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| Garden Route - Simonstown & Hermanus (day 1) |
Sun 8/12/2002 |
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- Left my second home in Capetown - "a sunflower stop" at around 10am and drove down towards Simonstown. The first few hours we actually were driving in bad weather and as we stopped in Hout Bay to look at the local crafts market it actually rained - unbelievable! Had to backtrack as the road was closed and made it to Simonstown via Muizenberg.
- Once in Simonstown we had lunch in the harbour at a very nice restaurant called Bertha's (021 786 2138, Wharf Rd 1) by which time the sun had started to come out again and it immediately got hot.
- From there we carried on to Boulders Beach which is home to a colony of about 3000 African Pinguins, which one can actually swim with and look at quite closely. Quite an interesting and funny passtime, yet the water was, as one may expect, very cold.
- Started driving towards Hermanus which would be our first stop on our way along the Garden Route. Arrived at 7:30 and found an extremely nice and friendly hostel named Hermanus Backpackers, which made me feel right at home straight away.
- Went out for dinner to the "Ocean Basket" in town, where we had a Kingklip and Mussels, which would in the end not agree very well with my sister - I however had no problems
| Garden Route - Hermanus (day 2) |
Mon 9/12/2002 |
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- Sis started puking in the morning with the situation becoming progressively worse as the day went on. Bought some Immodium plus in town and then decided to organise myself on a solo mission for the rest of the day.
- The mission I elected was to explore the winyards close to Hermanus in the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley, which is home to several very good vineyards which differ in terms of the soil and the cooler sea climate from vinyards more inland, such as the ones in the Stellenbosch region. Details on the different winyards can be found on the Wine pages within the South African section.
- Returned in the late afternoon after a successful quest to aquire a variety of excellent wines as well as a styrofoam box to send them to Germany with.
- Nicole was feeling slightly better but was still not able to eat or join me for drinks in the evening, so I ended up having a bottle of the newly aquired Sumaridge Pinot Noir by myself, together with various other alcoholic beverages leaving me very drunk at the end of the evening.
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| Boulders Beach |
Penguins on Boulders Beach |
Hermanus Backpackers at Sunset |
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| Stillbaai (day 3) |
Tue 10/12/2002 |
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- drove to Stillbaai to meet Nicole's friend Ilse whom she had met in London working on the same ward at the Royal Free Hospital.
- met up with her and family in afternoon and spent afternoon working on Namibia website whilst Nicole was on the beach with Ilse.
- Had dinner in the restaurant owned by Ilse's Parents and headed off early after that to the house we were staying at.
| Stillbaai (day 4) |
Wed 11/12/2002 |
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- had breakfast in parents' restaurant and then headed off to the beach to get some "torso tanning" done.
- Left beach in the afternoon as thunderstorm was approaching and had late lunch in a cafe/crafts market in town before heading back to the house.
- Stayed at house working on the computer whilst Nicole and Ilse had a look around town.
- Met up with Nicole in the late afternoon and went to the restaurant again for dinner, after which we checked out the Puffadders Pub where we had some drinks with Ilse and some other South African locals we had gotten to know there.
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Ilse's parents house in Stillbaai |
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| Nicole not Feeling Well |
Stillbaai Rainbow |
Stillbaai at Sunset |
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| Mossel Bay (day 5) |
Thu 12/12/2002 |
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- Drove from Stillbaai to Mossel Bay stopping along the way at Gourits River Bridge to do a bridge swing, which basically consists of a long rope with a bungee cord at the end suspended from a bridge, this is then used as the centrepoint of the swing and one drops 20 or so meteres down before being swung with increing speed under the bridge. Very scary and to me even more exciting than bungee jumping.
- Arrived in Mossel Bay early and checked into Santos Express, an old train "parked" right on the beach front. Very cool idea with a great view from our compartment and with a good value for money restaurant assoicated with the backpackers. Only complaints I have is that the walls between the compartments are quite thin and that the beds were too short for me even in a diagonal position.
- Went out into Mossel Bay and visited the Maritime museum where they had a replica of Diazs' ship which had been built in Portugal and sailed to Mossel Bay for the 500th anniversary of the founding of the town in 1489 by the Portuguese explorer.
- Also found some cool sunglasses but no crafts, as by the time we reached the crafts markts they were already closed (at 5pm)
- Bought some hot food at the nearby supermarket and had a budget dinner outside of our train.
- The weather had gotten worse towards the evening with more clouds and some drops of rain, so we decided to drive to George to go and see "Die Another Day" which we managed to see, getting some of the last spaces in the cinema! Liked the new Bond movie a lot as always the fantastic locations (especially Cadiz doubling up for Havanna) and the by Bond standards innovative plot.
South African Adventures along the Garden Route continue in part 2.
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| Gourits River Bungee Bridge |
Huge Grasshopper at Bridge |
Santos Express |
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