East from Cape Town, we drove along the southern coast in South Africa while detouring through wine country, scenic towns, and coastal parks.
For pictures, click here.
Daniel
We left Cape Town and spent the first couple hours driving along the scenic coastal highway on our way to South Africa's wine country. We decided to base ourselves in the little French town of Franschhoek...because we had heard the food was better there. :) And the food was quite good! We had made lunch reservations for La Petite Ferme weeks before our arrival. The food was quite good, but it was the spectacular view into the valley that made it so special.
During our stay in Franschhoek we enjoyed a couple wine tastings at Mount Rochelle and Grande Provence. Interestingly many of the South African vineyards put their top end wines in screw top bottles - in an effort to quash the rumor that only bad wines come in screw tops. The town was picturesque and the surrounding mountains highlighted the vineyards flourishing in the valley below. Our B&B - Akademie Street Guesthouse was fantastic. Run by an older couple who (with their two dogs)were extremely accommodating. They lent us a laptop during our stay - so that we could try to catch up with the blog. Obviously that wasn't quite enough to keep us up-to-date...but it was still much appreciated! The full breakfast was amazing with fresh jams and breads - not to mention all the other goodies.
After Franschhoek we set out on another long drive east, passing through Hermanus along the way for some whale watching. I managed to catch only a glimpse of a right whale (only a small part of it's back) during a stroll along the rocky cliffs overlooking the ocean. Kimberly somehow saw two whales breach completely out of the water, and told me to turn around just in time to catch the splash as they landed. We decided to try our luck with the local fastfood chain, Steers, mainly because all the other tourist traps looked just as awful.
After many hours of driving, dealing with road construction, and watching the intermittent rain, we finally arrived in Knysna, our jumping off point to explore the Garden Route region. It's another coastal town with plenty of souvenir shops and good ocean views. During our stay there we visited a local farmer's market along the Garden Route, perused the many African craft shops, and hiked around nearby Tsitsikamma Park.
The Wild Oats farmer's market was a great mix of fresh produce and already prepared foods. We tried the fresh orange juice (we went back for seconds), bratwurst, and roti with naan. Since it pretty much rained non-stop during our stay we skipped many of the outdoor hikes and sights. We did manage some shopping and finally purchased a few souvenirs, including a woven Zulu basket traditionally used to cover large jugs of beer.
On our last day, we drove by one of world's highest bungee jump locations, Bloukrans Bridge (708ft). We were fortunate enough to catch someone jumping just as we got to the view point - we got goosebumps just watching the "lucky" jumper. The highlight was when we realized that you get almost three full recoils before the cord finally settles. Average jumps are about half the distance! After the semi-adrenaline rush we trekked around Tsitsikamma National Park, which hugs the coastline and is full of scenic views of streams and waterfalls flowing into the ocean.
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