Advertisement
Published: August 31st 2006
Penguins
Penguins on the Beach!!Monday we travelled from Swellendam to Knysna on the Garden Route and Route 62 (the longest wine route in South Africa) which has many wineries and wine cellars along the roadside with wine tasting and buying opportunites. The route was quite scenic through the Karoo countryside and the mountains (which reminded us of B.C.). We passed through Oudsthoorn which is the ostrich capital of the world and we saw hundreds of ostriches on farms along the highway.
Before we reached N2 (part of the Garden Route) we drove through a pass where we literally drove through the clouds. The visibility was extremely poor and we could not see more than 10-15 meteres ahead of us. Between George and Wilderness, part of the N2 was closed due to major floods last week causing road damage as a result of mudslides. We were diverted through a one-way small winding road which resulted in completing a 15km patch in close to 1.5 hours!
We then reached Knysna just before sunset. After checking at a local B&B, we headed to the Knysna Waterfront for a quick dinner at 34 degrees South. The bar/restaurant had excellent seafood and wine. As an aside, the beer
and wine in South Africa are very cheap when compared to North America or Europe and sometimes cheaper than soft drinks. For example, in Sun City a Coke cost 8 rands ($1.33) and a beer costs only 7 rands ($1.16)!! In JoBurg, they were actually selling cold beer in the hotel vending machine for only 9 rands ($1.50).
Tuesday morning we explored around the Knysna area as it was raining pretty much the entire day (with periodic sun). We went to Plettenberg Bay and saw some massive waves as the the tide was coming in. Lucklily, we got about 45 minutes of sun in Plattenberg Bay area. After driving through some quiet countryisde areas, we headed back for dinner at the Waterfront. The night was quite cool in Knysa, where the temperature dropped to around 8 degrees Celcius - so parts of Africa do get cold ocassionally!
Wednesday we headed back towards Cape Town through George and Mossel Bay. The sea was very rough on Wednesday due to high winds so we got to see some very large waves around the Mossel Bay area in particular, at The Pointe. Lunch was had at the locally famous Kingfisher along
the Mossel Bay oceanfront. In the evening, we explored the Cape Malay area in Cape Town...a hilly area of Cape Town with very colorful houses.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.125s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 11; qc: 48; dbt: 0.0817s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 3;
; mem: 1.1mb
