Part 2 Eastern Cape - Week 4

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Sat 10 Oct
This morning I went with Maggie and her friend to a local tourism award ceremony at a really nice lodge with a long bar, comfortable sofas and warm open log fires at each end of the room. They served champagne and excellent canapes and gave two Golden Tusk awards to outstanding local businesses.

From there we went to the Addo Rose Festival to see local craft stalls and food vans as well as several tents displaying roses of all types. The event was quite small - about the size of a large village fete - but was interesting We had calamari and chip sticks, which is a thinly sliced potato on a long stick that is deep fried - it tastes a cross between fries and crisps. Sadly there was no beer tent and the weather was overcast and chilly..

In the afternoon Maggie dropped me at Scottish Maggie and Bertie’s house as I was staying the night on the Maggie May houseboat that is moored on the Sunday River at the end of their garden. It would have been lovely to sit on the top deck and sunbathe but the weather wasn’t playing nice, so made do with the lovely wood cabin which includes a lounge, kitchenette and double bedroom.

There was loads of wildlife to watch plus lots of boats going past, which gently rocked my houseboat in a rather soothing way. Some of them were fishermen and one was a waterskier who changed onto a tiny boogie board and whizzed past showing great tricks and turning skills.

Maggie popped down and invited me up to the house that evening for a potjie, which is a large iron cooking pot that you cook on an open fire and make a kind of stew. Bertie made it and the flavour of this one was like a mild creamy curry. It was absolutely delicious and I pigged out on two platefulls, and there were loads of people in and out all evening and we had a great time around their bar. I was impressed with how welcoming and generous these folks are.

I left reasonably early as I wanted to enjoy the sounds of the wildlife on the river and I had a very early start in the morning.

Sun 11 Oct
Apparently there are two 4 o’clocks and one of them is in the morning. The alarm was set for such a ridiculous time as I had to get picked up by the other Maggie and driven 30 minutes to Port Elizabeth to catch the 6am bus to George where I was transferring to another van through to Oudtshoorn - home of the ostrich industry. I had to wait in the rain for 15 minutes and my fellow passengers and I were very soggy by the time we boarded. The Cityliner bus was pretty packed and not very comfortable and nowhere near as nice as the Intercape service. The weather was horrible and it poured the whole way and as we were all damp, the windows all steamed up so I couldn’t see much o the passing countryside.

I eventually got to George only to find they had given us the wrong drop off address and my lift to Oudtshoorn was obviously at the wrong place waiting to collect me. I managed to borrow a phone and call his base, who got word to him and he came shortly afterwards to collect me. It was’t very nice waiting for him to arrive as it was a fairly rough area and it was a bit creepy waiting there with my luggage being stared at and walked around by some guys.

Anyhow got to Oudtshoorn mid afternoon - I have been having real trouble in pronouncing the name of this town, but if you say Oats Horn its near enough. I had booked into the Yotclub Guest House for 2 nights and got a nice ensuite room. Their garden is lovely and slopes steeply down to a stream filled with reed beds, with distant views of the mountains. The owners Des and Liz were really helpful and a contact of theirs Koos (pronounced Kwis) came over to help me plan a tour tomorrow with him to see the local sights.

It started to rain again in the evening so borrowed a brolly and walked up to town, past several expensive places and lots of closed ones (being Sunday night) then and had a sizzler steak and baked potato at a local family restaurant about 15 minutes from my guest house. There was quite a thunderstorm and due to the circle of mountains all around, it was very loud. Great fun.

Mon 12 Oct
Koos collected me straight after breakfast and we finalised the itinerary. I chose not to go to the ostrich farms (what the town is famous for) as I had already done that over on the West coast, but instead decided to concentrate on seeing some of the spectacular mountain scenery of the Klein Karoo region. Although this is classed as semi-desert there is abundant plantlife and some lovely scenery. The morning started in bright sunshine.

I want to actually see as much of the country as possible, not just flit between tourist traps. This is the reason that I am happy to get the buses that wander all over the place, as I can view through high up windows and enjoy the sights and scenes. Its much better then trying to drive, navigate and read the roads if I had hired a car, plus I get to meet and chat with other people, both locals and fellow travellers. Not always cheaper, but much more of an adventure.

First we drove up to the Cango caves. I opted for the standard tour, as the adventure tour has you crawling through tiny tunnels and climbing steep slippery rock tubes - not really my thing as I am too fat, unfit and not happy in tight, dark, scary places. The tour I did had the most camp guy I have ever met as the guide which was great fun. The caves were really good and well worth visiting.

We drove up through the mountains and through several valleys growing nuts, green stuff for the ostriches and hops. Obviously there were fields full of ostriches too, We headed down some rough tracks (we had a 4 x 4) to see the local dam which is quite low as they had been suffering a drought. After a photostop and a wander about we continued on to the Rust En Vrede waterfall - translated this means rest and peace. You trek over walkways made of either wobbly wooden planks or iron grating, through fairy-glen type young trees and ferns, up steep steps and then down slippery paths and all the time to your right you catch glimpses of small rapids in a fast flowing stream filled with boulders. When you finally reach the waterfall you just have to stand and take in the view and the atmosphere. The water plunges down a vertical drop in front of a circular pool that is quite large. You feel as if you are in the centre of a gorge and only have a small circle of sky above you. It really lives up to its name and is definitely worth the trip.

We drove around the mountains some more and then as the weather was closing in we headed back to the other side of town and called in at an ostrich leather outlet where I treated myself to a wallet. I was so tempted by the wonderful handbags, but they wouldn’t give discount for more than one purchase and the fact that I wouldn’t use it for the next year stopped me. I must remember I am operating on a very tight budget.

It was pouring with rain by the time Koos dropped me at the tourist information office in town - the locals are happy as they need the rain but I wasn’t very impressed. I sorted out a bus for tomorrow that will take me within 25 kilometres of my next destination, then booked a guest house that promised to collect me from the bus stop. Hope they do. Stopped at the internet cafe to upload last weeks blog and caught up on emails.

Walked 10 minutes up the road to a nice little restaurant and had an ostrich steak - well I had to really. It was delicious and I took the healthy option and had it with a large salad. Yummy.

Tue 13 Oct
Another early start and missed breakfast and was up the road to meet the bus at 5.30am, interim destination was Ashton where I was being collected for Montagu. The route was very circular as it goes south to the popular coastal towns before heading back north through rolling hills and open farmland. Around Swellendam was very pretty and was attractive with lots of Dutch style buildings. By this stage we were back into the shadow of yet more mountains that were covered in raging waterfalls after the rain over the last couple of days. The wine and fruit starts again here and the vines have just gone into that bright green spring leaf, so everything was very picturesque.

Shirley, a fellow Brit, was waiting for me at the drop off point when we arrived at 10.30am and she expressed huge relief at my arrival because the guys in the shop had said that they thought the bus arrived at 10.30 at night. The short drive to Montagu was through a small mountain pass and the town looks very pretty. I have a lovely room at the Koo Karoo Guest Lodge, with a huge bath actually in the bedroom, plus a walk-in shower. I settled in and have walked up to town to find an internet cafe to get the last weeks blog live. I am sitting in the garden of the hotel next door where the signal is strong, having lunch and a glass of wine - the sun has come out and its a gorgeous day.

I will describe this evening on the next blog entry.

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Comments

[joy holmes]

nice to see you are not starving or fading from the lack of drink still wish i was there lots of love joy