PRE-BLOG WARNING – This is a pretty long blog post. While family members are all but obliged to suffer through, for all others, a strong pot of coffee may be helpful in powering through to the end. That or your favorite mood-enhancing drug. Probably best not to combine the two though. A week after returning from our safari in Kruger, we repacked our bags (which I must say, has become quite the exercise in efficiency at this point), and hit the road, once again, to embark on 7 nights in the Overberg – A self-declared region an hour or so from Cape Town, that literally translates to “over the mountain” (which begs one to inquire, what do you call the region on the other side of the mountain – Underberg?). #baddadjokes With our plan to tackle some of the lesser-visited areas of the Western Cape Province (i.e. the places Rick Steves sends his interns' interns), the first leg of our adventure was fairly driveway-centric, as we attempted a trial-and-error exercise in packing a week’s worth of luggage into our trusty VW Polo, a car that barely fits two children and a stroller. After multiple failures, we finally managed to “Tetris” our way to success, which unfortunately came at the detriment of our boy’s available foot space (“Why are my toes so high?”). Nonetheless, with our car packed, and our kids suffering from mild joint discomfort, we were on our way. Destination #1 - Stony Point Penguin Colony
Destination #2 - Harold Porter Botanical Gardens
Destination #3 - Hermanus
Destination #4 – The Southern Tip of Africa
Destination #5 - Malagas
The Tale of the Two Tantalized Tires Due to its remote location, the only way to access Malagas is via a poorly maintained dirt road that apparently is graded once every 75 years. With the road resembling more of an obstacle course of “pointy rocks,” the 14-inch tires on our trusty VW Polo were no match for the rough terrain, succumbing to a flat tire just over halfway through our journey along the 45km gravel path. After impressing the family with my tire-changing abilities (i.e., the car didn’t fall off the jack), it was not but fifteen minutes later whereby another tire (i.e., not the original OR the spare) found itself yielding to the powers of deflation. And as cars do not typically have two spare tires, well, we luckily were able to limp our way to our lodge, before coming to following conclusion – Well, shit. With the following day spent being towed to the closest town, over an hour away, I soon came to learn quite a great deal about our intended destination:
Thus, after replacing the two flat tires which were no match for the road to Malagas, I had to return once again, on the road to Malagas, in the car completely unsuitable for the road to Malagas, to collect my family. Only to make the journey back, along the road to Malagas, the following day. Because, with no rental car facilities within 2 hours, and the notion of Uber quite hilarious to anyone curious enough to ask, a teeth-gritting journey is all one can hope for. Which, thankfully, was survived by both us and our car, albeit after traveling at half the speed limit. Fun times indeed. Destination #6 - Bontebok National Park
Almost 2,000 words later, and I don’t think a conclusion is needed at this point. Onto the pics:
4 Comments
Melissa
1/23/2022 06:48:23 pm
Great job.
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Mark
1/26/2022 09:29:50 am
Great comment
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Colleen
2/1/2022 08:52:29 am
Are the tires at that playground all the sacrificial tires from the road to Malagas?
Reply
Mark
2/7/2022 11:23:20 am
You win the internet for the day with this comment. Congrats!
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PRIOR BLOG POSTS: Year Abroad Intro: • Welcome to our Newest Blog! Again! • The Move - Dissected, Probed and Then Probed Some More • The Voyage (Part 1) - If At First You Don't Succeed, Trying Again Won't Work Either • The Voyage (Part 2) - The Layover to Rule All Other Layovers • A Personal Life Update - Establishing Our Shallow Roots A Guide to South Africa: • How to be an Expat When You Aren't Technically an Expat (Part 1 - Bank Accounts) • How to be an Expat, When You Aren't Technically an Expat (Part 2 - Health Insurance) • Load Shedding - Keeping the Lights Off in South Africa Since 2007 • 195 Ways to Fight a Pandemic - The South Africa Edition • Halloween in South Africa - Playing Catch-Up Since 2016 • SnapScan - South Africa's Glimpse into America's Future • Thanksgiving in South Africa - Where My Turkeys Be At? • Life at the Epicenter of Omicron - A Different Type of Cancel Culture • Playgrounds - The Starbucks of South Africa • Cost of Living in South Africa - An Exploratory Journey of Everyday Expenses Trips: • Namibia Roadtrip (1 of 3) - Driving a Shake Weight to Sossusvlei • Namibia Roadtrip (2 of 3) - Searching for Souls in Swakopmund • Namibia Roadtrip (3 of 3) - Getting our Safari on at Etosha National Park • Weekend Getaway in Robertson - A Trip Down Pleasantville Lane • Summer Holiday Trip (1 of 3) - Glamping Without the Glam in the Drakensberg Mountains • Summer Holiday Trip (2 of 3) - The Historical Chronicles of Kruger National Park • Summer Holiday Trip (3 of 3) - Searching for Whales and Spare Tires in the Overberg • Visitors Round 1 - The Woodmans - An Expedited Exploration of Everything • The Great Wildebeest Migration - 15 Years of Waiting Decided in 15 Minutes • Ngorongoro Crater - A Pre-Migration Layover Inside an Inverted Volcano • Ndutu - The Safari to Rule All Other Safaris • Serengeti National Park - Seeking Out Simba at an Abandoned Pride Rock • Zanzibar - The Island of Sugar, Spice and Most Things Nice • Visitors Round 2 - Let's Ignore Our Sanity & Do All The Things • Wild Coast - A Little Tatse of the O.G. South Africa Cape Towning: • Spring Break in September - Just as Strange as it Sounds • A Day in the Life of a South African Expat - The Visual Edition • A Wrinkle in Our Spare Time • Our Final Week in South Africa - A Bittersweet Symphony of Bucket Lists The Other Stuff: • This is 40: The South Africa Version |