You Can’t Afford Not to Travel Here

Cape Dutch homes in the winter vineyards, Franschhoek

It is about as far away as you can get from the United States and the plane ticket will definitely cost more than a flight to Paris.  But trust me, you cannot afford not to travel here. 

Which Southern Hemisphere paradise am I referring to?  It is a place where the wine flows freely, the green hills roll into impressively towering mountains, three course meals for two people can be enjoyed for less than your average New York dry cleaning bill; where do-gooders will rescue you from flat tires and where a wine shop owner might open the store on his day off just because you emailed.

This is South Africa. 

Namaqualand's spring flowers in full bloom

While images of exclusive $2000 per couple per night safaris are not wrong, that is certainly not the only way to travel here.  Safaris, for instance, can also be done rather cheap.  Rent a car and drive to the parks and you are saving money already.  Better yet, rent a four-wheel drive vehicle with a pop-up tent on the roof and you will be ready to spend the night in one of hundreds of campgrounds around the country most of which come with water hook ups, lights, and communal hot-water shower facilities.

Not in to camping? No problem.  South Africans have mastered a type of lodging that you really don’t see much in the United States.  Most often these cottages, semi-permanent tents, or homes are listed as “self-catering”.  This means you will have a room, likely with all the amenities of a bed and breakfast or hotel, but you are on your own for dinner.  And they’ll even give you a fully equipped kitchen and braai (barbecue as they call it in those parts) to cook up something delicious.

John with our Toyota Hilux 4x4 and the pop-up roof tent

We stayed in a few of these types of lodging on a recent trip through South Africa and Namibia and we passed by many more that we would have been very happy to spend a night in.  A stone cottage at Verbe Farm in Namaqualand was 8 kilometers off the main highway and about 100 years away from our normal lives.  The charming owners had converted the ruins of a stone shepherd’s hut into a cozy retreat.  The lack of electricity only added to the charm- oil lamps and candles filled every room providing more than enough light.  Meanwhile John lit a fire on our indoor braai that served the dual purpose of heating up the stone walls on that chilly winter night and cooking our dinner, a fine curried pork loin. It was a night like none other and for that privilege we paid the nominal fee of $60. 

Kalahari Tented Camp

Most first-timers to South Africa will go the luxury safari route.  There is much to love about this type of travel- great food, experienced guides, 1000-count Egyptian cotton sheets.  You don’t have to worry about much at these posh camps save for what time you’d like to take a nap and what you will drink for your sundowner (evening cocktail).  For those looking for a step up from camping but not wanting to dish out the big money, South Africa’s park service offers some wonderful accommodation inside the best parks from Kruger to Kgalagadi.  On our recent trip to the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park in the red sand Kalahari Desert, we laid down $113 for one night at the Kalahari Tented Camp, an unfenced compound of a dozen semi-permanent structures.  Each tent had running water, a hot shower, comfortable beds, and a kitchen complete with a full-sized refrigerator.  We had prime seats for watching springbok, oryx, wildebeest, and jackals feed at the watering hole.  And after the sun went down, the roars of the lions and cackling hyenas walking through camp serenaded us with an African symphony.

Snoek cake at Cafe BonBon

Lunch at Cafe BonBon

Franschhoek, a verdant valley surrounded on three sides by towering mountains, has sometimes been compared to Napa in the Alps. This almost under-sells it.  Picture the least pretentious, most charming parts of Napa and Sonoma then put that in Lauterbrunnen, up-valley from Interlaken, nestled against the mountains, and you have the right idea.

We borrowed a house from friends for our four-night stay.  But many of the places we visited from the deservedly famous La Petite Ferme to the cozy Café BonBon at La Petite Dauphine, housed small cottages on the properties interspersed between grape vines. Though there are plenty of luxury accommodations in the area, the self-catering idea works very well in Franschhoek as the main meals of the day are inverted by our Western standards.  In addition to a few rooms, most wineries also have restaurants those the restaurants almost exclusively serve only lunch (some do dinner on Friday and Saturday).  Therefore a big mid-day meal followed by some wine tasting almost certainly leads to an evening nap at which point cooking a light dinner for yourself in the privacy of your pearly-white Cape Dutch cottage is the perfect way to wrap up an indulgent day. 

