Spring in the Western Cape in search of Flamingoes

I've visited Cape Town many times. I've also driven the entire East Coast and Garden Route, but I'd never made it to the West Coast. I'd also never seen Flamingoes in their natural habitat and really didn't want to leave without seeing them. We were leaving South Africa in December 2014, so with there being no time like the present, I booked a return flight from Johannesburg, car hire and accommodation for one and left a week later.

September in South Africa is spring. They joke that spring lasts until midday on September the 1st then it's summer. However cape Town has a completely different climate to Johannesburg, which is a 2 hour flight away.

I arrived in the early evening and after discovery the accommodation I'd booked and received confirmation for in Green Point was double booked, I ended up on the other side of the city at Green Market at The Glam Hotel. There were restaurants within a very short walk from the hotel and a wide selection.

I'd made my way from the airport to Cape Town by bus, collecting my car hire in the morning. The reason being is that the Avis car hire from the airport was limited mileage, whereas collecting from the city centre wasn't. I've no idea why this is the case but that's how it was.

View from Bloubergstrand

Driving out of Cape Town, Table Mountain was visible in the rear view mirror for around 70kms, until I started to drive a little inland. There were plenty of places to stop for photos and coffee on route.

View from Yzerfontein

I stopped for breakfast at West Coast Farmstall and could've quite happily spent the day here. It was so pretty inside, staff friendly, food fantastic and beautiful gardens. There was also a farm shop and I stocked up with some snacks and drinks for the next few days.

I opted to drive through, rather than round, the West Coast National Park, taking advantage of my SANPark Wild Card.

Arriving late at my Absolute Beach Accommodation, in Britannia Bay. I was shown to my room and understood why their advertisemnt stated it was ideal as a retreat. I had a double room with en suite and the most amazing view of the Atlantic Ocean and I was treated to a whale sighting during my stay.

A full English breakfast was served with a wide range of drinks and freshly baked muffins. Each Self contained room had a veranda and there was a shared TV room with fully equipped kitchen and a small pool. I opted to eat out in the evenings at a near by hotel.

After breakfast I set off in search of Flamingoes at the Lower Berg River Wetlands, I wasn't disappointed, pulling over on the side of the road I was able to take as many pictures as I wanted. I ended up seeing quite literally hundreds of Flamingoes during my 3 day trip.

I then drove down to the harbour to locate a coffee shop, I came across a wonderful souvenir shop, a bar and restaurant and a variety of coffee shops.

I travelled South from there to Vredenburg where there was a mall for lunch and to buy my dinner to eat at the accommodation that night.

Heading back to Britannia Bay, I decided to visit Pasternoster I'd watched a documentary on the area and wanted to see it for myself. There is plenty of accommodation in the area, the scenery is stunning, but apart from a hotel and a sea shell shop and being a very expensive location to holiday in, you would need to be committed to just relaxing, walking, photography or art.

I spent an hour explore the rock pools before heading back to Absolute Beach.

Leaving early the following morning I made my way back slowly to the airport in Cape Town, my flight was at 8pm, so I drove through the West coast National Park and stopped to take numerous photographs, sit and watch the other wildlife.

 The roads were quite literally covered with these caterpillars and insects

I marvel at the stupidity, these were Puff Adders, there are also Cape Cobra's in the area and you really wouldn't want to encounter either one of them.

My drive back to Cape Town can only be described as Scenic 

I visited Darling Cellars to sample a cheese basket for lunch (I was driving)

Heading into the town of Darling, I was slightly disappointed to discover that the famous Spring Flowers had almost finsihed their season, but the rains had started a couple of weeks earlier than normal. parts of Darling and the Postberg Section of West Coast National Park are only open during August and September for the spring flower season.

 Postberg

Darling

My journey ended with a final stop to capture yet another photograph of Table Mountain, although I'm returning to South Africa in October and November, I will be staying in Johannesburg to work with a charity and I doubt I'll ever return to Cape Town.

Week 27 - Project 365

Week 27 started off wet here in Hamilton, Ontario in Canada. In fact the whole week has involved water in one form or another. Monday was a visit to the Niagara Falls and a buffet lunch in the skylon tower with fantastic views of the falls.

