McDOUGALLS BAY HOLIDAY
Since our Hondeklip Bay
holiday in 2004, we knew we’ll be back to that part of the West Coast. We decided on McDougalls
Bay, just outside Port Nolloth – just
south of Alexander
Bay.
Friday 7 March 2008
On Friday, 7 March, I took the
kids to their hotel around 2pm. Around
2:30pm, Hein looked at me and said: “Why
don’t we pack and stay en route to Kuruman?”
Well, no begging was needed. Had
a look on the Internet, thought something at Lichtenburg would be nice. Phoned the El Gro hotel in Lichtenburg,
packed and drive off after 4pm.
Arriving in Lichtenburg around
7pm, we were quite knackered. Drove down
the main street past a few guesthouses, turned into the hotel’s parking lot
(not at all secure), walked in and had a look at the room. We turned around, said we would be back and couldn’t
leave fast enough. It wasn’t scruffy or
neglected per se, but there was just an atmosphere…
Drove back to a guesthouse in the
main street, Sundown, looked at the cars parked behind a secure gate and fence
and booked us in. (https://sundownguesthouse.co.za/) Francien had a room
available and we went to the Spur for a quick bite. By that time I nearly fell asleep – so tired!
Saturday 8 March 2008
After a hearty breakfast and a
nice chat with Francien, we continued to Kuruman. We were booked in a bush camp, with the most
extinguished feature that the ‘chalet’ only has 3 walls. www.soetvlakte.co.za
We thought it would be an experience, although the inbred Joburg paranoia made
us a bit apprehensive...
Soetvlakte Bush Camp is 124 km’s
outside Kuruman. We arrived there just
after 2pm. No sign of the owners, but the
workers expected us. Apparently someone had applied manure to the bush camp, so
it wouldn’t be suitable for us to sleep there.
Irritation thorn no 1...
The suggestion was that we could
share the guesthouse with another couple.
A couple that was suntanning in their undies! And the guesthouse is just a chalet with 2
rooms and a living area. I can’t even
remember now if there were 2 bathrooms...
Irritation thorn no 2...
With no cellphone reception, the
worker managed on his phone (probably MTN) to get hold of the owner. Doreen.
She had a different story. Because
of the rain, they thought it would be uncomfortable for us to sleep in the bush
camp. And they didn’t think we would
have mind sharing with the other couple...
We thought we’ll go and have a
look at the bush camp. On our way, the
worker stopped his bakkie for no apparent reason and that’s just where the
Hein-Alma irritation kicked in with a vengeance. We backed up, shouted at them ‘not to worry’
and decided to drive to Upington. On our
way back to civilisation, we saw this big lizard-iguana.
I was nearly devastated – we were
looking forward to the experience. As
soon as I got a signal, I phoned the owner and when she answered, told her in
no uncertain terms that we would e-mail her our banking details and she can reimburse
us. (We have paid for that night plus
dinner & breakfast, as well as for 2 nights going back home).
And wouldn’t you know – she had
yet another story. Apparently, we should
have made the effort of going to the bush camp, because it turned out not to be
so bad after all! We nearly flipped our
lids. Something fishy was going on, but
we didn’t care anymore.
Dialing 1023 I tried a few
numbers in Upington. All of them either
fully occupied or not open for business.
Now I was really getting
depressed. We settled upon the Upington
Protea Hotel and arrived there after 6.
Lovely, wonderful hotel. We wanted
a room on the river, so settled for a smoking room. Turned out a blessing, because after
unpacking, I ordered a large G&T and had a nice cigarette. Yeah, yeah, so I stopped for a year. Big
deal. Had a few on holiday and stopped again.
After a nice shower, we drove to
Le Must Restaurant. It is a wonderful
restaurant with the most amazing food.
For starters we had Kalahari
Oysters (skilpadjies of lewer in netvet).
Hein had a wonderful steak with green peppercorn sauce and I had mussels
with bacon and Springbok carpaccio and delightful red wine.
