Aaaaggghhhhh! I Should Have Listened to Sarah!

Part 1 - This is the last post in my latest Blog and will be written in three stages.  

This is the first of the three and as I write, we are at Flight Level 370 - for you non-anoraks, that's 37,000 feet - on EK762, exactly at the halfway point between Johannesberg and Dubai.  It hasn't been without its trauma to get to where we are right now!  Stress?  You don't know the meaning of the word.

All began smoothly with a 0630 hours departure from our home for the past six weeks.  Hire car dropped off without penalty.  List for the 0900 hours flight to Jo'burg.  Why didn't I take Sarah's advice and book a firm ticket?  Because I'm a tight fisted, hard bitten Yorkshireman and because I never learn!

Bags weighed and labelled and told to return to the Flight Controller at 0820 hours. Just time for a last coffee of the trip at Mugg and Bean, a favourite.

Return at the prescribed time to find chaos.  Lots of people trying to get on the same flight which we were advised was massively overbooked.  Anger seen from some hopefuls.  Not the Coys though.  The luggage labels were taken off our bags and we were advised to re-list for the next flight. 

Now 0910 hours as we returned to the raging sea of unhappiness.  Stressometer moving to overload.  First flight chance gone.

Oh no it hadn't as all hell lets loose and Mr and Mrs Coy are told they are on the 0900 hours flight!!  Surely not?  But yes, bag tags are reapplied, boarding cards printed and we are ushered like VIPs, two members of staff carrying our suitcases, to the door of the now waiting aircraft and the usual BA welcome on board.

Not quite the usual welcome as we were advised that we would have to put our cabin baggage in the hold and claim it back in Jo'burg.  I said "all our valuables are inside these bags?"  "Take all the valuables out" she said.  For most of you reading this, you will be unaware of the crime infested jungle that Jo'burg baggage handling is.  What made it worse for me was when the CSD said "I'm sorry but there is simply no room on board for your bags".  "If you don't take all your valuables out now they will get stolen in Jo'burg!"  Impasse but then a sudden flash of inspiration!  "Please can you treat our cabin baggage as prams and arrange for us to collect them immediately we depart the aircraft?"  Genius and just to add a little extra comfort, the CSD added two security tags to the zips preventing anybody opening them.  Relax.  Breathe.

For any of you who have been the unfortunates who have delayed an aircraft departure and been the last to board, you will well understand the mental vehemence that is directed your way as you find your seats.  We have been perpetrators ourselves.  Multiply it by a factor of ten in our case.   I wanted to say to them, "sorry, it really wasn't our fault".

Anyway, the Captain must have put "the pedal to the metal" because we were only 10 minutes late arriving.  "Thank you Skipper".

Disembark the aircraft and the stressometer hits the stratosphere!  Only my bag is waiting for us.  No sign of Linda's.  We are told it must have gone to the terminal with the rest of the luggage despite assurances this would not happen.  Oh well, at least Linda had removed IPad and camera and the bulk of valuables were in my luggage.  We are well insured for such eventualities.

Surprise, surprise!  There it was on the luggage carousel with our two suitcases.  Joy of joys.  I will never say a bad word again about Jo'burg baggage handlers.

We did check with BA staff about our chances of getting on our waitlisted flight and a very definite, "take the Emirates option" came straight back at us and so here we are heading to the Middle East.  More on arrival in Dubai once we know we are definitely coming home.

Part 2 - Arrived in Dubai but rush though the airport means little time for an update.  We are checked in though in comfy seats back to Heathrow and both of us are very tired, so some sleep beckons.

More tomorrow to round up the Blog.

Part 3 - The final chapter and writing it at 1950 hours on Wednesday evening after arriving home this morning.  To get home we actually spent 18 hours flying.  Add to that the time spent waiting in four different airports and I think I can justifiably say, the journey was an epic!

It rounded off a truly memorable holiday and only served to cement further, our love for this country and its people, be they black, white, coloured or blue with green stripes!  We have at all times been greeted with courtesy and warmth.  Despite the appalling conditions that so many live under in the townships, there appears to be a good work ethic and the place is crying out for more job creation.

It's hard to comprehend just why South Africa is in such a mess.  Actually it isn't difficult at all!   Just look at the corruption that washes down and outwards from the highest level of government and it becomes very easy to understand.  The people deserve so much more from their leadership and you can only hope that change will come sooner not later.

South Africa is known as "The Rainbow Nation" and you have to hope that one day, the people are rewarded with the pot of gold at the end of that rainbow.

