Personally I am not really a fan of horses. I’ve only been on a horse once in my life when I was about eleven years old. And thought it wasn’t for me, but when my house mate told me there was still a spot free for horse riding trip it made me curious how I would experience it this time and so I joined the group.
We had two cars to drive all the way to the Imhoff’s Farm in Kommetjie, Noordhoek. Both vehicles were Cape Townrental cars. My housemate hired a long-term rental car when she arrived in Cape Town, so half of us went in her rental car. The shortest way was to go via the M3 highway and then over the Ou Kaapse Weg. We were very lucky to have such a nice weather, the sun was shining and we were all very excited, especially when we got over the mountain and saw the long, beautiful white sandy Noordehoek beach lying in front of us.
We arrived around noonand discovered that the Imhoff Farm was in essence a small community with several other companies offering quad bike hire, camel riding and a few restaurants. Walking towards the horse riding company the excitement increased, seeing the horses were already rigged and ready to go. Three young ladies were waiting for us. We paid for our ticket; received our safety helmets and waited outside until we were assigned a horse.
My horse’s name was Eccar, a beautiful dark brown horse, according to our guide one of the sweetest horses in the stable. I felt really lucky. I stepped on Eccar and felt really strange being so high and sitting in such an unnatural pose, but I felt confident and motivated.
When everybody was on their horse, we were ready to go. We slowly walked down to the beach, the scenery was already stunning and I couldn’t wait to get to the beach. Eccar was a really good listener; she knew the way and just kept walking without any trouble or stubbornness. Unlike Oscar, the horse my friend was assigned to, he was very hard headed and wanted to eat the grass every two minutes.
We slowly approached the beach when I saw the first whale playing just a few meters outside in the bay. It was really incredible to see, because just before where the whales were playing, surfers were surfing. It was really fantastic to see those two just enjoying the water without one bothering the other.
On the beach we kept on walking, just enjoying the sun, the whales and the scenery. One of our guides came up to me and my friend and asked us if we wanted to go a bit faster. Yes, we would love to try. So we went a bit faster, which was not really a comfortable experience. Since I don’t really have any horse riding experience I soon quit with going faster.
After walking along the beach for a while watching the whales, surfers and the people on the beach, we turned around and headed back towards the stables. Past the gates the guide told us to step off the horse and wait until we were being called out to bring the horse. When I got off the horse, my hip was really sore, but thankfully that vanished after walking a few meters.
We put our helmets back in the shed and wondered off to the farm to get some lunch. In the farm store they had a lot of different food and beverages. I bought myself 3 Samosa’s, a stuffed triangle shaped pastry. Mine had chicken, mince and vegetable stuffings and were delicious. We sat down at one of the picnic tables to enjoy our lunch when we all experienced the same painful feeling. The hard saddles hadn’t really been nice to our behinds during the trip, but we endured it.
Once lunch was over, we decided that it was a waist not to make the most of the amazing sunny weather and headed to HoutBay. We took the scenic route, over Chapman’s Peak Drive. To take this road, you have to pay a toll price, but it is definitely worth the money. This coastal road drive is absolutely amazing. The view you have is spectacular and you just have to pull over at one of the side stops to take a moment to enjoy the view and take some pictures.
The HoutBaybeach was very windy, but we didn’t want to leave yet, so we lay there on the beach for about half an hour. When we were all completely covered by sand we figured it was time to go home. So we got back into our trusty rental cars and drove back over the M6 Victoria Roadthrough the luxurious neighborhood of CampsBayto Cape Town.
At the end of the day we were all very tired, but satisfied how our day was.
Having a Cape Townrental car is a relief, making places like Noordehoek and destinations around the CapePeninsulaeasily reachable, and of course we could travel at our own pace and stop wherever and whenever we wanted.
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