John, Karen and John (jnr) Hughes

Connecticut - USA

13 August 2010

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I met the Hughes family at the Cape Town station at 20h15 when they disembarked from the Premiere Class train from Johannesburg. After becoming acquainted we travelled to the De Waterkant area where the family was staying in a wonderful, fully equipped apartment,

Johnny and Karen outside the De Waterkant apartment

Johnny, Karen and John outside their De Waterkant apartment

We went to Andiamos for a late snack and drinks

Enjoying Don Pedros at Andiamos

Day 2

Biscuit factory market
 Table Mountain
City centre
Rugby at Newlands
Waterfront

We started our day by visiting the Old Biscuit Mill market where we enjoyed a great breakfast 

Karen buying fresh pomegranate juice at the Biscuit Mill

Karen shopping at Heartworks Art at the Biscuit Mill

John and the perpetuating water machine at the Biscuit Mill

In the Biscuit Mill grounds with Table Mountain in the background

On our way to Table Mountain we stopped in at Alexander Joles rug shop and while Karen got enjoyably involved Johnny twiddeled his thumbs and.....

John did his own thing. JJJ

Outside Alexander Joles in Strand Street Cape Town

Doing the Table Mountain shuffle atop of Table Mountain

The Hughes family atop of Table Mountain

Having a curry lunch at the Eastern Bazaar in the city centre

We stopped in at Queens Wholesalers where we picked up a lot of post World Cup souvenir bargains

We travelled onto Newlands Rugby ground where we watched the local Western Province team beat the Blue Bulls in an absorbing rugby game.

The Hughes family enjoying rugby at Newlands with the other 48,320 spectators (official gate figure)  in the stadium
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Father and son in the Cape Town waterfront

We ended our day with a great fish dinner at the Ocean Basket in the Waterfront

AMAZING DAY!

Day 3

Morning mass at St.Marys Cathedral
Cape Peninsula tour
Gold restaurant

Karen and Johnny leaving St. Mary's cathedral after attending the morning mass service

We stopped in at the Gardeners Cottage for breakfast

With Just Nuisance in Simonstown

Fun pictures of Johnny and Just Nuisance

At the penguin colony on Boulders Beach

At Cape Point with the most south western point of Africa viz the cape of Good Hope in the background

At the Cape of Good Hope

Taking photographs at the Cape of Good Hope

We ended our day with dinner at Gold Restaurant in the city centre

With our waitress Marlie from Gold Restaurant

Day 4

Travel from Cape Town to CV

We started our day by travelling from Cape Town to Grabouw where we stopped in at the Peregrine farmstall for breakfast.

Outside of Peregrine with apologies from the photographer to John for the shadowed facial flag

We travelled the 450 km to Cape Vaccas after driving through the villages of Riviersonderend, Swellendam, Heidelberg, Riversdale and Albertinia. We arrived at Cape Vaccas at 18h00 which was just in time to see a great sunset.

Sunset pictures at Cape Vccas

After settling in we had a great fish dinner prepared for us by Katriena.

Around the firplace after dinner in the Cape Vaccas cottage.

Day 5

Morning at Cape Vaccas

Drive to Knysna

John taking it easy and enjoying his book in the wondrful Cape Vaccas weather

With Pieter and Katriena from Cape Vaccas
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Enjoying the spectacular Cape Vaccas view
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Johnny meets a tortoise friend

John had to actually drag Karen away from Cape Vaccas as she enjoyed it so much. JJ

Last couple of minutes at Cape Vaccas

At the Antique Shop outside of George

Enjoying lunch at the Blue Olive restaurant in The Wilderness

Can you spot Johnny? JJ

At the Botha and Barnard furniture shop near Sedgefield

Watching how paper is made out of elephant dung at Scarab in Sedgefield

John decided that Johnny was not worth being seen in this picture. JJ

Johnny having fun with the elephant dung use to make the paper at Scarab

We ended our day with a fantastic meal with Dell (owner) at Firefly restaurant in Knysna

Sleeping over in Knysna at Overmeer Guesthouse for 3 nights.

Day 6

Treetop canopy tour
Lunch with Alje Van Demeent
Bloukrans Bridge
Simola Restaurant

We started our day with a drive down to the Stromsriver where John, Karen and Johnny did the treetop canopy tour. The nest couple of pictures show the whole experience

After our treetop canopy experience we went into the forest and visited Alje van Demeent at his hidden away forest home where we joined him for lunch enjoying the cheeses that he makes on his smallholding.

After lunch we visited the Bloukrans Bridge

Johnny and John show that they jumped at the place where the highest bungy jump in the world is done. JJJ

We returned to Knysna via Plettenberg Bay in the pouring rain

Enjoy Springbok cocktails before dinner at the Simola restaurant in Knysna

Johnny enjoying his dessert at Simola

Day 7

Powervan
Quay 4
Indawos
The Heads
Daniellas

We started our day by travelling to George where the Hughes's went on the Powervan up the 4 Pass railway line

Karen and and John with Johnny hidden away somewhere in the Powervan

The Powervan leaves the George station

With Annebelle the guide on the Powervan after the ride

We spent some time in the Railway museum as the below pictures show.

Johnny playing driver and john the coal man

Johnny is dwarfed by the huge steam engine

The Hughes family with their locomotive in the background JJ

Having fun in the car while driving back to Knysna

Enjoying a fish lunch at Quay Four on Thesen Island in Knysna

Shopping at Indawo in Knysna

We travelled to the Knysna estuary "Heads" where the below pictures were taken. While at The Heads we saw two young Dutch men being rescued by the local coast guard (NSRI) as they lost their kayak in the middle of The Heads's waters

In the evening we visited a local guesthouse for a wonderful meal

Johnny enjoying his starter

The prawns and calamari starter

Please click here to see a video of Johnny doing sabrage 
Apologies for this being in the dark.

The four of us at our dinner venue

Day 8

Departure day

Breakfast at Overmeer

Our last picture together taken in a mirror at the George airport as illustrated below.

The Hughes family tour was a wonderful journey which represented wonderful companionship, fabulous people, lots of good fun and an opportunity for me to share time with a solid, upstanding and wonderfully warm, friendly family. What a fantastic time we had together from the start to finish of our tour. I actually cant find words to describe how great this tour was in that it was such a fabulous experience. I was dreading our goodbye day and was correct in doing so as it was extremely hard to say goodbye to this amazing family at the George airport. All in all this was one of those tours that one I just cant ever forget.

IN SUMMARY THIS WAS A MAGNIFICENT 8 DAY EXPERIENCE

JOHN, KAREN AND JOHNNY
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU

May I also thank you for your wonderful donation to the people of the township of Kayamandi

Received 2 hours after seeing the Hughes family off at the George airport.

Selwyn

I can't tell you how good, no great of a time we all have had this past week.

I'm supposed to be the tough unemotional guy, but I'm the one who has tears in my eyes as we sit here alone awaiting the next leg of our African adventure. 

Words can not express my appreciation, but let me say it is only equaled by the joy & excitement we all experienced touring the Western and Eastern Cape region of SA with the stupendous Selwyn Davidowitz, tour guide extraordinaire, and now friend.

Dankie, hamba kahle, and good luck. Until the next time we're in SA, shalom.

Karen, Johnny, John 
Regards,

John Hughes

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