Alistair Coy, News at Ten, Eldwick.

    Cape Town Airport - The Starting Point for our Journey Home

    Camp's Bay

    Table Mountain from Camp's Bay

    Looking Towards Chapman's Peak

    One for Golfers

    Not Africa! From Our Flight to Leeds

The Condemned Man Ate a Hearty Meal

Condemned only in the sense of coming home!

Yes, it's our last day in the glorious sunshine of South Africa before we commence the long and possibly arduous journey back to Yorkshire.

Arduous?  At this stage, only because as you all know from previous blogs, we are open to the vagaries of the will we, won't we issues of BA staff travel.

The thing about this time of year is that every man and his dog wants to visit South Africa and the problem has been compounded by two additional factors.  The phenomenal exchange rate  and the less phenomenal visit of the England cricket team which had encouraged far more people to get on a plane down here this year!

The result is that all four daily BA flights, two from Cape Town and two from Johannesberg tomorrow, are all vastly overbooked, leaving the very low priority staff travellers with a predicament.  Do they sit it out and wait for space to become available?  It could be days.  Or do they use their initiative à la Alistair and try and find a different way to come home?

It's a very exciting game of brinkmanship which many people loathe but which I treat as an adventure.  I realise of course that you can be a tad gung-ho when you are retired and don't have the pressures of work to get back to although the waiting game can be costly in terms of additional hotel costs!

Feeling sorry for us?  I didn't think so! 

As it stands, we are waitlisted on the second flight out of Jo'burg tomorrow night.  We are at number one to get on the flight if space becomes available.  The rub is, it is overbooked and therefore we have to rely on no shows or postponed travel trips to free up capacity.  We might get on, we might need a hotel.

The brinkmanship is whether to take our chance and wait or as I have planned at this stage, take a flight with Emirates to Dubai which leaves Jo'burg at lunchtime tomorrow and connect with the BA flight back to Heathrow which leaves at 0225 on Wednesday morning?  Surprisingly, this route home would still allow us to make our 0740 connection to Leeds Bradford albeit, we will be in the air for an additional five hours!  Still following?  I will update tomorrow but at 2100 hours as I write this dispatch, I have no idea which will be the option taken.

Anyway, we have had a lovely final day here with wall to wall sunshine which gave us the opportunity to head to one of our favourite places at Betty's Bay for coffee and fruit cake, the latter of which is to die for.

The final meal of the condemned Coys was at De Brasserie in Strand, a restaurant we have come to really love with the quality of food exceptional but topped by the standard of service from their staff.  They provided a fitting end to our stay in Somerset West and now we must finish our packing ready for a very early flight to Jo'burg in the morning.

There will be one more post to update on what happened and to reflect again on the ups and downs of this amazing country.

    Coffee and Cake at Cafe Jack's in Betty's Bay

    Last Meal of the Condemned Folk

A Magnificent Defeat Snatched From The Jaws Of Victory!

Can I apologise to any readers who don't enjoy sport?   Unfortunately for you, the Coy brothers do and so this post relates to sport, specifically cricket, the glorious game where you can labour on the field for five days and still come out with a draw!  

For any of you who have read some of my previous musings, you may recall our trip to the US Grand Prix at Austin, Texas last October.  It was a first for us, hugely enjoyed despite the poor weather, but something we did because we just happened to be in town.  Yesterday was a similar scenario.

The England cricket team have been labouring away in South Africa for nearly three months - it showed at times yesterday - and luckily, they were in Cape Town last night for a T20 match, one of two games that round off their tour.

I had cast around locally to see if any official tickets were still available at sensible prices but my efforts were to no avail.  The match was a sellout with a 19,000 crowd expected.  However, thanks to the wonders of the Internet and a site called Viagogo, I managed to locate six tickets at a hugely over inflated price - more of that in a minute - and so our places in the Northern Stand of Newlands Cricket Ground were secured for this sporting spectacle.  We did have to pay over the odds for the tickets but decided that this was an opportunity too good to miss.  Instead of the face value of R220, we actually forked out R1175 per ticket, a very painful experience for me as a Yorkshireman but even worse for my big brother who is now almost a fully adopted Scot with the accompanying deep pockets!!

For those of you still hanging in there on this post, you might be puzzling about my reference to six tickets?  Well our party of four was enhanced with the addition of one of my golfing partners and friends, David and his wife Sue, who just happened to be in Cape Town at the same time as us.  Whereas the three men had all played cricket in the past, the three ladies were still brushing up on their T20 knowledge but were very much there to enjoy the occasion with us and what an occasion it turned out to be!

