Cape St Francis 13 to 14 February 2010

On the Valentines day weekend we decided to take a short break and go back to a place we had often camped/caravanned at when the kids were much smaller (in the late nineties) , the Cape St Francis Resort near the Seal Point lighthouse. We had always enjoyed Cape St Francis which used to have something a retro feel, I would imagine something like Jeffreys Bay was 30 years ago. The resort too had a special feel about it, especially the pub which was rather rustic and in which I never heard music played whose vintage was younger than the seventies !

Alas, although the resort does still have campsites, it has mostly been taken over by chalets and upmarket accomodation. I guess the real estate was too valuable and the lure of the almighty dollar too great, what a shame.

The village itself though remains largely unchanged and in my view still retains a special atmosphere.

Some pics of the resort :-

From left to right

Beachfront luxury accomodation, this area used to be camp sites with a fantasic view over the sea.

A row of chalets. Used to be campsites seperated by hedges of indigenous flora

What used to be the playground !!

Having said all this there are still a number of campsites although many are closed and cannot be used and many are overlooked from the windows/balconies of the chalets. The facillities though are still good. As we were only there for one night we didn't worry to much about the location of the site but quickly set up tiny and then headed to the beach for lunch.

Above ; tiny on site and Ness coming back to the beach

Heres "the" shop in town and the pub where we went for supper. We were going to go to the resturant at the resort but despite the fact that we had tried to book the day before when we booked the campsite, we had been told it was not necessary when we arrived and asked about supper we were told that the resturant was closed that night for a private function. Annoying to say the least !!

After the beach we headed back to the site to change and then take a drive down to the rocks to watch the sunset before going to the resturant for supper. The sunset was spectacular and this is a very poor photograph of it :

The evening was very interesting because when we got to the resturant it was closed ! Apparently the kitchen staff hadn't turned up for work. Eventually they agreed to serve us lasagne which we ate on the deck. After supper we played backgammon where we we joined by a guy in a genuine German army helmet who wanted to play against Ness> Well that was the beginning of a series of games which went on all night with Vanessa eventually ended up triumphant, although from where I was sitting cheating was a key skill of both players !!

Leaving the pub after an enjoyable, if unexpected evening, we were soon settled in tiny and fast asleep. The next morning we decided to pack up early and take tiny down to the beachfront for breakfast, which we did !

After a excellent breakfast with an even better view we decided to head for home. On the way home we took a detour through Oyster Bay to look at the Caravan Park and then stopped at the Olive Tree Junction for tea/coffee. An interesting stop !

We got home at about 3.00pm after a wonderful night away !