Month: May 2026

Cape Town to Swakopmund

~ Cat ~ Leave a comment

I am back underway on the next part of my sabbatical travels. I arrived in Cape Town late morning after a long flight via Istanbul from Manchester, and was greeted by Table Mountain in all her glory. It was such a beautiful, clear day and as I assumed the next couple of days would be the same, I didn’t bother taking a photo…

I spent the first day napping and relaxing after the journey. I’ve been to Cape Town before (in a post which has been sitting in my drafts for about 2 years!! I may yet get round to finishing and posting it), so I didn’t feel in too much of a hurry to be out and about seeing things.

I had booked a full day wine tour to Stellenbosch, Franshhoek and Paarl the following day. There were only 2 others on the trip so we managed to squeeze in an extra stop in the colourful Bo-Kaap neighbourhood in Cape Town at the start of the day. This had been on my list to do so I was glad to be able to see it.

It was a very cloudy day with lots of low cloud hanging over the mountains. As we drove out towards Stellenbosch, our driver bemoaned the weather as apparently we should have been able to see some lovely scenery…

We were at our first tasting at 9am, 2 whites and 2 reds plus some biltong. Not a bad way to start the day!! The weather had lifted and after stops in the pretty towns of Stellenbosch and Franshhoek, both of which reminded me of other towns in wine producing areas elsewhere in the world, we had a short ride on the Franshhoek wine tram before stopping at the next winery for lunch and 3 more wines. The final stop was in Paarl for 4 more wines to round off the day.

On my final day before the tour started, I took the hotel shuttle bus to the V&A Waterfront, in the pouring rain. After wandering around the shopping mall, I ventured out in the rain towards the contemporary art museum, which I had been to on my previous visit.

After lunch and a further wander (it had just about stopped raining at this point but still no sign of Table Mountain), I headed back to the hotel in time for the evening meet up prior to the tour starting in the morning.

I am travelling on this trip with Nomad Africa. Overall it’s 8 weeks but it’s split into 3 sections, the first of which is Cape Town to Victoria Falls.

We left Cape Town bright (well, still cloudy) and early the next morning, and started with a brief stroll at Blouberg Beach where you’re meant to be able to see a lovely view of Table Mountain from across the bay. We could barely see the sea, let alone anything else! We continued to head north, with a stop off for supplies at a supermarket before stopping for lunch at a gas station on the Cape Namibia highway. Thankfully by this time we had escaped the clouds and it was a warm and sunny day.

As we continued to head north, I was struck by the landscape with these wide open vistas, huge skies and then later, craggy mountains as we headed slightly inland.

We are in rooibos country and we stopped at a place that sold rooibos tea, had wine tasting and was growing citrus! I quite like rooibos, and after an hour or so in the sun chatting with my group, we were then on our way to our overnight stop just outside of Citrusdal, in the Cederberg region. There are lots of citrus trees growing in this region, and the place we stayed produces 1500 tonnes of fruit per year for export, alongside its camping and accommodation business.

The next day it was a long driving day to the Namibian border. I was glad I’d arranged my e-visa online beforehand (though the website was fairly temperamental) as it took us all quite a long time to get through the border. Namibia is my 50th country, and I’m sure it will be a good one.

We arrived at our accommodation on the banks of the Orange River just as the sun was setting in a glorious red sky.

We started our exploration of Namibia the next day with a drive to Fish River Canyon, a vast canyon, definitely on a par visually with the Grand Canyon with the added bonus of significantly fewer people! We had a short walk along the edge of the canyon, which meandered sufficiently to get lots of different views of the canyon. You can never quite capture in a photo what you can see with your eyes, it really was spectacular. We then had lunch before continuing our journey north to our overnight stop at Keetmanshoop.

Onwards the next day, towards the Namib Naukluft national park. On our way, we stopped at Quiver Tree Forest where all these trees are apparently growing out of the rocks. We also stopped at Giants Playground where all these boulders appear to have been very carefully placed in various formations, but it’s all completely natural weathering of the stone.