Newlands is one if the most beautiful venues for cricket in the world.  How couldn't it be when it sits in the lea of the iconic Table Mountain, a brooding mass of granite last night due to the grey clouds billowing around it.  We had thought that the match was in danger from the weather because we had rain as we walked to the ground.  However, similar to our experience in Texas, the clouds parted and we were treated to a fantastic day/night match watched by over 19,000 excited spectators.

We actually felt a touch anticlimactic after the England innings, anticipating that it was going to be an easy South African win.  How wrong we were!  If we were to have picked any match as our first T20, then we couldn't have chosen better than this one as it went down to the final ball of the game.

With 16 runs required from the final over, big brother and I had it down as an easy win.  David on the other hand, pessimistically, opted for our opponents.  He was right and must have known how nervous, Reece Topley, the bowler of that final over must have been!  They beat us with the last shot of the match! Instant despondency followed and 24 hours on, we still wonder just how we lost.

A terrific experience, never to be repeated I fear but a memory that will live with us for a long time.  Mind you, I bet Reece Topley doesn't forget it quickly either!!

    Newlands at Dusk

    The Atmosphere Builds

    Looking Towards Table Mountain

    Avid Spectators - Terri, Linda, Sue and David

    Big Brother Stuart in his Upside Down World

    I Didn't Get to Wave These Very Often!

    Root 66.  Joe Root a Future England Captain

    Joe Root in Action

Groundhog Day

Oh that feeling of déjà vu!  Something about today was so, so identical to a day, no days, that we have experienced in the past four weeks. 

Wake to the sun peeking over the Hottentots Holland mountains.  Open the doors and windows to let the gloriously cool early morning air flood through the house.  Fresh orange juice, cornflakes and Ceylon tea in the braii (for the uninitiated this is the Bbq room at the front of the house) watching the numerous fitness fanatics walk, jog, run and cycle past the house. Say good morning to my beautiful wife.  Yes I'm stretching the beauty thing on first sight in a morning but she does scrub up rather well.  Oh and just in case you take me to task over my comments, I tell her every day how nice she looks and that I love her.  My fashion sense unfortunately doesn't attract any form of compliment and generally I change outfits several times before I get the "that's better" nod of approval!  It's a bit of a bugger when three changes of shorts and tee-shirts are required before I am allowed to leave the house!  Then head to Cape Town International Airport.  Yes, the airport, for the sixth time this holiday!  A journey that I can now complete on automatic pilot with my eyes taped shut.

Yesterday it was to deliver Ann and Paul for their long journey home via Munich.  Today it was to pick up Big Brother Stuart and better half Terri who are with us for a week before we head home and they are joined by South Africa newcomers, Paul and Liz.  Stuart and Terri by the way came via Istanbul on Turkish Airlines!  Some would consider that brave but their flight arrived 30 minutes early and apparently the service throughout was excellent.

I remember the identical journey last year when we collected them at the airport only on that occasion they arrived to the greyest of skies.  Today they enjoyed wonderful views of Table Mountain as they came into land and disembarked to blue skies and temperatures in excess of 30 degrees.  

My big brother qualified for his State Pension last year so he's no Spring chicken but his enthusiasm and excitement at returning to South Africa for a second time was a real joy to see.  As I write this dispatch, he has been in the country for only 8 hours and already I am worried that we will have to get the huge and seemingly permanent smile on his face, surgically removed!

I'm afraid the Groundhog Day also featured me providing the same first meal as last year - a chicken salad - but already Stuart has discovered in the local bottle shop, gold medal winning Sav Blanc and Merlot, both at the incredible price of £1.46 a bottle.  As he has already reported to his friends, "these prices are very dangerous"!

We have laughed a lot today and though this year, our time with them is short, a fun few days beckon.

    30 Minutes Early. Well Done Turkish Airlines

    

    Eight Hours Here and the Smile Hasn't Altered! Me and Big Brother

To BBQ or Not to BBQ? That is the Question!

You wouldn't believe it!  Our friends, Ann and Paul are heading home tomorrow.

It really is difficult to believe that we have now been together for four weeks.  It seems like four minutes and we can't really work out exactly where the time has gone.

Yes, we've made them do all the touristy things - Table Mountain, V and A Waterfront, Kirstenbosch, Boulders Beach and Cape Peninsula, to name but a few.  We even said au revoir as they headed off on their own for a few days to explore the Garden Route.  But, there is one big mystery!  We've only had four Bbqs!

