Our half hour drive from the Cape Town airport to the Steenberg Hotel was easy. On the way, we admired the beauty of the area including the mountainous background that gave it a dreamlike quality. Inside the property, which shared space with an upscale golf community, there were grapevines lining the road. At the Steenberg, we were close enough to enjoy all the benefits of bustling Cape Town and yet it was a different world of serene beauty.
After a few days of game viewing and a long drive into town nothing feels better than a massage and beauty treatments. It was especially nice to change into on a bathrobe and oversize slippers in our Cape Grace hotel room and walk down the hall to the hotel spa for a much needed respite. A large and colorful mosaic greeted me behind the glass doors of the spa. Beyond it a young lady welcomed me politely and showed me to a waiting area nestled between therapy rooms. The common room had a marvelous view of Cape Town and its famous Table Mountain. Being the only one in the room, I sat down in a cushy lounge chair, sipping herbal tea and enjoying the million dollar private view.
After two days of traveling from the U.S. to South Africa via Europe we arrived in Port Elizabeth jet lagged and exhausted. Viktor, a Shamwari representative, awaited us just outside the arrivals area and drove us through verdant and rolling hills to Eagles Crag at the 20,000 hectare Shamwari Game Reserve. An hour later found us at the entrance to elegant Eagles Crag, named for the crowned and booted eagles that made the area their home, and one of six properties on the Shamwari Game Reserve. The Reserve, named for the word friendship in Shona, was the first project to repopulate land in the Eastern Cape area of South Africa with animals that, over time, had been exterminated by man. When we visited, the Reserve had an abundance of healthy animals and the largest concentration of black and white rhino in private hands in the world. When we arrived, lodge managers Tania and Ryan Plakanouris welcomed us and helped us settle in to our spacious suite with a view of the crowned eagle’s nest.
Our week-long trip aboard the SeaDream II was reminiscent of the by-gone days of classic ship travel where passengers had an opportunity to meet each other while sharing time and space with fellow travelers and crew members. In an era fraught with time constraints our “cruise” aboard SeaDream II provided us the luxury of meeting like minded people while enjoying a leisurely and luxurious voyage along the coast from Italy to Spain in the prime of the area’s tourist season.
We thoroughly enjoyed the pluses the sailing offered such as a limited number of passengers (there were 108 of us) and high crew to passenger ratio (there were 96 crew members).
Neichel was filled with soft sunlight in the early afternoon when we arrived following a 30-minute drive from our waterfront hotel. The décor was contemporary with woods and Spanish style touches. There were bottles and condiment containers crowding the serving stations, reminding us that this was a working restaurant with a strong emphasis on the pleasures of the palate.