La Petite Ferme: a must-stop for lunch

Lamb at La Petite Ferme

I would be remiss to not mention the quality of the food here.  Franschhoek, less than an hour’s drive from Cape Town, is in the midst of some of the most fertile soil in Southern Africa.  Their prime location gives chefs here access to fish and seafood from the Western Cape and free-range meat and game from the Northern Cape.  A recent lunch at Café BonBon with two courses each, two bottles of sparkling water and a cappuccino came to $32.  Our food- an elegant watercress soup, crispy snoek cake over an Asian noodle salad, homemade gnocchi, and chicken curry- was as refined as anything you would find in a great British gastropub or West Village bistro. 

Tasting with Jeremy, Sales Director at Chamonix

Even the wine is shockingly inexpensive.  $3 for a glass of wine, a price you could not find so low on most US happy hour menus, is standard here for winery restaurants.  And if you are going big for dinner, say with a meal at the popular Reuben’s in town, you have to try hard to spend more than $50 for a bottle.  But do, because your $50 will go a lot further here than nearly any other wine-centric city in the world.

With Pieter, owner of Verbe Farm in Namaqualand

The final reason why you should visit South Africa is because their citizens really want you to.  Time and time again we were overwhelmed by the kindness of strangers when we needed help (flat tires, lost keys), the generous spirit (the owner of the wine shop La Cotte Inn who opened up just for us on a Sunday), and the enthusiasm to share their special part of the world with us, from the Kalahari to Franschhoek.  Of course, we visited just a small selection of this vast country.  There is much more to explore.  And I for one know we will be back.  We can’t afford not to.

Where to Stay

Verbe Farm, Namaqualand

http://www.safarinow.com/go/VerbeCaravanParkandFarmAccommodation

Contact: Pieter and Verencia

Kalahari Tented Camp, Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park

http://www.sanparks.org/parks/kgalagadi/tourism/availability.php?resort=56

Also see www.sanparks.org for other accommodations and camping reservations within the South African park system.

Chamonix, Franschhoek

http://www.chamonix.co.za/

Self-catering and traditional lodge accommodations. Restaurant on-site, lunch weekdays, dinner on Friday and Saturday. Some of the best wines in the valley available for tasting during the day.

La Petite Ferme, Franschhoek

http://www.lapetiteferme.co.za/

Self-catering and traditional suite and lodge accommodation. One of the best restaurants in Franschhoek, lunch only.

Where to Eat

Cafe BonBon at La Petite Dauphine, Franschhoek

http://www.lapetite.co.za/

Breakfast and lunch daily.  Dinner on Friday and Saturday.  Some luxury suites on-site as well.

Reuben's, Franschhoek

http://reubens.co.za/

Where to Shop

La Cotte Inn, Franschhoek

http://www.lacotte.co.za/

Amy Powell is a food and travel writer currently on her honeymoon, en route to a new home in Hong Kong. She is a graduate of Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration and the French Culinary Institute. Follow her on Twitter @amymariepowell

A Storm Diary, In Food

 New York City: Hurricane Sandy

Monday

Breakfast: Sky is eerily quiet but somehow foreboding.  (Or am I just feeling that way because of all the doom and gloom warnings on CNN?)  I make my usual 7-grain hot cereal with raisins and maple syrup.  

Coconut-Salted Caramel Cookies

Lunch: It started to rain a bit on my walk to the gym- perhaps the only place in Manhattan that is packed with people today.  Realized lunch will have to be at home.  Even though it is barely drizzling every restaurant is closed.  Even Starbucks.  Reheat curried butternut squash soup and toast a slice of Amy’s Bread's Tangy Sourdough.  Spent afternoon baking cookies to pass time with the little I could scrounge up in the pantry.  Came up with some rather delicious coconut-salted caramel thumbprint cookies.

Dinner: It’s here.  The power is out.  The wind is wild.  Something hit my window not long ago.  I know I’m not supposed to be near the windows but peaked out anyway.  My window planter is broken.  Probably just as well as not much more than moss has grown there in the last 12 months.  Not sure how long the power will be out but figure I should start eating the most perishable items.  I don a headlamp, light the gas on my stove with matches, and sear a small piece of skirt steak.  I slice the steak and eat it in front of the fireplace with tortillas and salsa verde. Beer is thankfully cold.

Tuesday 

Breakfast: Woke up to a chilly apartment. It is still windy but doesn’t appear to be raining. Still no electricity.  Should probably get started on those farm eggs.  Fry an egg and have it on the last of the sourdough with some Vermont salted butter.