Now this is very strange, almost X-Files like, because Cape Town in January and February is the perfect place for outside eating.  Plan a Bbq four days hence and you know damned well it's going to be sunny and warm.  If it isn't then you must have been a very bad person!  This is the perfect scenario for chargrilled food, washed down with ice cold Castle beer or highly chilled Sauvignon Blanc.  A winner on all counts and of course the added benefit of no driving worries because the feast is cooked up in your own back garden.  A win, win.  Oh, and I mustn't forget that every ingredient you buy is superb - incredible steaks, tasty kebabs, mouthwatering sausages and my own personal favourite, fish in the form of Kingclip.  I'm salivating as I write! 

So what is the reason?  It's easy to explain.  Superb, plentiful restaurants, all of them without exception, serving food of the highest quality in great surroundings and at prices, five weeks in, that we have still not come to terms with! 

Every time we are presented with a bill, we all get each other to check it because we simply cannot believe that it is correct!  Yesterday lunchtime typified what happens, this time at La Pineta who were kind enough to squeeze us in on a fully booked Valentine's Day.  I think my previous Trip Advisor reviews and regular visits there over the last six years helped just a tad.

In fairness, service was a little slower than normal but did nothing to detract from the occasion.  In fact it added to our very leisurely lunch consisting of us all having different mains and desserts (Paul was the only one who could manage a starter as well).  Add to that two great bottles of wine and two bottles of water and we were presented with a bill for R1200.  In old money that is just £52!  This has been repeated at every place we have eaten and we decided that this was the reason for the lack of Bbqs.

The predominance of great restaurants here makes the decision to eat out a very easy one.  It's so different to the UK where restaurant dining at places similar to the ones we have been frequenting in South Africa would sometimes cost an arm and a leg but certainly double the price of what we have been paying here.

Tonight we ate at a place called De Brasserie in Strand - again we booked four days ago and had to plead for a table.  Fantastic food, service and atmosphere and even better, Ann and Paul picked up the bill so I have no idea how much it cost.  Thank you for that you two.  I do know however that Paul was still smiling as he came out of the restaurant so it can't have been too bad.

We are blessed to have friends like these who, together with Sarah, for a portion of the time, have made this a fun filled holiday and one that I hope we will repeat in the future.  We take them to the airport in the morning at 0630 and whilst it is always nice to head home, I am sure that they will be a little sad but will also be taking home some nice memories of this wonderful country.

Safe flying to them both and see you next week.

    De Brasserie Restaurant in Strand

    Pavlova - My Dessert Tonight

    Happy Times Wine Tasting at Ernie Els' Vineyard

    Table Mountain from De Brasserie in Strand

    Sunset in Strand Tonight

    Two Happy Travellers

A Day of Ws

With a post title like the one above, you must be thinking, has he been on the paracetamol and ibuprofen again?  Well yes I have actually but more about my shoulder troubles later!  No, in this case, it refers to Winetasting, Wilyman, Waterkloof and Waterford.

It's difficult to know exactly where to begin but today, specifically this afternoon, has been absolutely brilliant and I'll start with the Winetasting because that is what our attention has been focused on.

For any of you who haven't visited Somerset West, the area where we are staying, it is very much on the edge of the major wine producing area in South Africa - we are no more than 20 minutes from Stellenbosch which is part of the Cape Winelands, the larger of the two wine growing regions in South Africa.  The country itself produces in excess of 1,000,000,000 litres of wine per year - we have drunk half of it today - and Stellenbosch is the primary location for viticulture and viticulture research.  Basically, you come to this area to take time out to visit some of the vineyards and sample their wares, most of which are simply delicious.

Before you get to the wine tasting, you are blown away by the spectacular nature of the terrain which surrounds you.  We have been fortunate to visit some of the major winemaking regions of France, Australia, New Zealand and even the Napa Valley in California and in my opinion, none of them come close to the spectacle you experience here.  It's beauty assaults your senses and takes your breath away to the extent that you could sit and look at it forever.  It's unfortunate that no amount of photographs posted will ever reflect the stunning beauty on display.

The best way to enjoy the Winetasting experience is to employ a highly knowledgeable local guide who also acts as your chauffeur.  That's where the second W comes into play in the form of Sean Wilyman.

We were introduced, no recommended to Sean, by one of Sarah's colleagues Ellie last year.  They say the best form of advert is recommendation and boy did we strike lucky with this young man when we first used his services in 2015.  It was automatic that we again contacted him this year and although he is extremely busy - no surprise there - we felt privileged to secure his services today.

