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Living to tell the tale

Tim Walker

Wednesday, 26th March 2008

Tim Walker shares his varied experiences of South Africa

My holiday in South Africa had begun sedately at the Mount Nelson in Cape Town. A lot of the guests who check into the deliriously glamorous relic of the country’s colonial past don’t ever venture out of it again until it’s time to leave, and they will tell their friends when they get home that they have ‘done’ South Africa. That is a mistake. I appreciate that is dispiriting to see a hire car playing any part in a holiday itinerary, but on this occasion it proved a god-send. The journey from Cape Town to Franschhoek in the heart of the winelands was breathtaking.

There I checked into the Mont Rochelle, a smart little watering hole for foodies. A raucous wedding party on the first night spoilt the ambience of the hotel’s restaurant. The next day I lunched locally at La Petite Ferme and then dined at Reubens. The former was sensational, the latter a bit of a disappointment.

From Franschhoek, it was on to Birkenhead House in Hermanus, a boutique hotel beside Walker Bay, run with great charm by Shane Brummer, formerly of the Avenue in St James’s. I took a tour of the nearby Hamilton Russell Vineyards and was wined and dined by its charismatic and PR-minded proprietor, Anthony Hamilton Russell, who told me he had entertained just about every journalist I could think of from the past century but almost every one of them had died in recent years. I doubt the wine was to blame.

I went off in search of the Great White while I was there. Four hours bobbing about on moody seas and finally one arrived. A cage was lowered into the water, and, with several other nauseous shipmates, I stood in it for about a quarter of an hour. When, finally, we clambered back on board we were congratulated for our bravery. If I am honest, I couldn’t see anything at all in the murky depths. It is what you see that bothers you — as I discovered at Lion Sands. Happily I live to tell the tale.

Tim Walker is the diary editor of the Daily and Sunday Telegraph.

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Ian

April 21st, 2008 12:54pm

Oh dear what happened to the great british explorers,Snakes in the wilds of Africa,What next.Its a bit like complaining about the rain in london.

Once again

May 11th, 2008 10:19am

1,100 pounds per night? Have South African hoteliers gone completely nuts? And for that price one gets a snake thrown in?

No bush or city hotel in S.Africa is worth 1,100 pounds per night - absolutely not one of them. What ghastly pretension.

How foolish can one be to patronise them.

Adrian

May 13th, 2008 8:54pm

All in all a pretty second rate article. I'm not surprised the author was charged three times the going rate. I've stayed at Lionsands and always found the staff and the product first rate. Of course I enjoy the bush experience.

Michael Wilkinson

May 26th, 2008 11:28pm

Lion Sands are lucky that Walker didn't sue them for their incompetence in allowing a black mamber to drop on to his bed. (In the hard copy of the magazine he includes a picture he took of the snake drooping down from the mosquito net above his bed). Had he been an American he almost certainly would have done!

D E B Dickman

May 31st, 2008 2:06pm

I think that while it is reasonable for guests to "take their chances" while they are out on safari it seems to me the hotel badly let Walker down in not ensuring his safety in his room. It also strikes me as appalling that he was unable to raise the duty manager. Knowing the region well, this is I am afraid all too typical of the complacency of a lot of hotels in South Africa these days.