Advertisement
Published: December 2nd 2006
Around the camp fire
L-R: Barns, Jo Smith, Amyrick, Me and DeveyExcited about our imminent roadtrip, we headed for the Sunflower Stop Backpackers to collect our newest recruit Barnaby before embarking on our journey down the Garden Route. Barns is a good old bean who we met at the Boss party the week before and who is travelling north through Africa - he convinced us of his Duke of Edinburgh triumphs, so we figured he could be a useful guy to have around. As well as picking up a severely hungover Barns we had another couple of guys tag on who were heading up to Durban, and so it began.
First and foremost ... tunes. We had trekked around Long Street the previous day to find a cassette converter for the I-pod and had each compiled a play list (as mental notes) to play - how gutted were we when we realised the car had a CD player ... Nooooooooooooooooo! We spent the first couple of hours listening to some shocking Afrikaans country style music before we stopped and nicked some of Jesse's CD's - by a cruel twist of fate he had a tape player and CD's!
We passed through some amazing scenery, the mains towns were Mossel Bay (which is
The Tee Pee
Our very cosy home for the night a small seaside town with beautiful unspoilt beaches), Wilderness which also has stunning beaches and Knysna which is on the banks of a beautiful estuary and surrounded by mountains and forests. We got to the Southern Comfort Ranch that afternoon. It is set halfway between Knysna and Plettenberg Bay, 2 km's from the Forest of Eden (and in the middle of nowhere!) and as soon as we got there everybody felt relaxed. It is a family run business with an admirably chilled attitude. There's a pool out the back and stables next door, people casually coming and going and animals running about. Our favourites were Klippy - a 6 week old Puppy and the smallest Dog any of us have ever seen, who was a bit like Scrappy Do, trying to fight the bigger Dog then getting battered! ... and the ego massaging Parrot who wolf whistled everytime we walked past it! We randomly met up with a French guy, Amyrick, who had been on the Jo's Cape Point trip in Cape Town a week or so before, and who then signed up for the horseriding adventure! We then spent a very pleasant evening supping the Vino, relaxing by the
The last supper in Cape Town
L-R: Becs, Smithers, Me, Tracy, Ryan, Jamie, Mon, Francois and Murdoch open fire while Momma cooked us up a traditional Afrikaans supper.
We had a nice lie in and time to wander around before going over to the stables. Based on our experience (or lack of!) we had our horses selected - weirdly matching our personalities. Becs had Donna - very laid back, going with the flow, also very plyable - give her a kick up the ass and she will obey the rules, Smithers had Sabrina - also very chilled, sometimes too much so to the point of frustration where she would refuse to move when told to run, and Whitters had Sundance who was surprisingly the biggest horse, standing at 16 hands - the bucking bronco, a bit wired and wanted to get there ... IMMEDIATELY! It was pretty funny watching Jo W being launched on though with the help of our guide Donovan.
The ride through Knysna forest was simply amazing - cool breezes, sun streaming through the pines and small waterfalls and streams - known as the Enchanted Forest, and for good reason. There was also plenty of entertainment, a combo of childish laughing everytime someones horse had to relieve itself in any way, and Barns terrible
Paris
With her own Tinkerbell, Klippy jokes! At our first canter attempt, Sabrina decided she actually couldn't be arsed after the first ten metres, so abruptly slowed to a trot, forcing the others to pile up behind, and almost breaking Jo S's back! We got to camp feeling invigorated and were greeted by Devey who had everything set up for us including a Tee Pee to accommodate all 5 of us ... hmm cosy sleeping arrangement! We thought that our days of cooking over campfires and outside toilets were finished, however, it was back to basics using logs for chairs and depositing logs (as Barns would put it 'dropping off the kids') in an old oil drum fitted with a modern day toilet seat, shrouded by a transparent windbreak (Jo S is fairly certain Barns copped a glimpse of her wiping her arse!) A bit of a bizarre experience sitting on a bog in the middle of the forest with sunlight streaking through the trees around you and during the night sitting with glow worms shining around your feet.
