We get up relatively early but leave later than we should – Mike takes pity on Victoria and I dithering around and doesn’t nag therefore we don’t shift quickly.
It’s over 200 miles to Hermanus but the roads and traffic are kind to us. We stop for petrol and ice cream on the way at a funny little petrol station cum restaurant cum children’s farm/zoo. I had noticed that there were chickens running all around the place but on closer inspection, 20 feet away from the pumps are pens holding swans, goats, geese, rabbits and pigs, as well as an aviary. It’s hard to imagine what the reasoning behind this little venture actually is, but it gives us something to look at while we eat our ice creams.
Turning off the main road, we have a lovely drive through vineyards at we south and arrive at Hermanus around 1 pm, too early to check into our hotel so we go straight to the old harbour to find the restaurant that Ann and Terry recommended so highly.
We park up, having had to hand over R5 to get into the harbour complex (it’s just an old harbour too, nothing smart or complex) and walk around checking it out in case we need to come into here if the weather turns grim on our way round to Cape Town later this month. For the first time, I am tapped for cash by a couple of small children, or at least I think this is what they are asking me for as I can’t understand either of them.
Photo: The old harbour at Hermanus
We find the restaurant but from a distance it looks ominously quiet. When we get to the door we find a note - ‘closed for staff party’ on the door. Of all the days! Going back to the car we spot a small bar/restaurant at the dockside and decide to eat there but they have a private function going on which turns out to be the Christmas party for the staff who work at the other restaurant. Of all the bloody luck!!!
We have no idea where to go but end up back in the centre of town, eventually settling on a seafood restaurant, The Fisherman’s Cottage, where, instead of having a snack, we are tempted by the sight of the people on the next table having huge mounds of mussels and all three of us order the same.
Now, we all love mussels (obviously), but neither Mike nor Victoria like celery and Victoria doesn’t like fresh coriander, so naturally the mussels come cooked in white wine and, you guessed it, mounds of celery and fresh coriander. I love both so eat the mussels, slurping down all the cooking liquid as well while the two of them skirt around every mussel picking off the green stuff.
This is followed by wonderful malva pudding for Victoria and I and whiskey steamed pudding for Mike, just what we all need on a hot summer’s day.
Stuffed, we go back to the hotel to check in. It’s a bit rough around the edges but good enough, and has good views of the sea just over the road. Every room is furnished in a different style and there is lots of African art around, some of it really nice and all of it interesting and both our rooms have huge balconies.
Photo: View from our balcony
Both Mike and Victoria want a little nap so we all go down to bed for a while. I lie and wriggle - I want to get onto that beach – and after an hour I manage to convince them to go for a walk.
We cross the road and walk down a leafy lane. Looking around, you could be forgiven for thinking you were in Dorset with all the thatched roof properties around, and nasturtiums growing wild in the grass although the huge granite hills in the background give the game away a bit.
Photo: Dorset in South Africa
We walk through the dunes towards the beach but we get to the end we find that there is a small, marshy lagoon between us and the beach, so we stop to watch some guys kite surfing, and very good some of them are too, sometimes letting the wind take them 20 feet or more up into the air.
Photo: The marsh behind the lagoon behind the beach
We walk back up the lane and along the road until we guess that we are past the lagoon and walk down the next turning. Success. Straight onto the beach. Unfortunately the wind has picked up so much that the sand whips around like mad, sandblasting our legs. Mike moans like crazy, not understanding that he is getting a free exfoliating treatment, so once I have done my hunting for treasure bit (shells usually, but there are none of interest here) we start back.
Photo: Getting blasted
Photo: An abandoned beach
Photo: Shifting sands
I stand for a while watching the sand dunes change shape before my eyes in the strong wind, then we wander back to the hotel where Victoria uses the free wifi in the failing light on our balcony.
Photo: Victoria wrapped up against the strong winds
Photo: Well I’ve missed the sunsets out at sea!
None of us is really hungry, having eaten quite late, but as it’s Victoria’s last night, we don’t want to stay in so we drive into the centre of Hermanus but it’s like a ghost town and hardly any restaurants are open. Hermanus really is a holiday destination and loads of the properties are rentals and not yet occupied as the season starts next week when the schools have broken up. After driving around the whole place, we settle on a tapas bar but I find the food bland and disappointing and there is no atmosphere in the place at all. What a pity. I wish we had gone back to the place we had gone for lunch and just had the wonderful malva again – bugger that diet! It can wait.
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