Chris and Paula’s World

Greetings from Knysna, SA. We have been on the road in our rental for about 6 days now doing our Western South Africa tour. Our route has been (roughly) Cape Town to the wine regions of Stellenbosch, Paarl and Franschoek, then on to the West Coast National Park and Cederberg area (Clanwilliam, Citrusdal), through the Ceres valley, then to Montagu, Mossel Bay and now Knysna (both on the Garden Route). Tomorrow we start heading back to Cape Town and will head to Joburg and area on Wednesday (by air).

We’ve really enjoyed seeing more of South Africa. It is a great change to have our own wheels and go where we like, when we like. This is a gorgeous country with perfect roads. The scenery has been spectacular. It is wild flower season and they are everywhere along the sides of the roads. We have been big fans of the mountain passes and have driven out of our way several times to go over some amazing passes. We did the Swartberg Pass a couple of days ago, and couldn’t believe how high (1600 metres) and long (45km in total) the road was. What an awesome view of the farmlands, mountains, and rolling hills. We have been staying at some beautiful hostels - compared to other hostels we have been at, these are more like boutique hotels on a budget. We have also been better at eating our breakfasts at the hostel (ProNutro for me - sorry Morag, and Muesli and yogurt for Chris - and no, I didn’t say Soygurt!), and taking lunch with us. While not overly exciting, it is saving us some money and that is a good thing. We are also becoming pros at tasty, cheap and nutritious meals for the dinners that we eat in. Aside from the self catering, we have had some great meals and tasty South African fare. For dinner one night, I had boerewors and Chris had a mixed plate of skewers - springbok, wildebeast and kudu. Never thought that I would see the day when Chris ordered a “Meat Platter”! We’ve also been snacking on biltong (South African jerky), and had koeksisters for dessert last night.

We spent a couple of days in Stellenbosch and did an organized day tour of the wine region. On the tour we had four stops at wineries with 5 - 6 tastings at each, in addition to a glass of wine with lunch. Add a bottle of wine back at the hostel and it was a boozy day. The area is gorgeous and Franschoek is known as the gastronomic capital of South Africa, boasting several of the country’s best chefs and restaurants. We had lunch at a great place with some of the best pizza ever. We also visited Fairview Winery for a cheese and wine tasting. They are the people who produce “Goats Do Roam” wine, which we’ve had at home.

Today we went to Monkey Land and Knysna Elephant Park. Yes, Monkey Land does sound a bit touristy, but it was really cool! They have 200 species of primate, all that have been either rescued from private owners or zoos. They are trying to teach them to be wild again, though none will ever be truly wild. The monkeys come from all over the world and are used to people - while they don’t want you touching the animals, you can get super close to them. The Elephant Park was awesome. We were up close to about 6 or 7 elephants, all orphans (except for the babies that have been born in the park. We fed them apples and veggies - it was so cool to be so close to such a huge amazing animal!!

Anyhow, just trying to post some pictures as well, so hopefully there will be some new stuff there soon. Hoping that all is well at home.

xoxo
Paula

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 16th, 2007 at 3:27 pm and is filed under South Africa. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.