April 11, 2025
Today was another travel day after 4 nights at the Coot Club. The boys still managed to wake up early despite their epic day yesterday. They played learning games for a bit while Kyle and I worked out and read. While reading on the deck, I spotted this bright yellow bird- the first of many creature sightings of the day.
We had one more morning of the lovely breakfast at the clubhouse. Ollie enjoyed one final baby-ccino here and Len a last hot chocolate. We ate outside and the boys loved to wander off and climb trees in between bites and sips. Len and I snuck off to the jetty one last time and relaxes on the over-water webbing for a bit.
Then it was back to our boathouse to pack up. We were spent last night and didn’t do any tidying or preparing, so that left us to get organized today. Our stuff was spread haphazardly around the house and it took us about 90 minutes to pack up. The timeline included sneaking in one more bath for the boys in the big orange tub. We need to work on our packing strategy and find a way to involve the boys— no more freeloading!
We finally hit the road near 11am driving south first to check out Klipgat caves before heading north to Montagu. We spotted one small antelope (?) almost immediately to add to our critter count.
Gaanbaai was just a 20 minute drive from our hotel and home to the Walker Bay nature reserve entrance and Klipgat caves. It cost just $10 USD for us to enter the reserve which was nearly vacant save for 2 other people we encountered in the parking lot. Winter is high season for this area as ~750 right whales return to the bay each year to mate. Our guide last night told us you can see loads of them daily in wintertime. The walk to the cave was brief and we spotted a few lizards on the way including a teal-headed lizard (blue headed agama) which really excited the boys.
We learned that, “Excavations in 1969 revealed 2000 year-old pottery, stone and bone artifacts and the remains of shellfish, fish and other animals that the Khoikhoi bushman had discarded” as well as some human teeth. “The Khoikhoi (‘people people’ or ‘real people’) are a historical division of the Khoisan ethnic group, the native people of Southwestern Africa. Sheep bones were also found indicating that they were already herding sheep at this early stage and possibly even kept dogs and cattle.” - Copied from here :)
The boys loved having another opportunity to break out their headlamps and do more exploring. Thankfully the hike was short and we were on our way to lunch a little after 1pm.
Lunch was at a cafe called Coffee on the Rocks in Gaansbaai and here Lenny introduced us to his “feed me soon or else I am going to lose it” face. At the restaurant, we spotted a few huge spiders in the garden including a black legged nephilia. The boys shrieked with joy after I first yelped with fear.
Ollie has been asking all week to listen to Hamilton songs and we’ve refused due to exhaustion of the soundtrack, but finally gave in today. Even Len is in on the Hamilton obsession now. It’s never just listening to the music, though, the boys (mostly Ollie) then pepper us with questions during the songs. “What’s civility?” “Why does he say Burr is the worst?” “Is this the song where he kisses another lady that’s not his wife?” “What does slumming it mean?” “What does it mean that Burr doesn’t have beliefs?” They are non stop (just like the song). On the drive we spotted a few more zebra and loads of sheep on the farms along the M2.
Our next accommodation is more like a small, traditional B&B versus a hotel. Our host, Brydon, greeted us to show us around the house and grounds. The yard is full of 100+ different citrus trees which captured all of our attention. The boys favorites were the citron (huge!), buddhas hand and caviar lime (aka finger lime). Brydon then cut up a caviar lime for Ollie to try and he liked it, “tastes sour and the pearls are cool.” Len wasn’t in a tasting mood. However, there is a huge bowl of fruit in the kitchen fully stocked with small granny smith apples that Len is quickly making his way through.
The home is museum-like and furnished with all sorts of interesting Cape Dutch furniture, art and antiques. There is even a “room of curiosity” filled with books, skeletons, crystals, and artifacts. I’m a little nervous about everything in the house surviving four days with the kids.
Kyle and the boys then took a quick dip in the garden pool while I unpacked. The sun had dipped beneath the tree line by this point so their chilly dip was a fast one.
Brydon made us a reservation at 7pm at a nearby restaurant. We almost asked him to move up the time but hoped we would be in the clear given that Len took a nap in the car. We should have trusted our instincts. The restaurant was less than a block away but from what we saw, the town looks like a quaint, charming place. We brought along Uno to play at the table to keep the kids entertained which worked for a while. Things unraveled a bit when entrees arrived and we hurried through the remaining part of dinner before anyone fully melted down.
I nearly had my own meltdown, though, when Kyle shared a photo of the gigantic spider awaiting me at our house’s gate. (I stayed back to pay the bill so Kyle could get a jumpstart on bedtime). Just knowing that spiders that size are nearby make me anxious about the open window/open door cross breeze approach to cooling here. Of course, the boys loved to see and hear me squirm over the spiders presence. The quickest way to dissolve bedtime meltdowns, apparently, is for me to scream over a pest— they were doubled over with laughter. We learned from our hosts that this was a rain spider and not dangerous to humans, but I still find it terrifying.
One downer from today was that Ollie stubbed his toe pretty severely. His nailed is quite bruised and he was whimpering in pain tonight after being put to bed. He then snuck into ours and continued to whine through tears even after we gave him Tylenol. We then offered for him to watch a short show which successfully distracted him and ceased the complaining immediately.