Tuesday was a trip to the waterfront in Hamilton, I walked 14 kms which included a climb down of 200 steps and back up again at the end of the day. Wednesday was Canada Day, my feet were hurting and as we were off camping the following day, it was a day of rest and feet soaking. Thursday saw us drive north to Algonquin and a 2 hour kayak on the water to reach Little Doe campsite, returning on the Sunday (hence this blog post being a day late)

What I've loved the most about the fmsphotoaday and snaphappybritmums photo prompts are that they get me out the house every day, even if it's just in the garden or the local shops as it takes quite a bit of thought to combine the two prompts. For the next 50 days and I guess until September 1st, snaphappybritmums are running 50 days of summer over on instagram instead of this prompt. I've decided to do the #50Days #summer prompts in order and have asked twitter and Facebook for an additional 12 prompts to take me up to September.

Day 179 #onedailypositive #orange #fmsphotoaday #special #snaphappybritmums #project365  

I've travelled 11,092kms from home in #Dubai to #Hamilton #Ontario #Canada home of Tim Hortons. To be honest I'm not a big fan of their coffee, too creamy and despite how many times I say 'no chocolate on the top' it comes with chocolate, but in the grand scheme of things, it's not a big problem.

Tim Hortons involvement with charity and the local communities is very strong. On June 3rd 2015 they raised $12.4 million with 100% of coffee sales donated to the Tim Horton Children's Foundation, which provides camp and learning experiences for 17,000 disadvantaged children in Canada. Which I think is something special.

Day 180 #onedailypositive #animal #fmsphotoaday #AList #snaphappybritmums #project365

My Animal A list.

These photos were taken at Kruger National Park in 2014. The Leopard photo was taken in June and the others in September, although I did see the Big 5 on the trip in September I wasn't able to get a good photo, this one was taken on my iPhone as it just sauntered past the car. #solo #travel #expat #explore #holiday #tourist #TheBig5 #SANParks

Day 181 ‪#‎onedailypositive‬ ‪#‎design‬ ‪#‎fmsphotoaday‬ ‪#‎button‬‪#‎snaphappybritmums‬ ‪#‎project365‬ 

One of the many art displays in the town To commentate the ‪#‎TO2015‬ ‪#‎PamAmGames‬ ‪#‎solo‬ ‪#‎Travel‬ ‪#‎Explore‬‪#‎Expat‬ ‪#‎Tourist‬ ‪#‎HamOnt‬ ‪#‎hamilton‬ ‪#‎ontario‬ ‪#‎canada‬

Day 182 #onedailypositive #InTheHouse #fmsphotoaday #WhatIWore #snaphappybritmums #50days #summer #project365

I'm not in my house but this is what I wore yesterday after a 14km walk to the Waterfront in Hamilton to the edge of Lake Ontario which included 200 steps down and then back up a steep hill. I bought these in the City on my way to the Waterfront as the shoes I was wearing caused huge blisters on my feet, they ones were so much better. Who needs an excuse to buy new shoes anyway?

Day 183 #onedailypositive #SignedSealedDelivered#fmsphotoaday #Path #snaphappybritmums #project #halfway 

After a 4 hour drive and a 4 hour canoe we made it to the campsite. This is the path that leads to the toilet and by toilet I mean a long drop with a wooden box and seat on top #camping #algonquin#canoe #lake #outback #wildlife #nature #canada#tourist #holiday #wilderness #countryside #ontario

Day 184 #onedailypositive #Outing #fmsphotoaday #RedWhiteBlue #snaphappybritmums #project365

Home for the weekend #camping #algonquin #canoe #lake #outback #wildlife #nature #canada #tourist#holiday #wilderness #countryside #ontario

Day 185 #onedailypositive #RedWhiteBlue#fmsphotoaday #stars #snaphappybritmums #project365 

Still working on not using auto settings on my Nikon camera. I didn't have a tripod and it was too cloudy while camping. This photo was taken last week at #NiagaraFalls on the border with #America#camping #algonquin #canoe #lake #outback #wildlife#nature #canada #tourist #holiday #wilderness#countryside #niagara #americanfalls #ontario

Week 27 - My Sunday Photo

I've spent 3 nights quite literally under the stars in Algonquin Provincial Park in Northern Ontario, Canada. There are no facilities here. If you don't pack it in your canoe you would have to paddle back to the lodge some 4 hours away. The water is drawn from the lake and boiled for several minutes before you can drink it. To say I was out of my comfort zone would be an understatement, but it was truly beautiful there.

