Thar she blows

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by Mrs Plod

Woke up at 7:00ish, and started our day with tea (getting to be a habit!). Had a very nice breakfast at the establishment serving "the freshest coffee in Sedgefield"--Fijnbosch Coffee House. I read Die Burger (Afrikaans newspaper) to Ross and Owen. 😊 We decided to skip the Tjoe Choo, and explore Sedgefield instead (since we were staying there, it made sense!) After about 15 minutes, we decided that Sedgefield (no offence to any Sedgefielders out there!) is a long strip mall with pockets of houses, resorts and little marshy lakes. Very pretty, but not much to explore--so we decided to head to Knysna, instead. Just 20 minutes or so down the coast from Sedgefield, Knysna is a pretty resort town on a beautiful lagoon which empties into the Indian Ocean through the infamous and treacherous Knysna Heads. The lagoon produces delicious (if you like them) oysters. Our timing was perfect--Knysna is in the middle of the Knysna Oyster Festival! Ross and Owen were really looking forward to trying as many as they could. We drove straight to the Mitchell's Knysna Brewery (imagine that.) Ross and I were tasting Mitchell's 4 brews at 11:00 a.m. 😊 They were really quite good, much as we remembered from 14 years ago. We popped in to Feathers, a bird-carving factory and show room to get some gifts, and then went for a drive to look out over the Heads. As we were admiring the absolutely gorgeous vista--blue blue sky, turquoise water, white waves--Ross spotted a whale! And then I decided that it was actually 2! We watched for about an hour, taking tons of pictures every time they did something. Amazing, amazing, amazing. Talk about feeling like all is right with the world... Lunch was also amazing. The boys tracked down some oysters at Mackintosh's (a nifty local gourmet/international grocery store with a delightful restaurant inside) along with enormous bowls of tasy soup. I had some fabulous Malay curry with pappadums and sambals. We were quite full when we left! That afternoon, we poked around some souvenir shops, got some internet time under our belts, got some bits and pieces for dinner from Woolworths food shop, and headed back to Sedgefield. Our "chalet" kitchen is quite well equipped, so cooking is fun. Then dinner, journals, bed--another routine that is getting to be quite comfortable!

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