Lunch: What comes between lunch and dinner? Linner? Dunch?  Anyway, I didn’t eat until 4.  Getting stir crazy, I packed a backpack and hiked the 2.25 miles to the closest gym with power.  Worked out, showered, recharged.  On the hike home, like a bright shining light from heaven, I spotted a sushi restaurant with power!  Two rolls and a Sapporo later I was feeling more like a human being. 

Dinner: Started to think about the perishables.  Boiled the rest of the eggs. Moved the cheese and the rest of the beer to the freezer (very important).  Reheated the last of some cheese and chicken enchiladas from a few nights earlier.

Wednesday

Breakfast: Poppy seed bread, a gift from John’s mom, was starting to defrost so I pulled it out.  Will be munching on this for days, I think.

Lunch: Long walk, over 3 miles, to meet my cousin for ramen in midtown. It is a different world up there in the electricity zone.  Tourists shopping, suits lunching.  Very different from vacant downtown. It was worth every step for spicy ramen with extra pork and scallions at Hide-Chan.

Curried Chickpeas with Spinach and Peas

Dinner: Made it back home just as the sun was setting.  With no streetlights probably safest to get home before dark.  It is Halloween.  Weird mix of people out on the dark streets: kids in costumes holding parent’s hands; gay couples, hands entwined dipping into the few open, candlelit bars; refugees, suitcases trailing, headed uptown to escape powerless, waterless apartments.  I lit the stove and fried up chickpeas with onions, garlic, curry, spinach, peas (last two salvaged from the leaking, defrosting freezer). Steamed rice, just enough for one.  Felt luxuriously homemade, eating by candle and firelight.

Urban Camping Food- Tuna + Hardboiled Egg

Thursday

Breakfast: More poppy seed bread and cheese (staying somewhat cool in the freezer).  Sadly tossed out two duck carcasses I had been saving to make stock.

Lunch: Hardboiled egg, tuna, rosemary crackers.  This scavenging thing is getting old.

Dinner: The hike uptown today was not so bad as the trains are now partially working.  Had a burger and sweet potato fries at PJ Clarke’s.  The staff could not have been kinder finding me a table with an outlet to charge both my phone and computer. 

Carolyn's Poppy Seed Bread and Ossau-Iraty Cheese

Friday

Breakfast: The last of the poppy seed bread and some more cheese.  As of today, I am over this urban camping thing. Think I will spend most of the day uptown. 

Lunch: Found a nice quiet table in the atrium for ticket sales at Lincoln Center.  Hot green tea, Wi-Fi, lots of other refugees graciously sharing outlets. Met friends at Landmarc in Columbus Circle and spent a sum of money I will later want to forget.  But the braised lamb sandwich with butter pickles will surely standout as one of the most comforting meals of the week. 

Dinner: Lunch kind of ran into dinner and migrated to a friend’s corporate apartment.  We reheated my leftover sandwich and some pizza. We passed pieces around while watching the Hurricane Sandy telethon.  Too many bottles of wine consumed to count.  Disobeyed my own rules, walking home in the dark, only my headlamp and some traffic guards to guide me.

Saturday

Friends celebrating the return of power at A Casa Fox

Breakfast: Let there be light!  Fired up the stove the old fashioned way to make seven grain hot cereal.  Still no hot water or heat. But electricity!  Sweet electricity.  Didn’t realize how much I needed you.

Lunch: Neighborhood is still scarily quiet.  Everyone just got power back so most restaurants are closed.  Walk for 20 minutes determining what is open.  End up at Bill’s Burger.  Getting tired of burgers and sandwiches but desperate times…. 

Dinner:  At A Casa Fox on the Lower East Side it is back to business.  A random mix of people- new friends, old, friends of friends stranded in Manhattan post-marathon cancellation.  We drink cocktails and pass plates of calamari and rice, empanadas, beef tacos.  We talk of waterless toilet strategies, the beauty of headlamps, the generosity of neighbors and gyms, the disappointment of marathons un-run, the many people less fortunate than us still waiting for help. We tie our bandana napkins in funny ways making neckerchiefs and silly hats.  We take pictures.  A snapshot of a time that none of us will soon forget. 

Amy Powell is a food and travel writer based in New York City. She is a graduate of Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration and the French Culinary Institute. Follow her on Twitter @amymariepowell