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TRAVEL BLOG ENTRY
a travel blog entry
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Once we hired a car, we took off to Stellenbosch, about an hour from Cape Town. Stellenbosch is a university town, similar to some cities we have visited in Nova Scotia. On each street corner, downtown, there were trendy shops, garden cafes and restaurants. There are 250 wineries in the Stellenbosch area. We visited the Klein Zalze winery which was just down the street from the Protea Hotel, where we were staying. How handy! Another night we stopped in at the Forum Pub where they serve up 350 beers on tap. We were so happy to see Ciney beer on the menu ... all the Burnays will be familiar with this name as it is Auntie Yvette's, from Belgium, brewery.
The following day, we drove about 20 minutes to Franschhoek, gourmet capital of the Cape. We checked out the well known winery, Boschendal. The next day we spent window shopping in Franschhoek and drove out to Graham Beck's winery. We sampled one of our favourites - Railroad Red. Also we drove out to a newly started property development. Lovely views.
The following day, we made our way to Montagu. It was a 2.5 hour drive through the rugged mountains and wineries. We found a great room at a Vicotian Manor, B & B. We spent the afternoon at a hotspring, outside of town. The manor we stayed at had a great hostess, Sherrill. The homemade gooseberry jelly and scrumptious breakfast was a treat. We took off in the morning, passed through olive estates, wineries, ostrich farms and the mountains.
Driving along the southern tip of South Africa, through Mossel Bay, George and Wilderness, we enjoyed watching the Indian Ocean's breaks crash to the beach. We are now in the heart of the Garden Route. We arrived in Knysna, which is perched on the edge of a serene lagoon and surrounded by forests and golf courses. We checked into our Guesthouse and relaxed for two days. The hosts, Jean and Ted were very welcoming. We love Knysna.
We left Knysna and drove to Jeffreys Bay - about 1.5 hours along the Garden Route. Along the way we saw more breath taking views of the Ocean and more babboons along the highway.
We spent five days in Jeffreys Bay chillin' out at the beach. This is the surf capital of South Africa. The warehouses for Billabong, Roxy and Quicksilver are all here and line the streets. We ate at a restaurant on the beach in front of the 'Super Tubes', where the world championship surfing competitions take place. While in J-Bay, we stayed at Tollies Guesthouse where the owners, At and Susan known a Regina physician. Both At and Susan treat their guests like royalty. The Amarula and swiss chocolates waiting in our room on Valentines night was a lovely treat! Lekker! On our way back along the Cape, we stayed in Knysna for a night.
The backpackers say, 'Screw the B&B's and guesthouses...', we splashed out in Mossel Bay and stayed at the Boutique Hotel and Day Spa on the beach. As we checked in we were escorted to five rooms and had a choice of which color of decor and view of the ocean we preferred ... we took the Forrest room. The shower had nozzles coming out of every nook and cranny. The towel rack kept our towels warm and the champagne breakfast on the sun deck overlooking the ocean was the icing on the cake.
When we were in India, we saw huge sand crabs...here in Mossel Bay, as we were walking on the beach, we saw snails 'hatching' from their transparent membranes. There were thousands of them. Really neat to see and a first for us.
We returned to Stellenbosch for a couple of nights and checked out the Blaauwklippen winery. We drove back to Cape Town and returned the car, without any mishaps. Travelling in from Stellenbosch should have taken one hour but traffic was lined up and it took us about 2.5 hours due to a couple of car accidents and the power outage in Cape Town. From what we understand, they can not keep up to the power usage and some turbine part needs to be replaced ...thus there are intermittent power outages. I guess this is rather new; choas.
After having the car for two and a half weeks, we will miss not having our own transportation. It took us a couple of days to get used to driving on the left side. Mike did great and adapted quickly! I woke up a few times in the morning, thinking, 'Stay Left'.
We checked into the Cape Diamond Hotel, downtown Cape Town. We will be here for the next few days. Then off to an interesting destination...stay tuned and we'll update the website once we arrive.
Take care, Adios,
Shelly & Michael :)
previous travel blog entry
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