 

How does your garden grow in Canada?

The British are here in Canada. 

I arrived last week to stay for 3 weeks with my twitter friend @AlwaysARedHead. So I thought I'd take you for a walk around her garden this week.

So far quite a lot of Canada reminds me of the UK, the uniformity of the streets and style of houses, although much bigger than your average UK house, open front gardens with a path to the front door, grass and borders. Although you don't see many houses in the UK with a veranda or porch.

The summer weather is slightly warmer and consistent, although it did rain here a couple of nights ago. The flowers are in full bloom and the garden is looking gorgeous.

The 'erb and veg garden is full to over flowing, stocked with thyme, rosemary, squash, beans, peppers, carrots, onions and for the first year broccoli.

The trees in the yard/garden are very tall, much taller than you'd find in an average UK garden, usually I'd only expect to see trees of this height in a mansion house or stately home.

There's a pool in the garden and a hammock in the shade, which the dog likes to join me in.

I'm getting lots of rest, sun and catching up with blogging, chilling out with reading and just generally enjoying the garden.

Meanwhile back in the desert with hubby in charge of watering, it's not doing too bad. The gaps are where I removed the dead marigold before I left and I see the weeds seem to like the dry, hot conditions.

WaterWorld, Atlantis Palm, Dubai

Driving toWater World on the Palm, you have no idea of the real shape of it unless viewed from the air, it's a bit messy at street level. There is also a tram that runs to the Atlantis Hotel and I'd recommend that if you did visit that this would be your best way to reach the hotel. At the end of the day there were massive queues for the park and ride and after waiting 30 minutes, we opted to walk back with the rest of the queue.

 Although some people prefer to arrive in style, we parked where we were directed to and then walked to the bus stop for the free shuttle bus to the hotel that arrived frequently, was air conditioned and clean. Shading was provided while queuing.

 We took advantage of 50% discount tickets and visited on a Friday. the tickets were booked online, therefore you'd think that the staff would know how many people will be arriving and have more than 4 counters open for pre sales. It was disorganised, hot and uncomfortable.  I was annoyed having emailled in advance to ask for what we could and couldn't bring in with us and was informed no food, cool boxes or water. Obviously cool boxes weren't allowed in and despite bags being checked there were plenty of people with their own picnics. There was also a sign saying that each guest could take in 1 litre of water each.

On arriving at the counter with print out and bank card used to make the booking there was a list of optional extras one could buy, meal deals, lockers etc. Now this would have been handy to have known whilst waiting in the queue therefore saving even more time on people having to decide what extras they wanted and in some cases holding up the entire queue until all family members had been located and asked one by one what they wanted.

 There were plenty of sun loungers available and free to use and no one seems to mind when they were moved into the shade. The sun loungers pool side were taken but it was noisy round there and besides once you got on a ride it was a long time before you returned to your lounger and one on the beach, in the shade was much nicer.

 The rides were fantastic and on the whole well managed in regards to the queue and people around to stop queue jumpers. A few more direction signs as you approached each ride would've been nice.

 It wasn't cheap inside, this cost me 50AED around £9. Ice cream and a bottle of water, especially when you could buy a meal deal of burger, fries and soft drink for around the same price.

 The grounds themselves were very clean, tidy and offered some fantastic views, it was peaceful and relaxing sitting on the beach front.

On leaving the park at the same time as everyone else it was not possible to have a shower or use a cubicle to get changed in, people in the queues had been there for around 40 minutes and the whole changing area and toilets were dirty and over crowded. We had planned on eating at one of the many restaurants on our way out, but instead drove home and had beans on toast.