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Published: March 8th 2010
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Picked up the car from Avis yesterday- luckily only a 2 minute drag of the bags from the hotel - we got a very cool brand new VW Polo1.4 in dark grey.
The driving through Cape Town was good, hardly any traffic and Sat Nav worked well. The drive along the M1 was stunning. About 20 minutes out of town the vineyards and mountains start and didn't stop for the next 2 hours. We drove through a tunnel that must have been several miles long.
Arrived in Montagu in the early afternoon, we had a lovely lunch of salad and toasted sarnies, the portions are huge and we are currently eating way too much it is just too darn nice! We've had to switch to diet softdrinks to free up calories for gorging ourselves at meal times. Might need to request an extra seat each for the flight home!
We explored town - highlight for me was Leidam, a pond in the middle of town, with loads of African sacred ibis, various waders, a kingfisher and some Golden Weaverbirds.
You can buy a really nice house here for less than £150k - very tempting although the signs
saying “24 hour armed response” with pictures of guns on them, does put you off a bit!
Today we decided to go on a walk as the predicted weather had dropped from a ridiculous 41 degress to a cooler, but still freakishly hot, 33 degrees. The walk was short (only 3km) and took us to the hot springs which is one of the things Montagu is famous for. The walk was good and we were very excited to see a tortoise strolling around near the start. We also saw some helmeted Guinea fowls, lots of dassies and various birds that we could not identify.
The hot pools were great and there was even a giant waterslide that you could have unlimited free goes on! We took full advantage of that despite the fact that everyone else on it was half (ok a quarter) our age! We were nowhere near as well prepared as everyone else there. Barbecuing or having a braai, as it is called here, is big business. It is not a case of throwing a few sausages or the barbie. Everyone was cooking loads of different stuff that all smelt great. We had to make do
Montagu
There is a lot of this Cape Dutch style architecture here with pizza and chips. We were supposed the be eating something light but that didn't happen. Food here seems cheap while snacks seem expensive in comparison. A small pizza and a portion of chips was 40 Rand whilst two calippos and a bottle of water was 35.
After a 3 hour post hike laze in front of a fan it was time to eat again. For a town no bigger than Cherry Hinton there are a huge number of really nice restaurants. The hotel had made us reservations at a place called Jessicas, we sat out in a garden at the back of the property and had one of the nicest meals we've ever had. We both started with Warthog carpaccio - our second carpaccio of the trip, and second carpaccio ever - it was delicious and next time we watch the Lion King we'll be eyeing up Pumba as a starter! Next I had Karoo Lamb whilst Tim had a Karoo Trio which was Lamb, Ostrich and Springbok, I'm surprised there is any wildlife left at the rate South Africans munch through it! They also do wine by the “glass” which is actually around a third of a
A tortoise
Found this wandering around near the start of the trail bottle. This glass will set you back around £2 and is good stuff. The total bill for both of us to have 3 courses + wine + water was just under £40. This was a top end restaurant and you can eat really well for less than half that if you shop around. All food + wine lovers should visit here, we've yet to eat anything that wasn't really nice and good value!
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Adele Joubert
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Thanks from Jessica's
Dear Laura and Tim, Thank you so much for the review on Jessica's Restaurant, glad that you've enjoyed your evening with us - hope to see you back in SA soon!! Warm regards - and it really is.... 44 degrees here... The Trio @ Jessica's