Daily Archives: June 30, 2010

South Africa / Travel — Comments Off on Road Trip Day 4: Plett to Knysna
30
Jun 10

Road Trip Day 4: Plett to Knysna

Wednesday, June 30

Plettenberg Bay, RSA to Knysna, RSA

After pulling ourselves away from the Tsitsikamma National Park we got back onto the N2 and got started with the Garden Route portion of our South African Road Trip.  We were soon back in the Western Cape province.  While Richard had suggested we stay the night in Ashton on the Garden Route portion of our adventure, we weren’t going to make it that far before sundown – and we didn’t like missing the sights by driving in the dark.

We drove around Plettenberg Bay (ritzy & nice!) then kept on driving to Knysna (“NIZE-nuh”) before deciding to stop for the night.  The N2 actually goes right through Kynsna as Main Street and we found a hotel right on the main drag through our handy guide book.  The main street area didn’t really have any awesome options for dining (though it did have good options) and we were looking for awesome.  So looking through the handy guide book, we saw that it recommended the Drydock Food Co. – but with no address and no location on the map.  It was still the most appealing to us though.  So we did a keyword search on the old GPS and just trusted (which wasn’t so handy at Addo when it thought every dirt road should lead into the park).  But this time, even though the drive through an industrial part of the waterfront wasn’t feeling promising, lo and behold – a super cute, developed waterfront appeared!  Not only did we find the awesome Drydock Food Co. restaurant at the tip of a pier, we realized we needed to wait to leave in the morning until all the cute waterfront stores opened up so we could come back and check them out!  It turns out, Knysna is a little center of South African arts and crafts and it hasn’t gotten as ritzy and upscale touristy as the nearby Plettenberg Bay.  We had a great night of drinks and great oysters and good seafood and then fun window shopping before heading home to bed.

It should be noted on the record here, that already at this point, Josh was going into major soccer withdrawal… and this was just Day 1 of the two day break in the World Cup schedule.  Poor Joshie.

Here was our 380km or (235mi) drive for the 4th day of our road trip:

The following photos are from Plett to Knysna along the N2:

South Africa / Travel — 1 Comment
30
Jun 10

Road Trip Day 4: Storms River Mouth

Wednesday, June 30

Tsitsikamma National Park, RSA

After we peered down into the Storms River Gorge, we found our way down a windy road off of the N2 to the Storms River Mouth portion of the Tsitsikamma National Park (wiki).  This park was absolutely gorgeous, and was possibly Josh’s favorite part of the trip.  When we get back to Africa, we will definitely be staying a night or two here.  We sat and watched the waves crashing at the mouth of the river, then hiked an easy 1km boardwalk of stairs along the mountainside to the suspension bridges that cross the mouth of the river.  We would have loved to stay the night here at the darling oceanside cabins but it was only 4pm and we still had way too much daylight.  We were just now officially on the Garden Route here at the mouth of the river and wanted to see some more of it before the sun went down.  On our way out of the park we saw some dassies sunning themselves – and then we got to  see some vervet monkeys!  There are vervet monkeys at Addo, but we didn’t find any, and now we’ve seen some!  We were pretty excited.

Jeannette took a lot of pictures of waves:

A nice little cove:

There were great views from the boardwalk steps all the way:

A calla lily (one of our wedding flowers – 2 days from our 5 year wedding anniversary!)

We loved Storms River Mouth:

The bridges:

Looking back towards the gorge we were just at:

More waves:

The dassies (we saw their cousins this very morning!):

The cabins were right down by the water:

Vervet monkeys:

South Africa / Travel — Comments Off on Road Trip Day 4: Storms River Gorge
30
Jun 10

Road Trip Day 4: Storms River Gorge

Wednesday, June 30

Eastern Cape, RSA

As we drove along the N2 towards Storms River Mouth, we crossed the Storms River on the Paul Sauer Bridge.  We stopped here to put on our brave, big kid pants, walk back out on to the pedestrian walk portion of the bridge and peer down into the gorge.  Now, we use the term “pedestrian walk portion” loosely.  There was a barrier between the semis that came barreling towards you at high speeds, and you were allowed to be out there “at your own risk”, and there was corrugated steel laid down for you to walk across.  At one time the steel had been screwed down – but after so many high speed vehicles tearing past, and the sheets warbling each time, the screws had warbled right out of their holes.  Each sheet had maybe only one or two screws left.  They shook and lifted like mad with each truck that ripped past.  While we walked out to the middle on each side – we didn’t dally.

Great views coming up on the gorge:

Storms River:

Not so much of a barrier from the deep gorge or from the huge semis:


The gorge:

The gorge was deeeeeeep:

Jeannette’s eyes were a little light sensitive today.  Haha!:

South Africa / Travel — Comments Off on Road Trip Day 4: J-Bay
30
Jun 10

Road Trip Day 4: J-Bay

Wednesday, June 30

Jeffreys Bay, RSA

The Garden Route begins at Storms River Mouth at its eastern end.  The N2 from PE to Storms River Mouth is beautiful the whole way, even if not a part of the Garden Route.  In fact, about 75km from PE is Jeffreys Bay.  Supposedly Jeannette had seen this beach before as it was featured in (and became famous after) Endless Summer.  But as this movie was a chore to watch, she doesn’t exactly recall.  She will always remember visiting Jeffreys Bay though.  It was gorgeous.  We picked up some cappuccinos at a beachfront coffee house and watched an impromptu, pickup soccer game between some Brazilian tourists and local kids.

On our way out of town we stopped at the mall (a HUGE mall) to pick up medications for our now out-of-control colds.  The pharmacist was super helpful and aided our navigation of the foreign under-the-counter-is-still-behind-the-counter-and-needs-a-pharmacist’s-sticker system.

South Africa / Travel — Comments Off on Road Trip Day 4: More Addo Elephant National Park
30
Jun 10

Road Trip Day 4: More Addo Elephant National Park

Wednesday, June 30

Addo, RSA

After we slept in this morning (to help our bodies get over our raging colds), we checked out and ate breakfast at the Main Camp’s restaurant.  The goal was to drive back to Cape Town, with an overnight somewhere in the middle, via the famous Garden Route.  We needed to get down to PE (Port Elizabeth) to get back onto the N2.  We decided to drive through the Addo Park instead of taking teensy Route 335 next to it, to get to PE.

We saw some more warthogs and then we had another amazing elephant experience.  An entire elephant family was near our trail and we had stopped to watch for a moment when, collectively, they decided the grass was greener on the other side of us.  They crossed all around us, dozens of them, of all ages.  And then stopped just to the other side of us.  Their eyes seem to look right at you and it feels like they are communicating with you.

We crossed over the public road that cuts through the northern and southern parts of the park and drove the entire length of the southern half.  We didn’t see any animals in there except zebras.  We were out of the reserve and onto the N2 by 11am. We were sad to leave Addo and the elephants, but we were also loving our road trip and exploring South Africa. We felt we were on quite the adventure!

These ones walked around like a cellphone signal ad:

There’s a trunk in our trunk!

He was so happy!  Trotty McTrotterson!

This little guy was right next to Jeannette:

This mama realized she was left behind and came towards us to join up with the rest of the group.  We didn’t know if she was going to go AROUND us or not…

The landscape in the southern half was dramatically different – you could tell how much closer to the coast we were.  (Zebras!):

Stadium in PE from the Highway as we were speeding past: