I like the culture, and I think as a destination for people to go and visit, it’s a really nice place. The Garden Route stretch of coastline is just extraordinary and people are so friendly. And it’s a very good-value place to visit. It’s also a great stepping stone to go to the wineries, and places such as French Hook, which are a little bit inland — or up to Namibia if you want a bit more adventure. Plus, it’s in the same time zone, so very easy, and a great place to escape to in the winter.
I hadn’t been down for a while. I fell in love with the continent of Africa when Ewan McGregor and I did Long Way Down, our second big TV journey together, back in 2007. We drove all the way through Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Malawi, and then ended up in Cape Town. But I hadn’t been back since 2018, because I had a huge motorcycle crash in the Drakensberg Mountains and really messed myself up. But I’ve always loved Cape Town and the Garden Route.
There’s a few different places. I love to stay in Camps Bay, and there’s a lovely hotel there called the Camps Bay Retreat. It has a beautiful big garden and then you cross over the road and you’re right on the beach. It’s a little tired, but I prefer it to the glitz and glamour of modern hotels. I quite like the old-school look.
There are so many good restaurants nearby, and that’s partly why I really like it here. These days, they have a spin-off called The Test Kitchen Fledgelings, which operates in the same space. You can go there and have a six-course tasting menu with tasting wines and they have two sister restaurants as well, Salon and The Pot Luck Club. As a European, I also remember it being really affordable. I think the same kind of meal in the UK and London would cost a huge amount.
I would stay in Camps Bay. Then it’s straight up to Table Mountain, and if you had a little bit of time in the afternoon before jumping on the plane again, I would go to one of the vineyards in Stellenbosch. There’s a plethora of vineyards you can go and visit, where all the Huguenots, who left France with their grapevines, came to South Africa. There’s one in particular — if you like a red — called Meerlust Winery. It does a Meerlust Merlot which is really famous. The owner has one of the biggest collections of art deco furniture and art in South Africa. You always expect penguins to be in the snow, whereas these ones live among the boulders on this beautiful paradise beach. I’m also a big fan of paragliding, so you can go up on to Table Mountain, which is one of a handful of places in the world that has its own unique vegetation. I think the important thing if you are going to go to Cape Town is, even if you’ve just come in from the airport and you see that there’s no clouds on Table Mountain, go straight there, and go up as quickly as you can. There’s also a whole bunch of restaurants along there, and you can just choose one of them and maybe go up onto the first floor overlooking the beach and have that well deserved cocktail while the sun goes down.
