Friday, July 2 – Happy 5th Anniversary to us!
Cape Town, RSA
We celebrated our 5 year anniversary with a big day! After getting a bit lost on the way, we started at Groot Constantia, “the oldest and most historic of wine farms in South Africa”. We had an a-may-zing breakfast in the charming courtyard seats of Groot Constantia’s Jonkerhuis Restaurant. We walked around the grounds, admired the Cape Dutch architecture, stopped by the gift shop and picked up some gifts.
Thursday, July 1
Cape Agulhas, RSA
We didn’t have a big plan for getting back to Cape Town, once we had completed the beautiful Garden Route. That said, there was a big (to us) attraction between Mossel Bay and Cape Town. Ever since we had been to the Cape of Good Hope, and really ever since we had realized it was within driving distance of Cape Town, we had wanted to get to Cape Agulhas. This is the real southernmost tip of the African continent. This was a pretty big deal to us, to get to the actual southernmost point, and Josh, being so enthralled with Prince Henry the Navigator as he was when he was a youngster – we felt the trip wouldn’t be complete without going. Even if Prince Henry himself thought the Cape of Good Hope was the southernmost tip, if he knew what we knew today, he too would plug the coordinates into the GPS and head down there. We made our way to Cape Agulhas (N2 through Swellendam, R319 through Bredasdorp to L’Agulhas). We got to stand at the tip where the Indian Ocean is to the east and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. It’s pretty remarkable to the think of the significance of a pinpoint geographical location and stand there taking it in. We had a great time!
Back towards the lighthouse:
Josh the Navigator:
Looking south, only water and Antarctica in this direction:
Our 282km (175mi) drive from Mossel Bay to Cape Agulhas:
Thursday, July 1
Knysna, RSA to Mossel Bay, RSA (113km or 70mi)
Our day got started early with breakfast being slipped through our door at 7:30am. We enjoyed breakfast in bed, then headed down to Knysna‘s waterfront for some shopping and got some great souvenirs. We hopped back on the N2 and were driving the Garden Route by 10:30am. The Garden Route ends at Mossel Bay (wiki). We stopped here to get a better look at the beaches and drive through the city a bit. We wanted to pick up some coffees and happened on the ridiculously cute Fynbos Shoppe & Coffee Shop. It was so cute that it was almost a shame to take our cappuccinos to go – but we wanted to see what else our South African Road Trip Adventure had in store for us… and we had a pretty good idea of what we wanted to do next.
Knysna Waterfront (and the Drydock Food Co. from last nights awesome dinner):
Cute little shops at Knysna waterfront selling all sorts of arts & crafts, souvenirs and more:
This pub near Knysna’s waterfront reminded us of Josh’s folks’ favorite pub, Olde P, in Kalamazoo!
The drive in to Mossel Bay:
The edge of Mossel Bay:
The portion of today’s drive that finished the Garden Route:
The whole Garden Route, in context:
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:
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!:
