Treckosskraal

Not every place worth staying at will be found on a brochure. Let me tell you about one I as told about. Both the barmen at Pirates at Langebaan, and the owner of Seekombuis told me about a far about seven kilometers out of Paternoster on the way to Vredenburg. No you will not find it on Google Maps. There in lies the beauty of it.

This is a road that lead to a private stretch of pristine beach, were many people go to pitch their tent and camp. There is no running water or toilets, so its really ruffing it. Normally I would dip deep into my barrels of descriptive words and try and pain the pictures for you, but I thought that no matter how good i am at writing, I would not be able to do things any real justice so I took some pictures instead.

Now before you all abandon your hotel bookings, jump in your town cars and head out to the pretty little place in the middle of no where; there is a caveat. The road is not tar, nor is it a nice gravel. My Mazda 323 earned some serious hardcore points in getting me through this. There were times I had to take sand bank beside the road at a forty five degree angle, just to avoid the rocks. It's not about the bakkie you have in your garage, it about the bakkie you have in your heart.

So if you are packing a tar-eating 4x4 machine, then you have to take this detour, even if it is simply to justify having the petrol-downing monster.

Safe travels, and enjoy the road.

West Coast Fossil Park

Being on the road often leads one to into deep contemplation. Life, death, the hereafter; and how cool it is. Oh no; not in the black lace-clad, eyeliner-wearing, latex-sporting, poetry-in-a-cemetery-writing, dabbling-in-sadomasochistic sexual practices, Ann-Rice-reading goth way (which is hot by the by). More in the ten-year-old boy, comic-reading, nerdy kind of way. I am talking about Fossils. I dig fossils. I was the kid would collected the dinosaur books, toys; you name it. My uncle once took a one hundred kilometre detour on a trip so I could check out a Dinosaur Park. So when I found out that between Vredeberg and Langebaan there was a Fossil Park, I had to go.

The site used to be a phosphate mine which started in 1943. The phosphate was first used for armaments during the war the as fertilizer. The phosphate came from the Varswater Formation. Where today we have veld, there used to be lush forest. This was due to the the river that once went through the area. The Cape looked a lot different in those days. Table Mountain and Langebaan were an islands and we had some really cool creatures just chilling out by the riverside, but I will get to that later. When the miners were first asked if they were finding any fossils, they giggled, slapped their thighs and then mocked the scientists for their silly beliefs in giant lizards, whilst hurriedly lead them from the the dig site. This was because they were finding a lot of them, and if they had told any one, then mining would have had to stop and be replaced by painfully slow and careful excavation. By the time some one spoke up, about 80% of the fossils had been destroyed. So thank you bottom line for destroying a priceless part of our history. If ever I was not impressed by people making money in the past, I could care even less now.

But thankfully someone eventually spoke up. The large amount of varying species in one place lead scientists to believe that there had been a flood. This was substantiated by the fact that whale bones were found among the many land-bound animal bones. Though if you were to ask the guys at the History Channel, they would tell you it may be proof of ancient aliens. I asked the tour guide and she said "There is no proof that aliens were not involved," as well as "We could not replicate these finds today". I am not even joking, but I may have asked some leading questions.

Enough back-story;  lets talk about the place itself. Tours are done every hour. I was the only one on mine, so I got the cute tour guide all to myself ... which was great because I could pester her with as many questions as  I liked without getting the usual stare-down from the crowd. They also have a little museum filled with bones. My kind of museum.

On the tour you follow the tour guide in your car to the dig site. I have always wanted to see a real excavation site. So when I say I was a bit giddy, I may be understating it tad. Seeing as they have pretty much gotten all they can out of the site, they left it as if for educational purposes. There I learned just how cool ancient creatures were here in Africa. There used to be an elephant that had four tusks. I mean they had lower jaws tusks. Come on, how cool is that. Why couldn't that one have survived? Africa also used to have a bear, and it was huge. There were also three types of giraffes. One of the was the Sivathere, and it was massive; the length from its horn to its lip was the size of an adult man. One does not understand the size of these things until you see its bones lying bare before you.

After the lecture I was able to go outside and dig around in a fossil scratch patch. There were mostly shards of bone and tortoise shell, but it was still fun. I even got to check out the lab, were they have many different bones there for comparison. I even got to hold a real fossil. Not just some mold. I can now tick that off my list of things to do before I die. if you have young kids with you who are interested in these things, then this is a place worthy of stopping at. Our natural history needs to be explored and appreciated. Scientific endeavours need to be used for their educational value. Besides, their tour guide is cute.

The dig site

African Bear Skull

Pirates Bar - Langebaan

Yes, I went to the bar just because of the name, but I am glad that I did.

This is a real locals' bar, with charm and atmosphere. The interior plays well to the Pirate theme. It easy to find, situated near Club Mykonos, to which there are a thousand-plus signs showing you the way. The bartender is very friendly and exponentially helpful. If you want to know about places to see along the West Coast, then he is the guy to see. I found his company enjoyable and the conversations interesting and insightful. It was the cherry on top of a great experience.

It is the type of bar I have come to appreciate during my travels. You can see all the sights, visit the beaches and stay in the opulent hotels. Yet it is places like this where you really make memories that stick with you. I still think that when you want to find out about a place the local tavern is one of the best sources of information.

Pirates Bar is definitely worth stopping at. Even if you are staying at a fancy hotel it goes on my list of best bars along the coast.

Langebaan

I am told that from this point on the towns are no longer tourist destinations first and fishing villages second, but rather fishing villages that happen to cater to tourists. Here there are still a fine selection of restaurants and fine dining on the beach. It is even advertised as a modern town. I guess if you are right by the West Coast National Park, where the wild life dance for dollars, then it pays to stock up on the finer things. It makes sense that they call it the "Jewel of the West Coast." Besides, when you are hour's drive from Cape Town, you remain quite accessible. So if the weather is good, why not drive down for a day on a different beach.

Youngsters have the lagoon to enjoy kite surfing, wind surfing, kayaking and other water sports. If our knees are giving you issues and the bank keeps offering you more credit, maybe taking your yacht for a spin would be more your cup of tea. The wind is strong, the beaches beautiful, and the water wet. If you are a water sport enthusiast then I am certain there is nothing about Langebaan in that aspect.

I decided to save some money and not go to Club Mykonos, even though I could not drive two minutes without seeing a sign telling me where it is and how I should be going there.

If you are in Cape Town then this is an easy little escape; and if you are heading up the West Coast, it is definitely a place to stop by -- even stay the night. They have great camp sites, so you can do it on a budget.

Ode de Pancake

Now through our this journey I have tried so say as many nice things as possible, there really has been no place that really ground my gears to the point that the teeth wore away. That was until now, and it's not just the one place but a collection of places. I went to a place at Langebaan that specializes in Pancakes, and for R60 I got one pancake, with bland curry, a few pieces of banana and what they called salsa. The only flavour was in the chutney I put over it. Now, normally I would chalk it off to a poor choice of restaurant  but I have been constantly disappointed in the pancakes I have ordered from various places on my journey.

It started at Wilderness, at a place called the Pancake Hut. The blackened and warped pans should have put me off the place completely, but I persevered. I had faith. A place that only made one thing had better make it well, right? When I ordered a caramel pancake for a whopping R20 and saw the guy reach for the microwave, I should have cut my losses and ran. But no; like a virgin at a whorehouse, I stood wide-eyed, expecting the best when all signs pointed away from a good time. The 'caramel' that was advertised turned out to be a kind of syrup that I am certain should not be consumed without friends, because it really fails as a solo project. So beneath the beautiful milk-wood canopy I wept silently.

The next insult, though not as bad as the first, came at the Hermanus Whale Festival. There was a stall that provided all the trims from a local shop that made yummy things. They were selling two pancakes for R5; to draw people in I am sure. They were doing it the proper French way, with the plate and the T-shaped stick. They even folded it. Immediately I was reminded of my favourite shop years ago; The Swell Fairy, that made pancakes so good I swear it made people undergo a religious experience. Sadly what I go was doughy disappointment, with so much cinnamon it had put the sugar in camps as a final solution.

So when this place in Langebaan disappointed me, it was like a all my lost lovers came back in a tidal wave; and the rage I felt at the poor little shop was a tad unjustified -- but still. I mean .. how does one mess up a pancake? I could make pancakes that brought a tear to your eye since I was 12 years old. I feel like this journey has taken the hopes and dreams of a young pancake-eating child, put them in a bag and threw it down a well.

I suppose pancakes are to remain in the home, enjoyed in private and kept out of the hands of people who can put a price tag on it.