Hello all! This will be our last post for Africa on what has been an eye-opening journey around a small part of a huge continent. The landscapes, animals and people have been the obvious highlight and left us wanting to return for more. We had only spent a limited time in an unrelated area of Africa prior (Morocco), and weren’t sure what to expect, much less with two young kids. Finding blogs/guides with the keyword “toddler” was limited, but our Airbnb hosts, travel agent for Namibia and random people on the street eager to both help and show us their country made it a trip to remember.
The real MVPs of our travels so far are our kids. They’ve adapted to everything we’ve thrown at them, be it long days at the airport with missed flights or staying completely quiet for one historical tour or another. Mae is strong, never afraid to speak her mind and surprises us every day with some new skill she has picked up. She puts on her clothes in her “changing room” (behind the curtains), makes her own breakfast and has started drawing imaginative stories on paper. The kindness she shows to strangers on the playground and her brother (well, most of the time) make me so proud. Emmett, barely two and half, has had to grow up quickly and takes everything on with an “I do it” attitude. His smile melts me every time and I love talking about all the “race cars” and “wee-woos” we see as we walk the streets.
This leg of our trip also marks our first family visit with Madeline’s mom, known to us as “Nani”, making the epic +24 hour journey from the West Coast to visit us in South Africa. The kids were so excited, counting down the number of “sleeps” (aka days) until she arrived. As soon as she walked in the door they asked her to play, and she of course said yes, being only mildly jet lagged. Crammed in the back between two car seats, Nani played hours of mom & baby with Mae, read Richard Scarry’s The Great Pie Robbery to Emmett countless times and ensured both kids remained well hydrated with their constant water bottle requests. She fit right in , going along with whatever we had planned and brought a positive viewpoint that made us all more aware of what a cool experience this has been. Finally, she gave us a chance to have a few moments together away from kids, a very rare occurrence on this family year abroad.
Where Are We?
To close out our time in South Africa we elected to do a two week journey along the Garden Route, a 300km scenic drive along the southern coast. Technically we did the Garden Route Plus, with our final itinerary being:
- Port Elizabeth (2 Nights) – Flew here from Cape Town to start our journey. We stayed a day to specifically go drive the Addo Elephant Park to see a few more elephants before leaving Africa. We stayed 10 minutes outside the Southeast gate (Mathyolweni Gate) at a really cool guesthouse on an active farm with a rooftop deck that you could see in to the Park itself.
- Plettenberg Bay (4 Nights) – Our first stop along the Garden Route, Plettenberg Bay, is a centrally located town that allowed us to explore the nearby nature, both land and sea. We had some excellent hikes and food in the area and finished up most of our days with the kids playing on the beach off our deck at sunset.
- Outdshoorn (3 Nights) – Turning inland, we drove and stayed near the town of Outdshoorn in a drier, desert-like area primarily known for its ostrich farms. We had some close encounters with the big birds, visited some huge caves and saw some early morning meerkats waking up with the sun.
- Hermanus (5 Nights) – Our final stop along the way was at the coastal town of Hermanus, with a famous cliff walk offering some of the best land based whale watching in the world. It definitely lived up to the hype, ee had whales 9 of the 10 times we walked the path less than a 100ft from shore. This was also a great area to explore a few final wineries, with playgrounds of course.
After a whirlwind 48 hours of showing Nani around the highlights of Cape Town, we flew to Port Elizabeth and up our minivan (I’m so ashamed) to give us a bit more room with the additional passenger and started in on our adventure. Overall, the Garden Route provided us with the quintessential mix of experiences we’ve come to love in Africa: Life changing animal experiences? Check. Food and hospitality that meet my bougie demands? Check. Stunning landscape views that bring me to tears? Check. Our pace and number of stops along the route felt very appropriate with our kids and gave us a good balance of seeing a lot without having to spend 90% of our time packing/unpacking at new locations.
Favorite Experiences
Here were some of our favorite activities from the trip! I put these on our larger South Africa map below along with our accommodations if you want links and more information.
Places
- Addo Elephant Park – Addo Elephant Park offers an easy, self-drive experience where animals roam in a protected area. We spent the day following tracks around the park and saw a ton of zebras, elephants, warthogs and crazy, unique birds. The park map came with an animal checklist and we definitely found the 10 Point Secretariat Bird! Our day culminated with an out of body experience where a group of elephants ended up literally next to the car making eye contact as they pulled down the tree limbs around us. I don’t have the words to properly describe the awe nor the photos since we were all sitting petrified as it happened.
- Robberg Nature Reserve – A nature preserve near Plettenberg Bay with some great hikes and beaches. We took the Witsand Circuit (5.5km) which was the middle of three options and provided plenty of views, dunes and literal bouldering. The hike was challenging, particularly with two toddlers on the back, but armed with a bag of gummy bears we made it through. The views of the turquoise waters and rock cliffs were well worth the trek.
- Outdshoorn – My surprisingly favorite place along the Route was Outdshoorn. The town wasn’t on the coast or flashy, but it felt real and different from what we had seen so far in South Africa and I liked that. I couldn’t pick just one thing:
- Highgate Ostrich Farm – I eventually convinced the family to join me in going to an operational ostrich farm to learn about the birds, their quirky behaviors and the industry surrounding them. We got a private tour with William who showed us all about the birds including getting to stand on their super hard eggs, show us the feather products and also feed them. I also partook in some ostrich steak, which was more like beef than chicken…
- Cango Cave – 45 minutes outside of the town was a huge, still mostly undiscovered cave system. While we didn’t opt for the “Adventurer’s Package” that involved crawling through openings, we did make it in time for the last tour of the day and the kids loved yelling “gecko!” (what Emmett thinks we are saying when we say “echo”) in the cave.
