Posts for Tue, 24th; Wed, 25 & Thur 26!! Can't tell you how frustrated I was in not being able to access my blog. It just took ten minutes worth of frustration and I have finally made it into the system.
I will start withTuesday morning, waking up at the Cape Agulhas Country Lodge to a beautiful lightning and thunderstorm over the Indian Ocean that we watched from our comfy bed. The electricity went out so we felt the whole world must have stopped! Afer at least an hour, we thought we had beter get the act together and move along with our plans for the day. We had a scrumptious breakfast in the lodge and then went down the road past the lighthouse to the end of the African continent. This coastline has claimed many ships and mariners over the centuries If you get to close to the coast, you must contend with the shoals, reefs, rocks, currents and wind. Apparently, sailing further out the seas are rougher. We spotted a shipwreck that looked like a Japanese vessel. Only part of the boat was still there. We took several photos and also took walked the rocky shorline, picking up a few shells to take back home.
Our next stop as we traveled toward Knysna, our stop for the day was the beachside town of Arniston. Again, a treasure of a view. Arniston also has sea caves, but because of the late start, we were not able to access them without being swept out into the Indian Ocean....not on the agenda for the day. We then took our map out and planned our route to Mulgas. This was the destination the couple told us about the night before. We took several dirt roads, passing Ostrich farms, incredible looking birds, another roup of baboons, a couple of furry critters (don't know what they were), and we drove over, straddling, an african trutle....we didn't hit it, that's what counts!! We finally reached "the ferry". It was quite an interesting detour to our itinerary. The two men operating the ferry had a system of wraping chain on chain and then walking the boat across the river. They would walk the length of the boat and then start at the end again until the ferry reached the other shore. Our chance meeting with the couple the night before told us there were only a few in existence in the world. The two fellows that pulled our car along with another were quite friendly. Again a great photo op. We also met the other couple on the ferry and they were quite helpful with places to visit.
We did manage to reach our hotel in Knysna before dark, just barely. After checking in, we went out for dinner. I had crocodile (HMMMMMMMMMMMMm good), and Levi had a hamburger!!
We then retired back to our room since he had been behind the wheel 8 hours with our meandering all over the country side.
Wednesday, 25th, Had an elegant breakfast in the Knysna Quay Protea Hotel(you wouldn't believe all the unusual things they can come up with) then we headed for the cruise boat that would take us out to the Featherbed Nature Reserve on the western head of the Knysna harbor. As we were trekking along, a fellow on a gorgeous boat in the marina came out to say hello. It was Craig Middleton, the Commodore of the Royal Capetown Yacht Club that we met previously. Small world. We boarded our cruise boat and ended up spending 4.5 hours enjoying the beauty the reserve had to offer, including a hike down from the top that took over an hour, peeking into huge caves the ocean had developed over time. We came back and took a siesta, getting up for dinner Gail, Ostrich, Levi fish. We then called it a night. I think this was our slow day, it was due.
Thursday, 26th, We got up early so that we could the road by 8 a.m. Again a delicious breakfast and then luggage in the car and we were off. I had lots of places circled to see enroute the Port Elizabeth. We needed to get there for a plane ride to Durban. Well, needless to say, I am always packing in things and being late, right!!!??!! We did make the flight, barely. They were just starting to call standbys when we walked up to the counter!! WHEW!!! However, we were able to stop in Plettenberg Bay, Natures Valley (a gorgeous place...lots of pics), Grootrivier Pass Gourge and Bloukrans Pass Gorge. The Bloukrans Bridge is an arch bridge 216 meters above the Bloukrans River, making it the highest single span arch bridge in the world. We got a photo of it because we (I) had screwed up and had us go the scenic route so we got a distance shot through the tall grass. When we finally reached the N2, which by going north would take us to Port Elizabeth, I (asked) Levi to go south instead so that we could go over the bridge, also hoping to get better photos. To my shagrin, there was no way to get a better photo. Then we found ourselves at the toll gate, not wanting to go any futher south. We told the lady at the toll gate....this cause abit of angst for everyone. She had all the drivers behind us go through the next toll gate over from ours, then she instructed us to "back up" and make a uturn. Now can you imagine doing that at the Bay Bridge or the Golden Gate!!!!!??????!!!! Luckily, it was not as crazy as California, but it was exceptionally peculiar following her direction!!
So, yes we made the flight to Durban, got lost after getting the rental car at the airport (in the dark of course) but finally with our cell phone and directions coming from the other end, we made it here. We took a taxi into the city and had dinner next to the Point Yacht Club (PYC) and Royal Natal Yacht Club. We hope to visit there tomorrow.