The Manser family is back with another road trip contest, this time trying ice cream along the Strand-Gordon’s Bay coastline, which he calls The Ice Cream Mile.

The Manser family is back with another road trip contest, this time trying ice cream along what Riaan Manser calls The Ice Cream Mile along the Strand-Gordon’s Bay coastline.

We’ve just returned from sailing across the Atlantic to Brazil and we’re ecstatic to be home. Being in the middle of that big, blue wobbly thing day after day, life could be pretty Spartan.

One thing we constantly spoke about during our travels was the craving we had for ice cream. It was driving us mad. I was even dreaming about ice cream.

So the consensus was that we were going to rectify the craving at home with the famous Sunday ice cream - to the power of the 5 – and we were going to do it properly: by trying every ice cream parlour on the famous stretch of coastline from Strand to Gordon’s Bay.

Manchester is home to The Curry Mile, and, in my opinion, the False Bay coastline is home to The Ice Cream Mile.

The pie run I did with my boys last year was so popular with our readers we had to create a similar effort.

READ | The great road trip pie contest: Manser boys choose their Top 5

Here is how it went down:

For transparency, we chose the mom-and-pops shops – not global franchises, but an old school, high street vibe.

We started in Gordon’s Bay.

The rules were: one soft serve and one traditional ice cream on the owner’s recommendation, both on traditional cones.

Off we set, and we were soon licking away.

Ice Cream #1

Gordon’s Bay

Cost: R50

Soft-serve, vanilla-strawberry mix.

Verdict: Wow! Awesome, creamy, and a huge serving.

Best on the menu: Tin Roof. What is in Tin Roof? It was tasty, nutty and almost lost on our taste buds after tasting the soft-serve ice cream first. But still okay. But really, is this the top recommendation?

Ice Cream #2

Strand Circle

Cost: R75

Only soft serve, only vanilla. Eish!

Verdict: Mid-creaminess and tasty. Okay.

Best on the menu: Bar One vanilla milkshake. Wow! It was awesome, but too sweet for me. The youngsters loved it, though.

To do: Walking out to the seaside marketplace was fun. We spoke to fishermen, and I nearly slung a 7kg yellowtail fish over my shoulder for dinner.

Ice Cream #3

N’Ice (They have the shops along the mile, and we went to two of them.)

Cost: R75

Soft serve, vanilla, and chocolate.

Verdict: Not as creamy as Gordon’s Bay, but a refreshing change. Vasti liked it. I wonder why they’re so expensive.

Best on the menu: Blueberry cheesecake. It’s tasty if you love cheesecake. It was the standalone star – a genuine after-dinner treat.

To do: Go to that monster investment by the City of Cape Town, the new Strand promenade – a world-class ice cream licking, jogging, and pet-walking investment. Well done!

Ice Cream #4

Hibernian Towers ice cream

Cost: R45

Soft serve, vanilla, and strawberry.

Verdict: It was perfect. The strawberry was zesty, and it looked the best out of any soft-serve ice cream I had ever seen. We were getting full by this stage...

Best on the menu: Choc-mint.

It was “like brushing your teeth”, my boys said. And even I, the biggest fan of mint-flavoured ice cream, agreed. It was brilliantly minty. Vasti thought the choc-chips balanced the mint perfectly.

To do: We walked back along the promenade. It’s a stunning spot to walk directly onto the beach among the kite-surfers, paddlers, swimmers, and beachgoers.

Ice Cream #5

Marcel’s Frozen Yoghurt

Cost: R90. Expensive!

Soft-serve caramel.

Verdict: Personally, I was sceptical. That is going to be too much flavour. It was the opposite. The yoghurt’s sourness added an incredible taste dimension. I’ll have it again.

Best on the menu: All the frozen yoghurts. I loved them. Possibly after having semi-genuine dairy products previously, we could taste the authentic yoghurt flavours off the bat.

To do: We took a stroll past the Strand Surf Lifesaving Club and its famous Strand Downwind Junkies surfski club, and Strand paddler club to take in the vibrant energy of the surfer community.

The overall verdict

Our final stop was a great place to sit and to settle that one litre of ice cream in our tummies!

We’d recommend The Ice Cream Mile to anyone - whether or not you’ve just sailed across the mighty Atlantic Ocean and lived on freshly-caught fish for a few weeks!

But perhaps limit your ice cream purchasing to just one scoop each.

*Riaan Manser is a pioneering international explorer with multiple world-firsts and has joined the team as the new editor of News24 Outdoors, driven by Ford.