South African Travel Guide: ‘Gem of the Karoo’ in a spacious mountain setting continued November 6, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Art Gallery, Europe, Hotels, Library, Memorial, Money, Museum, South Africa, Tour , 2commentsReinet House is now a superb period house museum, containing some of the personal possessions of the Murrays, and many fascinating domestic items. There is also a display on the town’s Reinet dolls. These were first made during World War I when many luxury imports, including dolls, could not be obtained.
In the back yard of Reinet House there is a reconstructed water mill, which can be operated by inserting a coin, and nearby is the old Black Acorn vine planted in 1870 by Charles Murray — believed to have been the thickest in the world until dead wood was removed in 1983. (more…)
South African Travel Guide: ‘Gem of the Karoo’ in a spacious mountain setting November 6, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Accommodation, Cape Town, Europe, Hostels, Hotels, India, London, Memorial, Museum, Rail Pass, South Africa, Tickets, Tour , 3comments
Ying in a loop of the Sundays River, beneath the distinctive dome of Spandau Kop, the old town of Graaff-Reinet is progressively being restored to the glory that earned it the title ‘Gem of the Karoo’. Another title, conferred by a Cape Town newspaper last century, was ‘Athens of the Eastern Cape‘ — a reflection of the town’s reputation as a cultural centre.
The citizens of Graaff-Reinet took some time to attain this status — the town was first no more than a straggling lane of mud huts. These nevertheless constituted one of the capital cities of the world when Graaff-Reinet declared itself an independent ‘republic’ only 10 years after being established. (more…)
To the ‘magic mountain’ through the Seven Weeks Rail Pass October 22, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Africa, Cape Town, Hotels, Rail Pass, South Africa, Tour, Trails , 2commentsSouth of the Karoo plains around Laingsburg, rolling hills swell into the sandstone peaks of the Klein Swartberg range. Rivers have etched their way through the seemingly impenetrable rock, and the slow erosion has exposed contorted strata that tower high above our winding route into the Little Karoo. About half the route is tarred. (more…)
Touring Paradise, St George’s Street — ‘memory mile’ of a Naval Town part 2 October 15, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Map, Museum, Rail Pass, Sightseeing, South Africa, Tickets, Tour, Trails, Travel Clinic, Trip , 2commentsFrom Jubilee Square to ‘Black Town‘ Jubilee Square, on the left, commemorates King George V’s Silver Jubilee in 1935. By coincidence, the drinking fountain in the square commemorates an earlier jubilee — that of Queen Victoria in 1897. It was moved here recently from its original position near The Residency. A statue of Able Seaman Just Nuisance was unveiled nearby in 1985. (more…)
Touring Paradise, St George’s Street — ‘memory mile’ of a Naval Town part 1 October 15, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Hotels, Memorial, Museum, Rail Pass, Restaurant, South Africa, Tickets, Tour, Trails, Trip , 2commentsThe buildings that rise in steep terraces above Simon’s Bay look down on a harbour that sheltered square-rigged warships with muzzle-loader guns, and today protects the deadly submarines of the South African Navy.
Between the houses and the sea runs Simon’s Town’s St George’s Street — a thoroughfare that has echoed to the tramp of marching feet for many generations. Countless sailors from throughout the world have a memory-filled corner of their hearts reserved for what is known today as ‘the historic mile’ — the central section of St George’s Street. (more…)
The ‘Land van Waveren’ and the wild beauty of Bain’s Kloof part 2 October 12, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Accommodation, Beach Resorts, Cape Town, Europe, Hotels, Rail Pass, South Africa, Tickets, Tour, Wellington , 3commentsBain’s Kloof to Cape Town
From the viewsite the road winds down the pass to Wellington. Turn right at the T-junction into Main Street. After 1,5 km turn left at the four- way stop street, and right at the T-junction onto the R44, noting your kms.
Continue straight at the intersection with the Paarl-Malmesbury road. After 12,3 km turn right for Dubanville (R312), and roughly 22 km later turn left at the T-junction.
The road enters Durbanville 5 km after this. Turn left into Main Road, and follow the signs onto the N1 for Cape Town. (more…)
The ‘Land van Waveren’ and the wild beauty of Bain’s Kloof part 1 October 12, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Africa, Cape Town, Hotels, Restaurant, Tickets, Wellington , 2commentsThis drive starts with the famous view of Table Mountain from across Table Bay, then heads north in the footsteps of early searchers for the fabled treasure of Monomotapa. The wealth they found was in the soil — rich farmlands flank our route to the ‘Land van Waveren‘ beyond the mountains. The entire route is on good tar.
Turn of the Table Bay Boulevard (N1) onto Marine Drive (R27). Drive past Milnerton, with the lagoon on your left.
Soon after passing Rietvlei on your right, turn left for Bloubergstrand, noting your kms. There are a number of parking areas along the beach- front which afford magnificent views of the sweep of the bay and Table Mountain. (more…)
A Sunburned Haven for Sea Birds and Hardy Fishermen part 1 October 10, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Africa, Cape Town, Destination, Hotels, Restaurant, Round The World, South Africa, Tickets, Tour, Trails, Travel Insurance , 2commentsSaldanha Bay and Langebaan Lagoon are the focal points of this drive through some of the finest west coast scenery. From Saldanha the route leads around the lagoon to the Postberg Nature Reserve — then heads north to the historic fishing harbours that dot the coast between Laaiplek and Paternoster. Roughly half the route is tarred, the rest is good gravel. (more…)
Traversing Rugged Mountains and Sheltered, Bountiful Valleys October 10, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Accommodation, Cape Town, Hotels, Lodges, Rail Pass, South Africa, Tour, Trails, Trip, Wellington , 2commentsA series of scenic passes over stark and rocky mountain ranges forms a natural circuit — eastwards and southwards from the orange groves of Citrusdal to the gentle orchards of the Ceres valley, then west and north through Tulbagh and the wheatfields of the fertile Swartland. All but 40km of the route is on tarred roads.