The landscapes on the driving so far have been vast, and surprisingly green. There were rains at the end of April which have caused grasses and other bushes to spring forth which means Namibia doesn’t quite look as I’d imagined. There was more grassland as we headed west towards the Namib desert, and then suddenly there were flowering bushes, mostly yellow flowers interspersed with orange-coloured bushes. It’s so interesting to see not only the landscape here but the flora and fauna too, which is adapted to survive in some harsh desert conditions.

We stayed overnight in Hammerstein before a very early, pre sunrise, start the next day to explore the national park. The park gates open at sunrise, and we joined a long queue to get into the park. We then drove the 45kms to Dune 45 for an early morning hike up an enormous sand dune with a bunch of other tourists. The colours at this time really took my breath away. Extraordinarily red sand dunes with the backdrop of a beautiful clear blue sky. I couldn’t stop myself from just staring at the dunes and the colours and trying to take it all in.

Hiking up a sand dune is quite hard work. The firmest sand is on the ridge, which is fairly narrow, and this dune rises more than 100 metres. It was also surprisingly windy, and I lost my nerve at a flat section about two-thirds of the way up and called it a day.

After that it was time for breakfast before continuing on to the Sossusvlei pan, with yet more red dunes, and Deadvlei, where trees in the pan appear to be petrified, which makes a very striking photo with the red dunes and blue sky. I am certain there is a very similar image which pops up on Windows desktop backgrounds…

After a final stop at Sesriem canyon, we headed to our next overnight stop in the desert. I have to say the rooms we stayed in at this place were stunning, and the nicest accommodation so far.

The next morning started with a super-interesting desert drive and talk about animals and insects that live in the desert, as well as the bushmen, or san, peoples who live off the land here. We had not nearly enough time but everyone in the group found it to be enormously enjoyable.

We were heading northwest towards Swakopmund, and passed through the Tropic of Capricorn along the way, as well as the Moon Landscape, which certainly looked different to what we’ve seen so far in Namibia. It was a long and very bumpy drive to Walvis Bay for a breezy lunch by the sea before we rolled into Swakopmund in the mid afternoon. We are here for 2 nights and have a free day for an assortment of optional activities but I am taking the chance to have a quiet day strolling around the very German-feeling town, doing my laundry and catching up on some admin.

I’ve hugely enjoyed Namibia so far, the scenery has been absolutely spectacular, we have seen some awesome things, and I’m sure this will continue as we head north towards the wildlife…

Asahikawa, Furano and Sapporo

~ Cat ~ Leave a comment

Asahikawa is the second largest city in Hokkaido, but doesn’t even get a mention in my Lonely Planet guidebook, which didn’t fill me with the greatest confidence about the city!! We arrived too early to check in so had a wander around the massive Aeon mall that is attached to the JR Station at Asahikawa.

We had a free afternoon after check in. It was cold with a bracing wind, I wandered up and down the main pedestrianised street, past shops, izakayas which were already busy, and a surprising number of statues of women in various states of undress…

We went to a small jingisukan restaurant in the evening. Jingisukan is essentially a do-it-yourself lamb barbecue which originated in Hokkaido, and is a Japanese translation of Genghis Khan.

Lamb barbecue with bean sprouts, greens and other veggies

The following day we started with a visit to an Ainu museum to learn about the indigenous Ainu peoples who have been in Hokkaido for thousands of years. They have only very recently been formally recognised as indigenous peoples in Japan so it was really interesting to hear about how the museum is helping to preserve their culture and educate others on their history and traditions. We had a delicious lunch of salmon, soup, and grape jelly for dessert from our Ainu hosts.

After lunch it was off to another sake museum, and for some more tastings. Still not sure I like sake…

We also visited a wood working centre, which is a key industry in and around Asahikawa. Lots of very cool, and very expensive, furniture designs.

Ramen for dinner that evening, followed by karaoke, which is ubiquitous in Japan. Now, I can’t sing, but there’s something about singing in a booth in Japan with some people I’ve only met a few days ago which makes it pretty enjoyable. Probably because if I make a fool of myself, I’m likely to never see them again anyway!!

