Hi Readers! For today's travel blog it's back to the Garden Route for Day 2! (Day one is
here) I left off last in
Plettenberg Bay and that is where I will begin here.
We headed out from our B&B, Beacon on the Bliss (
reviewed here), early to
Robberg Nature Reserve, which was just a few kilometers up the road for a morning hike. The day before when Phil and I were playing on the beach a couple of life guards had told us we could hike the whole island in 1.5 hours so we where fairly ambitious when we woke up. That ambition was quickly shot down when our hostess at the guest house told us it takes her 4-5 hours.
We estimated our fitness level somewhere in between the two, so we expected a a 3-ish hour hike, which was about right- although we did a sort of a convoluted path- hiking first one side of the island and back and then the other side and back, instead of making a full loop. The hike itself was on the moderate to advanced side with some parts of the trail marked with a skull and cross bones. There were definitely parts that were more like bouldering than hiking. The risk of tumbling off the mountain was well worth it! The views were breath taking. We encountered a little rain when we rounded the mountain to the island, but luckily it was more of a warm rain, and we were semi-prepared with jackets and hats. I was really jealous of Phil's water resistant safari gear that I had relentlessly teased him about. There were a lot of serious hikers on the trail with a lot of serious hiking gear, including pack-covers. That would have been helpful.
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| It's cool, waves, let your freak flags fly high. |
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| This technically was the trail. |
There were also a bunch of trail runners! I have no idea how running on this trail was possible. The trail itself is made of several different substrates- wooden planks in some places, dirt and gravel in others, but also straight up rocks- where any resemblance of a trail was minimal. The main hike is a loop, with the right hand side's reward being a beautiful beach and an island that can be explored- if you are cautious of the waves that have the potential to crash over the island. The other side of the loop treats you to views of seals.
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| At least this part had a rail. |
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| Horns for not breaking my ankle! |
Interesting, due to my public health back ground, there were boxes and boxes of free condoms in the the ladies room at the park, in packs of 20, with visual instructions. These were sponsored by the South African Health Ministry. Phil claims they were not in the men's room. South Africa has one of the highest rates of HIV and AIDs in the world.
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| Bathroom Condoms |
Stop 2 for the day was
Knysna. Here is one of the major stops on the Garden Route, the Heads.
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| All bundled up |
Here is a
webcam view if you'd like to see the heads in real time. The heads are 2 hills that form the passage from the harbor into the ocean. If you are running a ship and wish to come into the harbor additional insurance is needed.... the waves near the heads are that powerful. Phil and I took a cruise around the lagoon. It was chilly at first, but warmed up. Luckily, there were heavy wool blankets to cuddle up with.
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| Knysna Heads |
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| Stressed out mountain driving |
After the cruise we head up to the mountains to
Oudtshoorn. Oudtshoorn is about an hour up into the mountains. The drive was a little bit terrifying. I almost crawled into the back seat. It was a two lane highway with very little shoulder separating us from the vertical drop. The little I saw from between my fingers was pretty stunning. To make it worse, it was misty and raining a bit and the sun was starting to set. When there was opposing traffic, Phil would pull to the left, where there was no shoulder, just a death drop. I was glued to the side mirror, singing/screaming "TAR! TAR! TAR! TAR! TAR!" every time the touched the side of road.
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| Garden at Tierra Bianca |
We finally made it to our third B&B,
Tierra Bianca without either of us crapping our pants, but it was a close call. When we first pulled up, we couldn't figure out where to go to check in. There really wasn't any doors or signs, other than the main sign on the building. We finally found a door and knocked and a man in a skirt answered and there was some confusion on his part as to why we were there and whom we were looking for. He finally said, "Oh, you must be looking for Morkel... I will call him." And shut the door. Phil started humming the theme song for American Horror Story. Morkel did show up relatively quickly after and he was fabulous. He took us down to our room in the garden and had laid out menus in three categories on the bed for us: his favorites, fancy places and places with a free pick up. Free pick up??? Hell, yes. That pretty much made up our mind. Morkel called up
Blackswan, made a reservation for us and arranged a pick up.
30 minutes later we were being shuttled away for wine and dinner. The restaurant pretty empty when we arrived and we were seated at one of several empty 2 tops in the main dining room. I picked out a bottle of wine, happy that Phil would be able to share since we would be shuttled back home after. Wine choice: One Tree Hill, Pinotage by a local winery
Karusa Vineyard. It was delicious. I regret not stopping at the vineyard to pick up a few bottles. I hope I can find it locally. As we were looking at our choices for mains, the waitress came over, flustered and embarrassed and said that we'd need to move because an "old lady" had requested that table. We moved one table over. When the "old lady" came in later, it was really a rich old dude with his young trophy girlfriend. Seriously, there was nothing special about that table... I think it was just an exercise in fake power and the need to feel important. .The rest of our dinner was pleasant. The food was good- Ostrich filet for Phil (we were in the ostrich capital of the world) and a vegetarian pasta for me. We shared a yummy traditional bread pudding custard for desert. Then it was into the shuttle to be shuttled back to the B&B.
Stay tuned for Days 3 & 4 in Mossel Bay.
We headed out from our B&B, Beacon on the Bliss (reviewed here), early to Robberg Nature Reserve, which was just a few kilometers up the road for a morning hike. The day before when Phil and I were playing on the beach a couple of life guards had told us we could hike the whole island in 1.5 hours so we where fairly ambitious when we woke up. That ambition was quickly shot down when our hostess at the guest house told us it takes her 4-5 hours. 
We estimated our fitness level somewhere in between the two, so we expected a a 3-ish hour hike, which was about right- although we did a sort of a convoluted path- hiking first one side of the island and back and then the other side and back, instead of making a full loop. The hike itself was on the moderate to advanced side with some parts of the trail marked with a skull and cross bones. There were definitely parts that were more like bouldering than hiking. The risk of tumbling off the mountain was well worth it! The views were breath taking. We encountered a little rain when we rounded the mountain to the island, but luckily it was more of a warm rain, and we were semi-prepared with jackets and hats. I was really jealous of Phil's water resistant safari gear that I had relentlessly teased him about. There were a lot of serious hikers on the trail with a lot of serious hiking gear, including pack-covers. That would have been helpful.
TAR TAR TAR!
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