Back again, 3 days into our 4 day tour. Turns out the 'Garden Route' doesn't mean gardens/ vineyards like I thought but refers to the lush green scenery and many rivers / streams from the high rainfall in this area.
The area is east from Cape Town towards Port Elizabeth, sort of along the coast, through many very exclusive holiday towns( for whites only, with the black townships always 3-5 Kms along the road)
And EVERY beach or headland we have stopped at there are whales swimming 50 m off the shore!! Absolutely amazing! They are Southern Right Whales , and are just lazing about in the shallow water.
Very exciting to see them.
We also went to a colony of African Penguins, little things about 30-40 cms tall. It was rather pongy, no doubt from their fishy poop.
We stayed in an 200 yr old town, where the early settlers had big farms.
There are very wealthy farms and farmhouses along the way that have been in the same families for generations.
The countryside is similar to Australia often except there are always Mts in the background.
The roads are very good, people drive patiently, and move to the edge of the road to let others overtake, not hog the road like us. Shows us how Aussies are bad drivers. Mind you here stop signs seem to mean a vague slowing down only, and people are allowed legally to ride in the back of utes , trucks etc.
Yesterday we headed for some very big caves, and I guess there are usually younger people on these tours, so the ticket was for the 'adventure' tour.
Well, it started off in large 'Cathedral' caves, then went up steep ladders, then along narrow gorges, then up b----y steep chimneys !! Oh boy , I was somewhat anxious!!! However we survived, bruises and all , dirty clothes too. Then it was off to an Ostrich farm , which was good.
Ostriches lay 12-16 eggs , 2-3 days apart usually, enough that they can cover them all when they sit on them to incubate them( mums sit in the day, dads at night) for 42 days, but on a farm they take the eggs away and they will lay up to 90 eggs.
The eggs take 2 hrs to hard boil and are equal to 18 chook eggs.
Some of our group-5- rode the birds.
The leather is the 2 nd toughest in the world , and at one time a kilo of feathers was worth the same as gold!!
After that we drove back across the Mts and went to a private 3000 hectare game reserve , owned by a guy who was kicked off his farm yrs ago in Rhodesia. We stayed there , had lovely rooms and great dinner and breakfasts
We had a game drive at night and again this AM.
We saw all their animals except the cheetah .
Then it was off to see the worlds highest bungy , off a massive bridge, then to a beach with nasty suspension bridges over gorges. However I conquered them and continued on to climb a hill while the others waited around.
We saw a 1000 yr old Yellowwood tree, smaller than other trees I've seen- but never that old!!
And we saw more wealthy seaside towns, with little airports for the owners to fly in for the weekend!!!
We passed many vineyards, tree plantations,farms etc.
Day 4. We had a long drive back to Cape Town, only making the airport with seconds to spare to check in for our flight to Jo' Burg.. Very nerve wracking!
It was a good flight, but then our hotel shuttle didn't come for over an hr, and Courtney was in the middle of the worst of being really sick with a cold , so threw a major wobbly!!
Poor hotel staff didn't know how to respond!! Luckily she went to bed then!!!
Next- Kruger National Park, then HOME.
C