The next day we headed out of Asahikawa, to Mount Asahi and the Asahidake Ropeway (cable car). As we headed out of Asahikawa, it started to snow. And as we drove up towards the ropeway station, the snow got heavier and the road got whiter and whiter until you could barely see where the road was. We did take the cable car up the mountain but instead of the glorious vistas, we got heaps of snow, a blizzard and a bit of a white out! I’m actually not sure I’ve ever seen this much snow in person so despite not seeing the views, it was still pretty awesome to be in a bit of a snowstorm.

Snowing on Mt Asahi

I was quite cold at this point, and very glad of the coat and thermal trousers I’d bought earlier on in Japan! We went to a small restaurant for lunch, a lovely warming bowl of beef stew, which reminded me of home!

After lunch we visited the Blue Pond, which despite the snow and clouds, was surprisingly blue. We also went to a nearby waterfall at Shirogane, again with some unexpectedly blue colours given the weather.

Blue pond and waterfall

We then headed to Furano, which is an area known for cheese and wine production. We made our own mascarpone which we then had for dinner at the hotel along with some biscuits, local strawberries and local wine. The hotel we stayed in at Furano had an onsen so later in the evening I squeezed in a final soak on my Japan trip as I suspected the hotel for the final couple of nights in Sapporo wouldn’t have any baths. I’ve really enjoyed the onsens on this trip. An extremely relaxing and peaceful way to spend time.

The next day we headed to Sapporo on the train. The weather was such a contrast to the previous day – lovely blue sky, and very spring-like, though still quite chilly. When we got to Sapporo, we had lunch at a cafe at Hokkaido university and then spent some time in the university museum which was extensive and had lots of interesting exhibits. Not all of it in a language I could understand so Google Translate came in very handy!

En route to Sapporo

We had a free afternoon so I walked around Sapporo – an easy city to navigate due to its grid street pattern. It also has underground walking subways which must be very useful in the depths of winter when it’s very cold. As we walked into the subway for the first time, it did look a little dystopian as it is very quiet, and with everyone walking in an orderly fashion on the left. But I thought it was really ingenious, as it connects directly with all the buildings above at street level, and there are even shops and restaurants at the subway level too. Almost like an underground city.

I used the subway to walk about half an hour downtown towards the Susukino area, stopping along the way at the Clock Tower, the TV Tower, and Nijō Ichiba market. Sapporo is quite a nice city for a wander, though in the late afternoon it was getting increasingly cold so I headed back to the hotel.

Clock tower
Sapporo TV Tower
Susukino

We went to an izakaya (a Japanese pub) for dinner. There was an extensive menu of small dishes that we had including yakitori, sushi, ramen and rice. The izakaya was small and full of people, which made for a bustling environment, I’m really glad I experienced one during my trip.

The next day we headed out on the train to the nearby port city of Otaru. Formerly, Otaru was a financial capital of Hokkaido, due to the port and the coal that was exported from here. There are some very impressive buildings here that were all previous banks and financial institutions which grew up around the port. Nowadays, most have been repurposed into shops and eateries. The canal has also been restored and because of the coal history and the redevelopment, it did slightly remind me of Cardiff.

In Otaru

We returned to Sapporo in the afternoon and had our final dinner of the trip that evening. Another jingisukan, this time on a bigger scale at the Sapporo Bier Garten. We rounded off the evening with another karaoke session.

This was the final day of the Intrepid trip, and the following day I had a travel day back to Tokyo in readiness for my flight home the next day. Sapporo New Chitose Airport is about a 40 minute train ride outside of the city, but is very straightforward to get to. There wasn’t heaps to do once through security though…

I was flying to Tokyo’s Haneda airport and needed to get to Narita airport for my flight out the next day. The road distance between the 2 airports is about 55 miles (88km). Whilst it is possible to get trains (with changes) between the 2, I opted for a limousine bus (aka a coach) which leaves regularly from all terminals at Haneda to all terminals at Narita. You can buy a ticket from the machines in the arrivals hall which helpfully have an English language option. Transport in Japan can be a little overwhelming but I was honestly pleasantly surprised by how much was available in English. And the internet, particularly Google Maps and Reddit, were extremely useful tools in helping me figure stuff out when I was on my own.

Overall I’ve really loved Japan, I’m so pleased that I headed north in addition to the more well-trodden route through southern Honshu, and I’m fairly certain I will go back one day.