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Published: January 30th 2012
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Please call my parents directly for all the details....haha, only joking! Well i'll try my best to report all of what we did/saw but it was quite a lot, so I apologise now if I miss anything out. Mum/Dad you can always add any comments for what Ive missed!!
So when I met my parents at the airport, they had kindly brought the English weather with them which meant that table mountain was completly emersed in cloud and therefore ruined my plans to take them to the top that afternoon! So instead, with me behind the wheel and Philippa as navigator we test drove our hire car so that my parents got a whistle stop tour of Cape Town, the beaches, the view from signal hill and to sample some food at the waterfront as the next morning we were to be up bright and early to start our drive along the Garden Route to Port Elizabeth.
The Garden Route is a popular route that stretches along the Eastern Cape. It takes you through stunning secerny that isever changing and provides millions on photo opportunities. We only had 4 days to do the journey but you could quite easily
take 3 weeks to do the same route, it is gorgeous!
I find it hard to recall all the details, but ill give you the main things we did/stopped at!
Day1 - Cape Town to Mossel Bay
We started by part driving down Cape Point to Scarborough and then across to SImons Town where we got to see the locals..... Penguins living wild on the shore line. We then started driving back up the eastern side of the Cape and stopped just past Muizenburg for lunch and to view some stunning, never ending stretches of sandy beaches. From there we then headed over the Hermanus, which in season is a great whale watching spot, but for us being out of season, a picturesque cup of tea spot! From Hermanus we then took the 'out of the way' route all the way down to Agulhas so that we could say that we had been to the most Southern Point of Africa and where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Indian Ocean! After that it was on to Mossel Bay to sleep, stopping by Swellendam for some much needed dinner on the way!
Day2 - Mossel Bay - Knysna
We had heard about an Ostrich farm in the area so up and off we went to Oudtshoorn! Here we were told about Ostrich farming and what various products can be made from one. We also got the opportunity to stand on ostrich eggs (without them breaking!) and to sit on an ostrich! (for those on Facebook, there are pictures of me and my dad!). Then we had the pleasure of watching an ostrich race which had jockey's riding them! Next up was a trip to Cango Caves. Cango Caves can boast the biggest stalactites and stalagmites in the world. We opted for the 'standard tour' which didn't involve us crawling on our knees and sliding through gaps 30cm wide, but we did get to see a many of the marvelous formation and caves which to any unwitting explorer with only candlelight must have been very scary! From there we headed back down to the coastline where we stopped for some refreshments and a walk along the beach at Wilderness before settling in for the night at Knysna.
Day3 - Knysna - Plettenberg Bay
After some talks with some locals over dinner the evening before, we headed
to Breton-on-sea where we went for a lovely walk along the sand all the way to Buffalo Bay and back. With the sun shinning on us and very few people around it was lovely and we all got a little bit burnt! We also popped by the Garden of Eden before arriving in Plettenberg Bay.
Day4 - Plettenberg Bay - Port Elizabeth
Our final day with the car and on the Garden Route so we headed first of to Natures Valley where we did a lovely hike to the Salt River Mouth which was a beautiful mixture of forest, peaceful river banks and rugged coastline. We then stopped by Boulkrans Bridge where I took the opportunity to do a 216m bungee jump....NOT (shark cage diving was enough for me on this trip)!! We actually stopped to watch other mad tourists jump the 216m off the bridge! But we didnt hang around long as we wanted to get to Tsitsikama National Park where once more we got out for a walk and checked out the suspension bridges at Storms River. The sun also notably turned up the temperature this day reaching 36degrees!!! Finally we got to wind swept Port
Elizabeth where we would spend our last night before flying up to Zambia!
Again...pictures will follow when I get to a computer with a USB port!
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Daphne Jay
non-member comment
The Garden Route with mum and dad
Sounds really great, can't wait for the next blog also the pictures.