- Meerkats at Dawn – Our lodge offered an early morning “safari” where we drove out to a meerkat burrow, set up camp chairs and waited for the families to emerge. At first light the meerkats appear one by one and point their bellies towards the sun to warm up. Watching these small creatures come out while hearing the years it has taken to get this family acclimated to our presence was surprisingly interesting. It did make us laugh to think of doing something similar with prairie dogs in the USA and/or a great business opportunity.
- Hermanus Whale Walk – As I mentioned above, Hermanus was an excellent spot to see the many southern right whales, with many mom and calf pairs breaching. The walking path along the cliffs itself was a sight to see and while we didn’t go in any, there were several sea swimming pools along the coast, filled by the cold ocean water that lightly rippled over the pools edge.
Food (& Wine)
South Africa continued to wow us with its food and drink along the Garden Route with it’s mix of fresh produce and overall dining experiences with toddlers.
- Creation Wines – This was our relatively big splurge of the trip: a normal or vegetarian tasting menu with wine pairing but still under $75 per person. The views were stunning, the food was excellent and the playroom, which we could see from the table, kept the kids happy for the entire meal. What more could you ask for? With each wine they also brought a sensory item to enhance the taste, such as a shell to hear the ocean to enhance the saltiness or a piece of silk to feel the smoothness of a wine. We did our best to keep a straight face as the explained each one, which became increasingly difficult as the meal progressed.
- Kitchen Window – There is small but famous surfing town between Port Elizabeth and Plettenberg Bay called Jeffery’s Bay. We stopped for lunch at a casual restaurant on the beach and enjoyed some gin & tonics, good fish and a charismatic surfer bum waiter while the kids rolled around in the grass below the deck.
- Walker Bay Fish and Chips – This place in Hermanus had some of the best fish and chips I’ve ever experienced in my life. The owner was there and actually had the cook throw out our first order because the fish wasn’t crispy enough, but he did give me a weird look when I declined silverware. I was halfway through before noticing everyone else was using utensils in the restaurant. Apparently South African Fish and Chips is a fork and knife meal.
- Barrington’s– Another South African, multi-faceted establishment, Barrington’s was a brewery, farm shop, fine dining and sports bar all in one. They had stunning gardens where they grew all of their produce and we were sad to have just missed the ripening strawberries we saw. The kids sat with us at the table the whole time, Emmett with his cars and Mae with the Magna-Tiles.
Family Moments
- Kids on the beach at Robberg Nature Reserve – One of our favorite beach memories from the coastal route, the kids loved climbing on the rocks and pretending they were boats as the waves washed by. As each wave went out they would quickly run to the next, giggling and trying to escape the cold water coming in. They were also fascinated (as were the adults) by these odd jellyfish/snail hybrid creatures, called plough snails apparently, that appeared right after a wave receded and then quickly burrowed in the sand.
- Hermanus Playground – In the center of town, along the walking path there is of course a playground that the kids went to every day we were there. They would play, pause when we saw whales and then go back to playing. I’m not sure of anywhere else in the world where you can whale watch from a playground at sunset.
- Per Mae (4 Yr Old): Favorite moment was “Playing with Nani” – Mae was overjoyed to have someone new to endlessly play with. In the car, at the beach and in the house, Mae and Nani played “family” with her toys and made books on drawing paper.
- Per Emmett (2 Yr Old): Favorite moment was “Baby Ostrich” – In Outdshoorn at the Ostrich farm we got to see the baby ostriches which were adorable and to our surprise William scooped one up and set it in Emmett’s lap. He was so excited.
- Per Nani (Older than Emmett and Mae) favorite moment was “Elephant Encounter” – Her first answer was “Everything” but when we talked more it came down to that out-of-body experience with the Elephants looking in the car at us a few feet away. That mix of adrenaline, awe of just how big they are and seemingly mutual understanding of respect for one another is a pretty good highlight.
Tips & Lessons Learned
This is where we put all of the things we learned along the way about traveling in the region as well as traveling in general with toddlers.
About South Africa:
- Garden Route Thoughts – Overall, we loved adding all of these stops to our itinerary and taking our time at each one. If I were more time constrained, in South Africa, I think that seeing Cape Town, Hermanus and Outdshoorn are the must see locations with plenty of beautiful scenery and wild experiences. Late August also felt like the perfect time to go with good whale watching, improving weather and not too many crowds,
- See Previous Ones – We’ve already given quite a few thoughts about this area of South African in our previous posts: The Southern Cape and Cape Town & The Winelands.
About Traveling with Toddlers:
- Leading by Example – New things can be scary for kids and we never force ours to do something they don’t want. We have found that if one of the parents does it first, it shows them what to expect and makes them much more open to it. Both kids immediately said no to feeding or touching ostriches when asked, but after watching us do it, they laughed as they plucked corn kernels from their hands.
- Calm Down Putty – Along our travels we found lavender scented putty called “Calm Putty”. When Mae is really upset, she can have a hard time returning back to a thinking state. The calm putty is a tactile outlet that keeps her hands occupied for fidgeting and really helped her through a few tricky moments. Emmett prefers other calm down methods, so he mostly uses his putty for building snow people families.
Hi Alec and Madeline! I just wanted to say how much I’ve enjoyed following your epic trip here and on Instagram so far. I am also so impressed by you two and your kids’ endurance… and it is fun to imagine how my kiddos, being so similar in age, would react to such an adventure. Super inspiring!
Aww, thank you so much Kelly! It means a lot to hear from you and glad to know someone is actually reading my yammering.