As per usual we cracked open a few bevvies around the campfire whilst Devey prepared a veritable feast and regailed us with stories of his past. One
was the story of how he shot himself in the hand during his years as a gunshop owner, he now sports a golf ball sized scar on his hand - the other was of his days as a marine biologist, when swimming out to collect samples in Buffalo Bay, he encountered the gleaming eyes and huge teeth of what he realised afterwards to be a dead Great White Shark! He is a really interesting guy to talk to. He now, as well as running the ranch and doing forest treks, does brat camp style teambuilding weeks for local schools - his own brainchild - in which the students get to pelt their naughty compadres with freshly collected Horse manure who are stood blindfolded against a tree - if they've not been too bad, they have the option of turning their backs! Luckily, we managed to behave - though he did claim that we were the group to have consumed the most alcohol to date (note to those who frown - they are tea total so that doesn't mean we drank very much) As predicted we had a cosy night in the Tee Pee, then we were woken up at 8am
Max
Leannes lovely dog to a slap up brekkie before our trek back to the ranch. More successful cantering this time and a particularly awkward encounter with a Golden Orb Web Spider which saw us dismounting in a narrow pathway to avoid us destroying the web. Back at the ranch, everyone hopped off their horses, however, Sundance, who had had a few skittish moments along the way decided to roll with Jo W still in the saddle - she managed somehow to loosen her foot out of the stirrup before he fully squashed her - naughty thing - only Whitters!
After a much needed shower we drove down to Plettenberg Bay to drop Barney off, had a quick look around and headed back west to Oudtshoorn and to the 'Baier Afrikaans' music festival and fair which takes place there once a year. We scaled an incredible mountain pass - the Outeniqua - to get there and dropped down onto the plains of the Klein Karoo, a breathtaking drive. Later on we walked into town to investigate and stopped to watch a young 'trendy' Afrikaans band from a makeshift amphitheatre, consisting of hay bails - yee ha! Following that we ate a lovely meal and
At the Ranch
With our trusty steed wandered around the fair, which was seriously outdated. Still a trip back in time on your travels is an unusual bonus!
A long and rainy drive back to Cape Town the next day (still beautiful) was compensated by the fact that the little Corsa had neither a dink nor a dent in it - how good are we?! Let's just hope that the flash from the speed camera doesn't turn up on the Mastercard!
Despite being utterly knackered from the days travels we stayed up for a few celebratory drinks for Troy at the backpackers birthday. He was absolutely wasted and kept speaking to us in broken English as if we were foreigners! This may be due to the fact that he had spent the past week or so entertaining a Maasai Warrior who had walked all of the way to Cape Town from Kenya in the space of 6 months in an attempt to raise awareness for his tribe.
Before we went to Knysna, we had a few drinks with Leanne, an old Aussie friend who had invited us to stay at hers for our last few days in the Mother City. So Saturday morning we lugged our backpacks
Leannes House
The lovely pool over to her 'pimp palace'. This place was something that dreams are made of - massive open plan living with a beaut lounge, huge kitchen, complete with swimming pool, sunbeds and a bar! It was a real treat and we are forever grateful to Leanne for her generous hospitality.
In true Aussie style a great braai / bbq was held on Saturday night and many old faces from 4 years previously were present. Typically, everyone ended up sloshed and therefore refused to utter a word to each other the next day for fear of dry wretching! A brilliant night with old and cheesy tunes and plenty of banter.
The next few days were spent reaping the benefits of this beautiful place, watching TV - the first time since leaving England - and messing around with Max, the resident Rotweiler - blissful! We dragged ourselves away on our last night for a farewell dinner with Mon, Jamie, Ryan, Tracy, Murdoch and Francois and were later joined by Candy and Taryn. A few tearful farewells followed ...
Cheers Drive!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.102s; Tpl: 0.02s; cc: 13; qc: 64; dbt: 0.0642s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
