Chilled surfers

9 October

South Africans are perhaps the hardiest people on earth. We’re out at 6am in all our layers watching for otters, and there are already a dozen surfers out a hundred metres offshore waiting to surf the big breakers. What’s more, as we’ve discovered at Otter’s Rest, they certainly don’t bother with home heating just to cope with those handful of months that are actually quite cold at night. I really like our accommodation, all whitewashed wood and lovely big windows looking out over Kommetjie at the ocean, but BOY is it cold in the mornings and evenings!

No otters to reward our patience today, but we had a lovely morning at Olifantsbos in the Cape National Park watching baboons crunching mussels on the rocks, bontebok browsing around the dunes and tortoises making suicidal dashes across the road. This is such a beautiful little corner of the world. Then we took a brief mammal watching break to go wine tasting at Cape Point Winery. I had my doubts; if they are the only winery on the cape peninsula itself then surely it can’t be a very great terroir? But they actually had a jolly good Chardonnay and an oaked Sauvignon Blanc that was even better. We bought a bottle for Janet and Charles to thank them for being such great hosts. At twelve quid it was a bargain. And the view out across the bay towards Kommetjie and the Cape is perhaps the most stunning I’ve ever seen while sampling glasses of wine.

Our final evening spotting for otters was also a dud, so that one brief glimpse is going to have to be our whole reward for a four day stint. I’d have to admit it’s a bit disappointing. And now there’s a 3:30am alarm for our early flight tomorrow! Ugh. Janet & Charles, hosts to the last drop, are going to be up at 4am to see us off.

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