Once again the trip was uneventful and after stopping for lunch at one of the many Ultra Cities along the way, we arrived at our destination at about 2.30 pm.
I found the section of 300 kilometers between Colesberg and Beaufort West very tiring and boring as the road goes straight as an arrow through the Karoo, which is flat and dry and hot. Frequent road signs advising travelers to stop and rest as well as driver alert sections attest to the fact that many accidents have been caused by drivers nodding off resulting in frequent fatal accidents.
|
|
|
|
|
After filling the car up again we headed out again,
next stop, to pay a brief visit and to overnight at cousin James' place
near Cape Town. On the way we stopped over briefly at Matjiesfontein to
take a pic of the famous Lord Milner Hotel. While there we also saw the
Rovos Rail train, the most luxurious train in the world. The train was on
its way from Pretoria to Cape Town, stopping briefly at Matjiesfontein. We
had a snack at Laingsburg, famous for the flood they had in the early 80's
when the Buffels river flooded and just about washed the whole town away.
We stopped at Worcester as well where we paid a quick visit to an ex
colleague of Doreen's, Johan Theron.
We then left for Cape Town deciding to take the scenic
route over the Du Toitskloof pass rather than drive through the 8 km long
tunnel The pass took 107 years (1842 - 1949) to complete while the tunnel
took 4 years to construct and was only completed recently.
From there it was a short distance to James' place where we had a nice visit and a great bbq (ostrich sausages, ribs, sosaties, and a selection of salads)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Peet is an excellent guide and I can recommend their services if you ever happen to visit the Cape Town area. If you do not know the Area, a guided trip is the answer, you get picked up and dropped off and trips are tailored to your requirements.
After a lunch of fish and chips we headed home again for Hermanus and a good nights rest.
We were hoping for good weather for the next day as a trip to the top of Table Mountain was planned. We ordered a clear day with minimal wind, knowing the Cape weather, that was a really tall order.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The floor of the cable car rotates on it's 4 minute trip to the top so you get an all round view of the side of the mountain as well as the city of Cape Town down below. The perfect day we had hoped for was realised and we had a windstill, sunny day, perfect for viewing and photographing from the top of the mountain.
We
met some cricket fans from the West Indies, the friendliest people I have
come across in a long time. A pity we had to beat them at cricket!
The top of the mountain is quite flat with clearly marked paths leading to
viewpoints, a photographer's dream. I even took some panorama pics, and I
also bought some postcards to send to people who specially requested them.
Doreen bought some really nice fridge magnets.
If anyone outside of South
Africa would like one, just mail us a fridge magnet depicting your state
or country and we will mail you one from here. Just
email
me first for mailing details.
We also watched the midday cannon fire from signal hill. It fires every
day at midday except Sundays and wakes up all the pigeons in Cape Town!
After spending most of the morning on the mountain, we headed to the
V&A Waterfront where we met up with Annette, another member of Rosi's
Yahoo Group. It so nice to be able to meet up with your internet friends.
We had lunch at the Waterfront and then headed to the Bo-Kaap, an area
where the old Cape houses have been restored and painted in the most
beautiful colours.
We then headed back to Hermanus and got back in time for supper, another
interesting and eventful day.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The day was overcast and cool, lucky for us we had the clear and windless day yesterday for the trip up Table Mountain!
The sunset cruise was cancelled due to deteriorating weather conditions!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Genadendal was founded by missionary George Schmidt way back in 1738. The mission church built in 1891 is in Church Square and all the buildings surrounding the Square have been declared national monuments. We were told that the old houses are all being restored so eventually the whole village will be restored to it's former glory.
We left Genadendal and headed towards the quaint village of Greyton. established in 1854. Once again, the original houses have been restored and the whole picture with the oak lined streets makes for something really unique and special. We looked at some property notices and saw a shack being advertised for R1.1 million! Apparently city folk are willing to pay for peace and quiet, but that's a bit much for me, thank you! We had the yummiest pancakes ever with fillings of banana and caramel sauce at the local coffee shop !