We left Upington at 7am. Just outside Kakamas we stopped at the
Vergelegen Wine Farm for breakfast. A
lovely coffee shop furnished in black and red leather with creative photographs
on the walls. www.augrabiesfalls.co.za
We ordered omelettes and strong
coffee – the food portions are big. We had to introduce the waitress to
‘Americano Coffee’, but she understood and made the coffee the way we like it!
From there onward to Springbok. To stock up on groceries.
We arrived in McDougalls Bay just
after 2pm. On our way to pick up the key (www.portindigo.co.za) we were a pit
puzzled by the houses. You will find a
nice, modern, big house with a shack next to it.
So, although I’ve seen a picture
of our holiday house, after the Kuruman disaster I was a bit apprehensive. But totally ungrounded…
Although I didn’t realise at
first, the house is a prefabricated building.
3 Bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, lovely lounge/dining open-plan although the
kitchen is a tad small. Gorgeous wooden
floors, sturdy and well-cared-for old furniture. The rooms are all tastefully decorated. There are also 3 braais – 1 outside the
kitchen, 1 on the patio and 1 in the lounge.
And the view – the view! The walking distance to the sea is about
100m.
McDougalls Bay
is about 3kms from Port Nolloth. There are no shops. But they do have 4 estate agents – Seeff,
Carit and 2 local ones.
In Port Nolloth you’ll find a
biggish Supermarket, a Spar, a hotel, 3 restaurants, 1 coffee shop, 2 liquor
stores, 2 fish shops, Engen garage, Pep Stores, butchery, post office,
museum… and a shop where they sell
anything – from cars to cutlery to sweets to clothes to ANYTHING!
The butchery has the MOST AMAZING
boerewors you’ve tasted! I’ve even
phoned them to enquire if they don’t supply a butcher in Gauteng – but alas!
We have however supported them
faithfully for 8 days – every morning we had our coffee and then we lit the
fire. Looking out over the ocean, the
weather mild and sunny with the smoke tickling your nose …
Wanting to support the local
community, we looked for a restaurant.
Mamma’s Restaurant’s décor looked uninviting; the hotel’s dining room
also lacked the atmosphere. Which left
us with Anita’s Tavern.
OK, so I’m a snob. The outside didn’t really tempt me. But Hein reminded me of previous experiences
– where the outside fail to reflect the true gem hidden inside.
So we ventured inside very
cautiously … and yes … were VERY
pleasantly surprised.
In fact, we had dinner there 3
times. The portions are HUGE (true West
Coast style). Hein had a stunning steak,
my prawns were huge and succulent and the service good.
The interior’s cosy, rustic and
filled with all kinds of memorabilia.
Wednesday 12 March 2008
On the Wednesday, we decided to
take a round-about trip of 240km. From
Port Nolloth we drove North to Alexander
Bay, then Kuboes,
Lekkersing and back to Port Nolloth.
Alexander Bay
is very dull and brown.
We felt like a snack, so stopped
at the ‘Mall’ (Pep Stores, Sentra Grocery Store, Borderline Coffee Shoppe and 2
other shops).
Walked into the Borderline Coffee
Shoppe, enquired about lunch. We were
told we could only order toasted sandwiches, since anything else only gets
delivered on a Thursday (the following day).
We settled for toasted ham, cheese & tomato (Hein) and a toasted
cheese (myself). While we had some Coke
and coffee, I heard the ping of the till – and saw the girl walk out of the
shop, across to the Sentra. Returned
with a loaf of bread.
Our sandwiches arrived – uncut
and every knife and fork a different style.
Then she remembered serviettes – again we heard the ping of the till and
she returned a few minutes later with some serviettes. My sandwich was a bit dull, so I asked for
some tomato sauce.
I thought I heard the ping of the
till – and I nearly fell of my chair thinking surely she’s not going out AGAIN
to buy tomato sauce? But she had some in
the kitchen.
The temperature outside was 18
oC. We drove to the beach (temperature
dropped to 16 oC) and decided to follow the ‘road’ (two tracks in loose sand)
to the river mouth (where the Orange River
flows into the sea.)
The water is so brown,
that you can’t clearly see the difference between the river and the sea. There were some fishermen – on the Namibia side of the river.
The scenery on our way to Kuboes,
consists of grey sand and shrubs. But
every now and then when the Orange River is in
sight, you see some amazing green orchards and trees on the river’s edge.
