After a very long couple of days, we arrived in Johannesburg, SA on Thanksgiving Day and stayed overnight at the Intercontinental Hotel, conveniently located across the street from the airport. Despite feeling exhausted, we rallied, got dressed up and had a lovely Thanksgiving meal at Quills. Our dinner included Kudu carpaccio, chicken liver and Springbok fillet.
Friday morning we had an early flight to Cape Town and after collecting our luggage, we met a driver from the
Ellerman House who delivered us to our home for the next 4 nights. The Ellerman House is truly a special boutique hotel, almost indescribable. From the front it appears to be a modest home, but it is anything but that. The Relais & Chateau resort includes 13 guest rooms and 2 guest houses, an art museum and a restaurant with creative dishes. As our room wasn't ready when we arrived, we enjoyed a leisurely lunch on the patio with some light whale spotting in the ocean.
We had a lovely room with a large balcony and a view of the beautiful back garden and the Atlantic Ocean.
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| View from Room 8 at the Ellerman House |
After a quick nap, we went and sat in the garden by the pool, enjoying the view and the weather, followed by dinner at the restaurant starting with the caviar service, duck appetizer, ostrich fillet stuffed with blue cheese (Micki) and pork belly (Filip).
On Saturday we had a tour of the cape peninsula. Our guide, Aslam, was excellent. He had worked for the Ellerman House for almost 10 years and had been a tour guide for 25 years and his pride for the Ellerman House was evident. The tour included a beautiful drive along the rocky cape, an ostrich farm, Cape Point National Park, Boulders Beach with the African Penguins and lunch at the Harbour House in Kalk Bay. And even though whale season is supposed to be over, we were treated to a whale breaching - a first for both of us - along the drive.
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| Looking across Hout Bay toward Hout Bay Harbour |
Aslam giving Micki instructions on how to feed the ostriches
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| Cape Point National Park in front of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans |
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| Filip testing the water at the Cape of Good Hope |
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| Playing around on the beach at the Cape of Good Hope |
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African Penguins playing in the surf on Boulder Beach
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| Filip wore his penguin shirt to blend in |
After returning to the hotel we rested in the garden, followed by drinks on the patio and then dinner which included a trout starter for each of us, rib-eye with chakalaka sauce for Filip and a tuna fillet for Micki. All the dishes were excellent.
Sunday morning we went for a 5mile walk down to Camps Bay and then sat on the boulders along the water front in the sun.
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Sitting in Camps Bay on morning walk
On Camps Bay
In the afternoon we had a wine tasting followed by an art tour of the Ellerman House by a local art professor. The art collection was extensive and our guide, similar to Aslam, praised Paul Harris (Ellerman house owner) for creating this collection. Dinner was in the Ellerman House restaurant again.
 | This was perhaps our favorite piece - it looked two dimensional until you got close; artist: Alexis Preller
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This sculpture was outside our room - photo from our balcony |
Sculpture in the garden overlooking the Atlantic
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| Sculpture beside the pool |
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| In the contemporary gallery |
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Also from the contemporary gallery
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| Prison Hacks: Nelson Mandela; 11Jun 1964 - 11Feb 1990 (9377 Days) by Willem Boshoff |
Monday morning we were delivered to the base of Kasteelspoort trail for a 4-mile, 3200ft elevation hike to the upper table car through echo valley. At the top we hopped onto the round-rotating cable car for a quick ride to the bottom. The weather was cool and a cloud kept the sun for beating down on us, but sadly also kept us from seeing the view at the top. We had lunch when we got back and then spent most of the afternoon relaxing on our patio. Dinner Monday night featured tuna sashimi and grilled springbok.
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View of Lionshead Mountain from our hike
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A sampling of flowers from the hike
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| Cloud cover began about mid-way through the hike |
We enjoyed the hike so much that we decided to hike Lions Head (2.8 miles, 1,141 in elevation, see picture from Monday's hike, above) on Tuesday morning before departing from Ellerman House. We scheduled a 7:30 ride, but in the morning wondered if we were making a mistake given the weather - rainy and cloudy. Fortunately the weather kept the crowds away but we did get very wet. The hike was a lot of fun - quite challenging with a rock scramble to the top including chains and ladders. It was a little unsettling given the wet rock, but the sandstone was surprisingly sturdy and the clouds staved off our fear of heights as we climbed ladders along the edge of the mountain.
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| Filip along the rock scramble |
Bird singing for us close to the top
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| One of the many ladders |
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| Pretty wet, but almost to the top |
Our non-view from the top
After our hike we packed up our room and had a leisurely breakfast before Aslam gave us a ride to Mount Nelson, our home for next three days. Overall we absolutely recommend Ellerman House, it was in incredibly unique, bespoke treat for our jet-lag recovery before our safari.
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