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Published: March 8th 2010
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Haus am Strand where we were staying
Our apartment is the one on the bottom left Left the winelands to head for the coastal road known as the Garden Route - this is because it is green rather than because there are lots of gardens to visit. The roads (Route 62, N2) are really nice to drive, wide lanes, hardly any traffic and good surface, as such we made really quick progress even if we did try and outsmart the Sat Nav and end up doing a U-turn after a shortcut went wrong!
Arrived at Haus Am Strand in Wilderness at lunchtime. We have a little studio apartment right on the beach, we can hear the sea crashing from the sofa as we write this blog. We strolled along the beach and saw hundreds of periwinkles in the surf, they are like little green snails that stick their “foot” out of their shells as the waves go over them, unfortunately if you are walking on the sand and a wave comes in you suddenly find your foot being suckered by weird green snails - very disconcerting!
Next was a trip to the supermarket - as with everywhere else meat is much cheaper, as is fuel and alcohol (nice Sauvingon Blanc is well under £3, Steak
around £2, Petrol £0.60 a litre, Gordons Gin £6 a 0.75l bottle) but everything else much more - £3 for small jam, cooking oil about 3x as expensive, butter more than its weight in gold etc!
Had some SA Sausages and salad (& wine!) for dinner then tried, but failed, to get the bloomin internet to work on our laptop! Bizarrely we can get Skype to work so we managed a chat with both our parents. Gave us a chance to show off where we are staying!
Woke up this morning to discover to our horror that the sun the was not shining and there was a hint of drizzle in the air! It was still warm though so don't panic too much.
We decided to visit the Wilderness section of the Garden Route National Park. We were going to go kayak there but put that off to another day/destination as we weren't sure what the weather was going to go (we needn't have worried, a few hours later the sun was out). Anyway we decided to do the half collared kingfisher trail (not that we saw any kingfishers I am sorry to say). We did see
some helmeted guineas fowls (they get everywhere), red winged starlings, pied cormorants and cape white eyes. There were also loads of birds that we could not identify. The walk was through a forest and there was constant bird calls all the way along. We also saw giant woodlice! They looked just like the woodlice that we get at home just a lot bigger. We also saw a very long millipede.
Half way along the track crossed a river. There was no bridge, instead you had to use a pontoon. It was anchored to both the banks by rope and you had to use the pulley system to get yourself across. It was very cool and we managed without falling in
This afternoon we explored the beach a bit more. It is very windy here today and the sea is really rough, I don't think this is a bit of coastline for swimming in the sea in. It is more long walks and crashing waves.
Tim was mean to me! I was standing with my feet in the sea while he took my photo. He didn't tell me that a massive wave was coming and with that it
had wooshed up my legs and soaked my bottom! I will get my revenge!
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Ruth
non-member comment
shock photo
been there, done that!! they are so mean sometimes...