In a 10 passenger mini-coach, I'm joined by a couple, Frank and Lana from Dublin, Simon and his mother Ada from the U.K., and Barbara from Amsterdam. Four of them are only on the 1st 4 days till Port Elizabeth, called the Garden Route tour. Barbara and myself will be the only 2 continuing on the rest of the way to Jo'burg. Lindy a very energetic and knowledgable lady is our driver/guide. The weather looks like it's going to be a perfect traveling day.
Heading north east out of Cape Town along the N1 highway it's a pretty drive around the winery area of Paarl and pass through the Hugenot Tunnel. The nearby towns are a mix of English or Dutch sounding names. I love all the whitewashed cottages with thatched roofs and it even reminds me a bit of the ones you see in Ireland. We continue to see many wineries but also other fruit growing areas for the dried fruit market. Our destination is Oudtshoorn the ostrich ranching community. The hotel tonight is a lovely historical property that is called the Queen's Hotel and Queen Elizabeth has even stayed there many years ago. I try ostrich for dinner and I'm surprised to find it's texture is more like beef steak than the chicken I thought it would be.
It's sunny and warm the next morning and the 1st stop is at an ostrich farm. We can see the fields full of ostrich of various sizes from young chicks to adults. A tour around the farm gives us a close up of the ostrichs but not too close since they can bite and love shiny thinks like jewellry. We can feel the weight of an egg and find out that one egg is the equivalent of about a 20 egg omlette. You can even put your body weight on top of an unhatched egg without it breaking. There's no eggs hatching in the hatchery at this time but we find out all the things ostrichs are breed for like their meat, feathers and skin for leather bags.
Next stop in the Klien Karoo area of S.A. is Cango Animal Park, a zoo like setting were we see many African animals up close but also get to see other animals like a white tiger and lemurs. Just down the road we have a guided tour through Canjo Caves. It's amazing to walk through only a small section of the caves that were formed 20 million yrs ago when acidic ground water eroded the limestone. There's many dramatic stalactites and stalagmites that were formed once the water drained away 3 million yrs ago. The caves were discovered in 1780 by Dutch colonists but showed evidence of being used by ancient man. The tour guide had an great singing voice and showed us how well the acoustics were in the cave.
Heading south on the N12 we drive through the Outenique Pass to the Indian Ocean and continue east on the N2 to the coastal town of Knysna for a 2 night stay at the waterfront Protea Knysna Quays Hotel. Lots of shops and restaurants along the quay.
Friday morning, I wake up to a beautiful blue sky and we cruise on the Knysna estuary (breeding area for sea horses) to Featherbed Nature Reserve which is on the western side of the Knysna Heads a small opening from the estuary out to the Indian Ocean. Once we land at the reserve we are shuttled by 4x4 trailer up a narrow path to the top of a hill. From there, we take a guided 2.2km hike down through the forest stopping at many coastal viewpoints, sea caves and follow the seashore back to the pier for a buffet lunch. The boat ride gets us back to the wharf around 2pm and the rest of the day is free so I explore the shops around town.
The weather is very cloudy this morning as we leave Knysna and head east along the coast. We stop at Plettenburg Bay and drive through the Tsitsikama Forest. At the Bloukrans River we stop to see brave hearted bungy jumpers leap off bridge. It's starting to rain and it poured for a short hike in the forest to see some of the native trees that are being protected by the lumber industry in the area. We cross over a few other bridges but the rain continues to destroy what should be a very scenic drive. It rains all the way into Port Elizabeth. Our hotel is only a block from the beach but the heavy rain stops me from enjoying a walk along the sand. Five of us have an enjoyable dinner tonight before Barbara and I start the next section of the tour.
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