Women of any age immediately fall in love with Sean the moment they meet him.  Ask Ann and Linda. In fact, I quite like him myself!!  He's good looking, totally charming and so interesting to talk to about all things South Africa and beyond.  I don't get paid to advertise but would happily suggest that if you are looking for help or advice on all things Africa, contact Sean via www.trekdirect.co.za and tell him Alistair sent you.  You won't be disappointed.

And so to the third W, Waterkloof, a spectacular and beautiful winery situated high above False Bay.  One of the funniest things we discovered here is that the owner, Paul Boutinot, lives up North near Manchester and we had the pleasure of meeting his son, Louis, who Linda was delighted to hear was a Manchester United fan!  It almost spoilt my visit!  Put it on your list if you are in the Cape Winelands and try the food and the Merlot.

The final W is Waterford which we so enjoyed last year, that we decided to return to sample their mixture of wine and chocolate again.  Yes, wine and chocolate which works beautifully with the combinations used.  It was a complete surprise to me last year and yet again I was taken aback at how well the two flavours could be matched.  Waterford is a very different setting to many other wineries but again one that I would highly recommend.

For those who might remember my earlier reference to tablets and shoulders, I'm struggling to lift my wine glass following the operation I had back in early December.  Something not quite right with the recovery at this stage but I am confident that the Consultant will sort it on my return.  Please don't worry about me though as most of the vineyards visited have the capability to provide wines intravenously.  It certainly helps ease the pain!

    The Spectacular Waterkloof Winery

    A Rose Between Two Thorns! The Rose is Sean Wilyman

    

    The View Across the Vineyards from Waterkloof

    

    View Across False Bay from Waterkloof

 

    

    With Louis Boutinot, Export Manager and Son of the Owner

    

    Wine and Chocolate at Waterford

    Winetasting at Waterford

    Sean and Paul. A Couple of Hunks.

    

    The Enclosed Courtyard at Waterford

The Strange Tale of the Fanie Kloppers

This post is dedicated to my lovely niece Vicky.

There is an amazing array of bird life to be discovered and viewed in South Africa.  Our friends, Gill and Roger, who we met in the country two years ago and are here at the moment, are avid "twitchers" and to date have notched up sightings of over 100 species.

The house where we are staying has a magnificent array of plants, shrubs and trees which appear to be a magnet to our feathered friends.  Sitting in the Braii room (BBQ to us) at the front of the house, there is a constant coming and going of different varieties.  The largest of these is a Helmeted Guineafowl or to give it its Latin name, Numida Meleagris.

It's a strange looking thing with a passing resemblance to a turkey although in the case of this particular bird, it can achieve winged flight!  It has a slate grey body which is finely spotted with white.  It's head is blue and red and is topped with a helmet.  Photos of said bird can be viewed below.  

It's not pretty and yet its least endearing feature is its call which is a staccato "kek-kek-kek" most commonly heard between 5 and 6am in the morning when it's sitting on the roof just above our bedroom window!  It's quite a surprise that it can actually get onto the roof as it spends the majority of time with its mates, walking up and down the road outside, or foraging for food in the garden

At first viewing, you would wager a King's ransom that this couldn't possibly fly, particularly when there appears to be enough meat on it to provide a Christmas dinner for a big family!  All that said, it is a very common sight in South Africa.

But why the title about Fanie Kloppers?  Well that's where niece Vicky comes in.

She was down here visiting a friend and they were looking around the shop in Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens when Vicky picked up a postcard with this particular bird featured and said, "that's a very funny name for a bird"?  At the bottom of the photo was the name Fanie Kloppers.  Her friend burst into hysterical laughter and said, "that's not the name of the bird Vicky, it's the name of the photographer"!  Fanie Kloppers is a very well known wild life photographer down here.

Needless to say, to us and to Stuart and Terri, Vicky's mum and dad, they will be forever be known as Fanie Kloppers and in fact this year we have introduced a campaign into the Western Cape to try and get this new name adopted!  It's far more memorable than Helmeted Guineafowl!

Anyway, the sun continues to shine here on a daily basis and today the temperature has been North of 36 degrees.  It's Sarah's last full day with us - she starts the long journey home tomorrow - and our friends, Ann and Paul have gone exploring the Garden Route for a few days.  Life continues to be quite blissful although we are ourselves now on the slippery slope to coming home but not before I have completed a few more dispatches.

Thank you for reading. 

    A Fanie Kloppers

    Another Fanie Kloppers

    

    Fanie Kloppers at Kirstenbosch Where It All Began!

    The Real Fanie Kloppers