Turn east out of Citrusdal’s Voortrek‑ ker Street into Paul de Villiers Street, noting your kms. After about 3 km there are fine views back over the town. The tarred surface ends 3,5 km later, and the road passes tangled rock formations. (more…)
Quaint old roads through the land of the copper mountains October 7, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Cape Town, Hotels, Museum, Rail Pass, Tickets, Trails, Trip , 2commentsThis drive is most rewarding in the spring when the display of wildflowers is at its best, but the panoramic views over Namaqual and and the mountain passes — Spektakel Pass and the Messelpad — are memorable at any time of year. Note that two-thirds of the ‘ route is on gravel roads, and that you must take food and drink with you.
Drive north-east alongSpringbok’s Voortrekker Street and turn right towards ‘Airport/Cape Town‘, noting your kms as you turn. After 1 km turn right at the T-junction, and after a further 4,3 km turn left, noting your kms again. (more…)
Springtime for Czechoslovakia July 14, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Czech Republic, Europe, Hotels, Insurance, Moscow, Museum, Prague, Sightseeing, Tickets, Tour, Trails, Travel Clinic, Trip, Vietnam , 5commentsIrena lived in a late-Seventies block of flats on the edge of town, half a mile from the Russian barracks, part of an ugly outer-urban sprawl. After buying me lunch in a new concrete hotel called, romantically, The Interflora, she drove me back at high Skoda speed through the centre of town — choke full out, engine howling in second gear as we skidded across wet cobblestones, clipping kerbs and narrowly avoiding the numerous potholes and dug-up sections where slow attempts were being made to repair the water mains, shattered by the minus-twenty-five February temperatures. The only vehicles Irena took any notice of were the thin double trams, locked inscrutably into their own system, clanging their way up and down the narrow streets making unmistakable tram noises. Saturday afternoon shoppers shared the pavements with soldiers in iron-grey overcoats wandering about in twos and threes.
“You can tell the difference by their boots,” Irena told me before I’d had a chance to ask the question. Some of the Russian soldiers (pull-on boots, no laces) looked Mongolian and very young. (more…)
Excited Spanish Travel, Rail Pass Matanza July 10, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Air Tickets, Andorra, Europe, Rail Pass, Sightseeing, Tickets, Tour, Trails, Trip , 4commentsSix-thirty am. I’m already dressed and out of the couchette as the train slows to a halt in the darkness. Outside, nothing but gravel and a road on one side: on the other, the small halt with its sign L’Hospitalet and the bus waiting to bear us on the long winding climb, leaving behind an ever-lengthening panorama pierced with points of light. The snow stands in cliffs on the uphill side of the road, cut by snowploughs only hours before.
In Old Andorra, Peter is waiting with his Santana Land-Rover, and greets me heartily. Has there been a matanza yet? I ask. “There was one at Margarita’s on Monday. I think there’s another tomorrow at Mestre’s,” he answers.
Our goal is fourteen dizzying kilometres up into the Spanish Pyrenees. A community still living in an almost cashless economy, to a pattern already set in the fourteenth century. One of the last outposts of a peasant culture which is rapidly passing from the world, governed entirely by the seasons and depending little on manufactured inputs. (more…)
Travel, Hiking, Sightseeing; one day holiday away along the Golden Road June 29, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Asia, Hotels, Kazakhstan, London, Memorial, Scotland , add a commentIt was only on the way to Samarkand, the real pearl of ancient Central Asia (now the pearl of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Uzbekistan). But the memories of that day in little Bukhara are more vivid, more persistent, and looking back I think I understand why, through the centuries, merchants and pilgrims and assorted adventurers, guided by nothing but the stars, were prepared to brave the Red Sand Desert, the Celestial Mountains, the look-outs on the Tower of Death and very likely the Black Pit of vipers and vermin for a look at the fabulous, forbidden town.
They say that only two Christians defiled Bukhara with their infidel gaze in the 400 years before 1840. That was the year Captain Connolly of the Bengal Light Cavalry crawled out of the pit with his flesh in tatters, to have his head cut off in the ceremonial courtyard for his pains. (more…)
Terrace’s Garden: WURZBURG June 8, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Accommodation, Air Tickets, Beach Resorts, France, Germany, Hotels, Italy, Paris, Round The World, USA , add a commentIn spite of extensive damage by fire at the end of the Second World War, the Wurzburg Residenz remains the most important secular building in the Baroque style in Germany. This achievement speaks a great deal for the determination and intelligence of the rulers of the diminutive episcopal principality of Wurzburg. But the high standard of the Residenz in the constellation of European Baroque can be directly attributed to two men. The palace itself is the masterpiece of the court architect Johann Balthasar Neumann, who fused the traditions of the Bohemian and Viennese Baroque schools with new trends from France. In addition, the Wurzburg Residenz contains two stupendous fresco ensembles by the Venetian painter Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696-1770). (more…)