We continued on to Bonnievale where we bought some wine as gifts for the folk back home and headed back to Hermanus via the coastal town of Stanford.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Cousin James and wife Ann arrived from Cape Town and in the late afternoon we headed for Onrus and sister Mig's birthday bash!
We then headed to Cape Agulhas where we had a look at the lighthouse and then went to the spot where the the Indian ocean meets the Atlantic ocean at the Southernmost tip of Africa! We did some exploring of the rock pools and James managed to catch an octopus!
We then bid James and Ann farewell as they were returning to their home in Cape Town and we headed back to Hermanus to say goodbye to Mig, John, Camilla and Steve. We were heading to our next destination at Plettenberg Bay on Monday and we would not be seeing them again before they returned to the UK.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The resort is advertised as being able to view bottle nosed dolphins from your unit, but with the miniscule bit of sea we could see about a mile away between a gap in two buildings there was no way we were going to spot a dolphin. However, I understand they saw over 2000 dolphins on a trip on one of the dolphin viewing boats.We enquired about boat trips to view whales but as the whales had all left the only sightings were dolphins and at R300 a head it was a bit much to pay just to see some dolphins (another tourist ripoff). We did some window shopping, especially property prices and noticed that the vast majority of property in Plett costs more than a million Rand. In fact we heard over the radio that they advertised "the last house for less than a million" Good luck to them! The answer to the price ripoff is to shop around, the closer to the sea, the more expensive. A good example is the different prices you pay for shells, by shopping around you can get them up to 50% cheaper.
We then headed on to Jeffrey's Bay and headed for the beach where we spent an hour picking up shells. The best time to go shell collecting is early morning and by the time we got there the best ones had already been scooped up by other collectors. But we did manage to get a few good ones.
On the way back to Plettenberg Bay we briefly stopped to take a walk along a typical forest trail. A boardwalk took us through an indigenous forest to the "Big Tree" a giant 800 year old Outeniqua yellowood tree.
We stopped off at the Tsitsikamma National Park. The main rest camp of the park is situated at the Storms river mouth in a picturesque setting. The camp is also the starting point of the world famous Otter hiking trail. A short walk along the coast takes you to the suspension bridge over the Storms river. We had lunch there and headed back to our base at Plettenberg Bay.
We turned in at the Bloukrans river bridge, at 206 meters it holds the Guinnes World record for the highest bungy jump. We watched one of the jumpers jump off the bridge and wondered if they were brave or foolish.
We arrived back at our accomodation in time for supper.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Choo tjoe left on time and steamed it's way across the Knysna lagoon over a long bridge and then headed into the coastal forests providing the passengers great views of the passing countryside. As we didn't want to spend the whole day on the train, we changed over at Sedgefield and took the train heading towards Knysna back to where we started from. The intention was to do some exploring around Knysna but it started to drizzle and we decided to call it a day and headed for out accommodation at Plettenberg bay.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
We then travelled to Knysna and went inland to explore the forests in the area. It was a gravel road and still muddy from the previous day's rain, so in no time our car was brown instead of white.
The road was lined by indigenous forest and at times it seemed as if we were driving through a tunnel of trees.. The roadside was also lined with the most beautiful ferns, a sight not seen in the part of the world we live in. We visited the Diepwalle Forest station where Doreen bought some ferns, went to the Spitskop viewpoint and then headed back to Knysna for lunch at the Knysna Quays where we watched the yachts in the yacht basin while enjoying our steaks.
As we were unable to find a Pansy shell on the beach, Doreen bought us one at the local shell shop, just to show to the folk back home.
We then headed back to our base at Plettenberg Bay where I took the car to car wash while Doreen took washing to the resort laundry so we arrived home with the laundry done. This was our last day and we started packing so we could hit the road back to Johannesburg early the next morning.
|
|
|
|
|
Please do not hesitate to email me if you intend visiting the places we went to, I will gladly try and answer any questions.
