seasons in one day. In the morning, it might be quite cool with a light drizzle and by lunchtime, the clouds disappear, and it was far too hot to sit in the sun.
One morning, we went to a picnic area by the edge of a large lagoon, which filled up with water when the tide was in and then emptied when the tide was out. The open sea temperature was cold, but as the lagoon was shallow, the water was much warmer, so we were able to swim comfortably. The tide was going out, so there was a strong current carrying the water out to sea, and several swimmers were having fun riding along in it. I was enjoying watching a group of young kids playing happily in the sand, and they even treated us to a display of acrobatics. 
For lunch, we went to the Harold Porter National Botanical Garden. It had lots of different shrubs and trees, which all looked the same to me, but it was a very pleasant afternoon. There were also several walks visitors could go on, and we chose the Leopard’s Kloof walk. This involved walking up a steep, rocky path until we got to a series of ladders which were bolted onto the side of rocks. Most of the ladders were vertical, so they were not easy to climb. ]
At the top, there was a beautiful waterfall and high up in the mountains, they claimed to have wild orchids, but all we could see were small red blobs. The water flowed into a large pond, which we would have loved to have swum in, but there were signs everywhere forbidding it. On our way back, we were surprised to see a young couple helping their elderly grandmother struggle along the rocky path, so we told them about the vertical stepladders to come and to the obvious relief of the old woman, they decided to abandon the walk.
One day we went to a place famous for penguins (the little birdy things, not the chocolate biscuit). I don’t know what made the penguins choose that particular area to hang out, but they all packed together tightly, apart from one solitary penguin that stood on a rock by himself and must have been the village outcast. It was lovely to see them in the wild, but they were much smaller than I had expected. I suppose there are lots of different types of penguins, and South Africa got stuck with the dwarf variety. 
We tried to take Boris for a walk most mornings, and although he was keen on the idea at first, as soon as we got to the bottom of the driveway, he demanded to go back, and it was not easy arguing with a 65-kilo Great Dane. Laura told us he was insecure and afraid that we were taking him away from his beloved owners. Being so old, he had a lot of problems with arthritis and various bone and muscle pains, so when they did take him out, they had to be very careful when other dogs approached him, as any sudden move might cause Boris to be in pain for several days.
An unexpected problem was the baboons. It was not uncommon for David or Laura to walk into their flat and find baboons casually rummaging through their fridge. The baboons were not impressed with a lot of the food and showed a particular dislike for camembert, but they managed to find things more to their taste and ran off with them. They came through the balcony doors, and as Boris had decided he was too old to deal with them, he left the room and let them get on with it. Even with the doors shut, they still managed to find their way in by forcing open a window or even walking through the front door of the building. On one occasion, a baboon stole a sugar bowl from the café, and David was so fed up with them that he chased the baboon down the road in an effort to retrieve the dish. I had to laugh at the vision of it. When we were young and growing up in South London, it never occurred to me that my baby brother would one day be chasing a baboon down the road. One day I was looking out the café window when I saw a woman walking from the store with a loaf of bread in her hand. A baboon came up and slapped her across the head, stole the bread and ran off. She was very angry and started chasing it down the road, although I don’t know to what purpose, as if she had caught it, it would have torn her to pieces.
One afternoon we went to one of the many sandy beaches in the area and were determined to swim. I was a little put off when I saw a giant jellyfish that had been washed up, but one of the locals told me that the sea was so rough that by the time they got close to the shore, their tentacles had been destroyed, and so they were harmless. The sea was very cold and very rough, and although the sun was shining, the wind was cold, so the thought of swimming was not very enticing. I was all for aborting the attempt, but Federika talked me into it. I don’t mind cold water these days, but it was not pleasant, so I ran in quickly and started swimming frantically, but got straight out. Having talked me into swimming, Federika only went up to her knees and chickened out, so in future I will make sure she goes in first.
2010 South Africa
