Mossel Bay to Steytlerville

The flight back from Mossel Bay over the mountains to Oudtshoorn and then along the valley to Steytlerville was largely uneventful.. except for the ticking off I got from the George ATC for an alleged infringement of his airspace.

The airfield at Steytlerville was unserviceable and a kindly farmer and fellow aviator allowed us to land on his bush-strip at Rooikrans, about 25kms from the little town in the middle of nowhere. It is sort of equidistant in a triangle inland of Plettenberg bay and Jefferies Bay.. the Baviaans nature area. Both the hotel sent out transport for us, and the local farmer was also quite willing to transport us too and even pulled out his million $ Beechcroft Bonannza aeroplane to let us park in his hangar for the night.

What attracted us to the spot was a delightful olde worlde hotel.. the Karroo Theatrical Hotel in Steytlerville whose claim to fame is careful restoration by the present owners Mark and Jacques and a Saturday concert and drag show which was highly entertaining. The town was otherwise very much a one-horse dorpie, or one-kerk dorpie in the middle of nowhere. I really take my hat off to the hotel owners for the exceptional multi-tasking. 2 guys and 2 maids running the 14-bedroom hotel having to do the cooking, cleaning, plumbing, maintenance, restoration, decor and show !! Excellent stop-over.

The Karroo Theatrical Hotel

Walking to town from the hotel

Piano Concert and Drag Show supper theatre

Oudtshoorn and Cango Caves

I last went to the Cango Caves in Oudtshoorn probably when I was a kid of about 15. I also never did the adventure trail up the tight crevices and crawling on your tummy. All this was to change with our Sling and Savannah trip to the Cape.

The Cango Caves are at Oudtshoorn, a short flight from the coast at Mossel Bay or George. Flying the route the George Air Traffic Controller reported an "Incident" saying that I infringed on his TMA airspace flying a tad above his 3000ft limit. My planning software says the limit was 4500ft at that spot, so will deal with it.

Anyways Oudtshoorn was awesome, we stayed at a great guesthouse within walking distance of the restaurants and took a taxi-tour to the Caves, about 30kms up the valley from the town.

The flight over the mountains, was also incredible and the next day we continued our journey between the valleys of the Klein Karroo and Karroo to Steytlerville... see story to follow.

Arriving at Oudtshoorn airfield

The entrance to the caves

Guesthouse Terra Blanche in Oudtshoorn

An evening on the town

I saw an ostrich first!

In the caves - 3kms of tunnels

Oudtshoorn

Over the mountains - again

Mossel Bay, Knysna, Tracey and Justine

We ended up meeting with Marc and Lee's friend Tracey and her daughter Justine 3 times on our journey - first when they drove from Mossel Bay to join us for a meal and drinks in Knysna where we waited out the rainy weather, then refuelling the next day in Mossel Bay, and again on our return trip when Tracey kindly accommodated us at her house in Mossel Bay.. baking for us, braaing and much drinks and laughter later. Thanks for the toing and froing to the petrol station and spending some good times together!!

Our meet and greet at Mossel Bay with Tracey

We beat the weather to get to Mossel Bay flying into a 360 deg rainbow

Mossel Bay lighthouse

Our onboard GPS shows Mossel Bay - en route from Knysna via George CTR airspace

Mossel Bay

Justine had to sit with the petrol as we were 6-up in the car

I saw the moon first at Tracey's house

Son studying in Stellenbosch

The main reason for favouring Cape Town as a destination is that I get to see my son Mark who is in 3rd year studying Mechanical Engineering at Stellenbosch University.

The time this time was brief though, barely enough to have dinner out and make sure he ate a good meal. Mark is in digs in Stellenbosch, does his own cooking and washing while he tackles a gruelling degree. Thanks for the use of the car boy, as we took a drive to Tulbach before continuing our journey in the planes.

Mark has only been for one flight in the Red Rocket.. I am still too scared to take my kids in a little aeroplane.

Cheers Mark Mark.. great to see you boy

From Stellenbosch to Tulbach

Flying in to Stellenbosch my son left us his car to wander off to Tulbach north-east of Cape Town where we stayed for a night at a beautiful guesthouse, owned by an architect who turned a barn into a delightful place to stay. In the afternoon we took a drive to the nearby Ceres valley and mountains.

This little Billy Goat went trip, trap over the bridge ..

Winetasting in Tulbach

Sunset at the guesthouse

View from the top of the Ceres mountains to the orchard valley of Ceres below

Video clip rounding Table Mountain

Click on the link here for the short YouTube video clip of us rounding Table Mountain on a flight in our Sling ZDL heading towards Hout Bay.



Robben Island



Cape Town Stadium



Lion's Head

The view of Table Mountain from Table Bay

Seapoint with Lion's Head and Table Mountain backdrop

Hout Bay is around the "corner"

We landed in Stellenbosch from Agulhas before lunch and the weather was great so we decided to do a flight around Table Mountain. Thanks to Rainier from MGL Avionics (another Sling owner and manuufacturer of the MGL onboard computers in our plane) we had a full telephonic briefing on the permitted routing and frequencies for the different sectors of the flight, including skirting around the Cape Town Control Zone and after Muizemberg, routing through the Cape Town CTZ talking to Cape Town International airport for the requisite transit permissions and guidance.

The Cape Town TMA (Terminal Control area) also has certain height restrictions and we saw why when a huge commercial airliner did a turn around and above us for landing at Cape Town International Airport. Again on the Muizemberg side we were on the Cape Town take-off and landing approach so we had to fly at only 500 ft above the waves out to sea to avoid the big planes around us. What an incredible experience. The mountains looming around us were breathtaking. A first time view from this side and altitude.