In Kuboes, there are only a few
workers’ houses. Hein stopped at this
café for a Coke – but the fridge was empty.
Their supplies arrive on a Thursday.
In Lekkersing,
another small workers’ village, limestone is processed for stepping stones and
the likes.
With no shortage of limestone,
this owner thought it a good idea to decorate his house with it. Another quaint
little blue house in Lekkersing – the temperature has now risen to 30 oC, so a
tin house would be unbearable. We were
back in Port Nolloth early afternoon.
Saturday we drove down to Hondeklip Bay, to visit friends at Die Honnehokke. (www.hondeklip.co.za – self-catering chalets) We stayed there for 3 weeks in 2004 and had a blast. Collected mussels, braaied, partied, more mussels, braaied, partied…
We had arranged for a permit,
driving through De Beers property, through Kleinzee, Koingaas and then
Hondeklip bay – took us 2 hours.
Although Koingaas used to supply fresh fruit and vegs at the Spar, under
new management that option has ceased to exist.
Hondeklip Bay
has developed a little bit since our last visit. New houses for the local workers, a tented
camp & restaurant and quite a few artists have come to stay.
Elise & Ninette keep
themselves busy with extraordinary pottery – created from black clay. Attie and Hein barbecued the meat for lunch and
we caught up with news and gossip.
Tuesday 18 March 2008
After 9 days, our holiday came to
an end. We decided to have breakfast at
Port Dump (Port Indigo’s breakfast venue).
When you enter Port Dump, the
floor is covered with broken shells (top).
I think that’s a very practical idea.
No need to vacuum, no need to wash the floor, it’s eco-friendly, it’s
cheap. Only thing is, barefoot will not
be an option.
We headed for Kakamas, to book
into Vergelegen B&B. (That’s where
we had the lovely breakfast on our way to McDougalls Bay - http://www.augrabiesfalls.co.za/.)
At Pofadder, we stopped at the
service station.
Went to the bathroom – and had to
pay R2 – to enter!
In the middle of nowhere,
probably a 2-horse-town – one has to pay for the privilege of going to the loo. Well, I do suppose it keeps out
the … grasshoppers? Mice?
At Vergelegen B&B (www.augrabiesfalls.co.za) we booked
in and asked for a ‘sundowner spot’. We
were referred to Khamkirri, about 20kms away.
Khamkirri (www.khamkirri.co.za) is a 7500 ha
Private Game Reserve on the Northern banks of the Orange
River. Accommodation can
either be camping, bungalows or a farmhouse.
We had some drinks – look at this
amazing spot! Right on the river’s edge.
Vergelegen’s rooms are
beautifully decorated and comfortable. We booked dinner for 7pm.
Dinner was outside next to the
fountain. While we were having some wine
and enjoying the balmy weather, I heard these strange little ‘zap’ noices. Turned out to be a blue fluorescent light
for the bugs.
The menu reads like poetry. Unfortunately, the Afrikaans version sounds
better than the English.
Blomme
vanuit korale-prag Avoritz met eie
gedaante. Vanuit koraalriwwe pluk ons ‘n
filoblom met ‘n binnekroom van steurgarnale en geurige avopulp.
Meermin
pante Doeksagte
calarmariringe. ‘n Huweliksvoltrekking
tussen ons diepgebraaide ringe en wondersous.
Groot
kokkedoor Hoenderlewer peri-peri
op eie werf se toring. Ons eie der
duiwel van ‘n hoenderlewer – vir watter vuur sien jy kans?
Smeulend, aan die brand of siedend.
Oewerbos ‘n Sampioenoes in ‘n bakkie. Ons speel met kabouterhuisies, wanneer ons
wit knoppiesampioene met kaas vul en dan bedien met ons tuisgemaakte mayonnaise.
Wednesday 19 March 2008
We arrived home on Wednesday at
17h30. Peak traffic. And was actually shocked to see so many
cars!
South
Africa has many hidden vacation gems. It is well worth driving to remote,
unheard-of ‘dorpies’, to experience the warmth of the people, the abundance of
their cuisine and the beauty of God’s Hand.
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