Hi Nick,
A few comments and highlights as requested!
Overall we loved the trip. We've done a couple of big trips organised by different companies and I think you definitely managed to capture what we would enjoy doing.
Cape Town : was lovely, the hotel was a bit quiet, but I expect that was because it was boutique. They were very nice and helpful though with booking restaurants and suggesting things to do. We were a bit skeptical about doing Robben island as soon as we got there because we didn't sleep much on the flight, but it was really interesting. We went out to the hospital where they did the first heart transplant, I'd probably advise people not to bother doing that as it took rather a while. We wish we had done a history tour earlier on as we left it to the last day and I think there is a lot more we could have learned. We got Uber everywhere in Cape Town and Durban, they were very cheap and always had cars around which was great. We could have done with another couple of days in Cape Town!
Franschhoek : was insanely beautiful and we loved the hotel. Best hotel by far and they upgraded us so we were almost living in a mansion. The hotel staff were really helpful and managed to book us into an amazing restaurant, ROCA, where we could watch the sun set in the mountains on our first night. We really enjoyed the tour guides and the biking on the first day. We nearly missed the wine tram the next day as we didn't quite understand the timetable, but thankfully we got on it and had a wonderful time. Again we could have had another day here!
Hermanus : unfortunately it was too windy to go out on the boat to see whales, I think Richard nearly cried as it was also his birthday! But we went up to Creation Wines which was an amazing vineyard for lunch (apparently we didn't quite have enough wine in Franschhoek). We did have a land whale tour with Dave 'the best guide in the area', which the lady at La Fontaine organised for us. He was fantastic, but did cost ~£100 though. I understand why we were put in La Fontaine because the view is amazing, but coming from the palace at Franschhoek country house it was essentially like going to stay at your Grandma's house and we probably would have preferred something a bit smarter.
Safari : Well there are no words to describe how amazing MalaMala was and I can't believe we were looking at staying anywhere else. Richard even got a happy birthday ceremonious African song and dance at dinner. I'm sure we will be going back at some point!
Durban : The only place we didn't love. It was interesting to see a different city, but there was very little to do here and it was very segregated, perhaps it was more representative of 'real' SA? The hotel was nice, but I'm not sure it was worth the money really. The view was lovely but that was about it, we weren't bowled over by the room or the terrace restaurant.
Fugative's drift : We really enjoyed this! The story telling by the guides and the family history was really interesting. We also enjoyed the driving, it was nice to see the country by road. It was particularly beautiful driving around the coast to Hermanus. Beneficial to have a sat nav though, we had one added for the second car. We also wondered whether it would be easier to drive to Hermanus from Cape Town for the day then you could go when the weather was nice, but perhaps this is easier to judge with hindsight and perhaps we were unlucky with the weather.
We will definitely go back, there was a lot we didn't see and do and we absolutely loved the country so thank you very much for organizing such a great trip.
Many thanks, Richard and Amberley