Grootbos

After a few jam-packed fabulous days in Cape Town, we drove a couple of hours over to the western Cape to Grootbos Private Nature Reserve.  We stayed in so many amazing places during our vacation that it's hard to say that one place was better than another, but this place was out of this world with sweeping ocean views and diverse plant and animal life all around.  We give it 14 thumbs up (since there were 7 of us on the trip) and highly recommend it.

Julia in the tracker seat on our flower safari.  There is a lot of diverse plant life on the reserve that is only found in this one spot.  I know most people are more interested in people and places than flowers so I'm not posting lots of pictures, but if you want to see them, let me know!   It is worth noting, that it was during this very flower safari that Julia lost her first tooth!

We did "family rollercoaster" which was a drive along the sand and dunes of the coast.  The sights, sounds and smells were perfectly beachy.

Again, where there's a beach, there are the Goodalls.  This time no one purposefully went into the ocean, but as we misjudged how far tide would come up, there were a few times we didn't get out of the way fast enough.  We did some shell hunting on the beach and soccer on a little grassy patch.  We had a local guide, Christoph who certainly gave the kids a run for their money both for the soccer and the shell finding.

Julia was bored by shell hunting and soccer, so she and Simon wandered off and created this piece of art out of this unusual tube seaweed that was washed up.

Sunset

More of that tube-shaped seaweed.  If you blow hard enough into one end, it sounds like a horn.

Such a beautiful coast - it really was breathtaking.

One morning, Christoph got the kids up early and took them to a free-range chicken coop on the reserve so that they could collect eggs for breakfast.  This was a kids only thing, so it is only secondhand info, but I understand the coop was stinky and that the eggs were somehow both slimy & sticky.  Clearly we don't have farm children, but it still was a unique experience.

The kids had the chance to go horseback riding for the first time while on the reserve.  Later in the day Noah did an ATV tour with Simon after everyone else bailed on them, but I think that he ultimately had more fun on the horse.

Anna's horse was beautiful and I'm not even a horse person!

Julia rode a pony and they said she was a natural.  Simon however is not a natural, and even walking along the horses seemed to set off his allergies.  So when Julia asks if she can have a pony, we'll have to tell her that daddy's allergic!

Jonah did great on his horse.  I was a bit anxious about how it would go, but it was perfect.  Equestrian therapy is a real thing, and as Jonah progresses, I could easily see it in his future because he enjoyed it so much.

The birds of Africa were so amazing to me, I couldn't stop taking pictures.  This is an orange-breasted sunbird that is endemic to the western Cape.

While Noah was busy on his ATV ride, the rest of us went to visit the horses and feed them apples.  They loved their apples!

From shore we got so see some Southern Right Whales playing off the coast.  They are just starting to arrive from their journey from Antartica.

More shore exploration

Christoph took us to some giant sand dunes that we got to play around on.  There is nothing quite as funny as walking up a sand dune but actually not going anywhere.  Once we struggled up the big dune, we were rewarded with a giant soccer field and lots of cool wind tracks in the sand.

Random wood and wind tracks in the dunes

Once we made it to the top of the big dune, of course the kids had to climb some of the smaller ones and then jump off and roll down the the sand.  

Anna concurring a dune

Climbing the dunes was harder for Jonah, so we crawled around on them pretending to be a puppy and was very happy to entertain himself that way.