Wednesday: We attempt to head out this morning and discover our car battery is dead! Fortunately, we are not far from the airport, so after a running start, we return to the airport to get a new car.
In general, most of our southern drives are much shorter then the daily drives in the North. We are making a circular route through the wine country (a little inland from the coast), returning via the coast along the Garden Route.
Today we drive through Stellenbosch and Franceshoek. Pretty towns nestled within wine country. In Stellenbosch, we have the chance to do a little more local shopping in an open air market. We see loads of mountains again, and drive via many mountain passes. Really pretty. The only annoying part was waiting as Peter stopped the car every 5 minutes to take more pictures :-)
We spend the night (Christmas Eve) in Montagu Country Hotel in the town of Montagu. Very pleasant hotel, run by a bit of a character. They have port waiting for us when we arrive as an afternoon apertif. We buy the girls a takeout pizza tonight and let them eat in their rooms. The World Idol competition is on and it takes preference over eating with mom and dad and yet another long dinner. Everywhere we have been, the food has been outstanding -- interesting, tasty, variety, basically yummy.
Thursday: Christmas morning. The girls receive a few more presents that I have brought with me from Holland. At breakfast, we meet the owner of the hotel (and his dog). He introduces the dog by having him sit at an empty seat at our table. The owner was called away at one point, but the dog stayed behind, sitting at our table. He was very well behaved, but the dog looked a bit concerned, not certain what to do after his owner left. It was pretty cute.
We had assumed everything would be closed today for the holiday, but before we leave, the hotel has found out that Cango Wildlife Ranch is open for business. We drive to Oudtshoorn today, ostrich capital of South Africa and once the world.
We visit Cango Wildlife Ranch, famous for their crocidiles and big cats. It is basically a zoo, and after the safaris, not nearly as nice. Peter gets to pat a cheetah and I get to pat a Burmese white tiger. This is part of an efffort to raise money for their breeding program. (Not our patting them, but paying to pat them!) Did you know that all Burmese tigers are now in captivity -- there are none left in the wild.
We spend the night in an old converted Holiday Inn - The Oudtshoorn Inn. Really not great. We begin to suspect that their is no chef on duty (being Christmas) when we order Greek Salad (lettuce, toms and a couple of olives thrown in for looks -- no dressing or feta), Vegetable Pasta (a can of creamed veggies heated in a microwave, no pasta) and fish (which must have been nuked way to long). Peter and I end up having candy bars for Christmas dinner, the girls have mostly rice! Oh well, a memorable Christmas dinner!
Friday: We head out early to visit an Ostrich Farm before we leave the area. The guided tour of the farm is really pretty interesting. The highlight is standing on the eggs (which are incredibly hard), sitting astride an ostrich, and then for me, riding one. I was the only adult willing to take the ride. I kept praying I wouldn't fall off into the piles of poop all over the ground. Here is an aside, if you ever get the opportunity to see an ostrich urinate or poop -- look away! it is really a scary site!
We journey on to the Tsitsikamma National Park area and overnight at the Tsitsikamma Village Inn at Storms RIver. We hit our first traffic travelling along the coast. It is a huge vacation week here as it falls just after Christmas and just before the new school season starts for South Africans. Pouring rain today, hard to get warm. The Inn is nice, with rustic lodges. The beds have heating pads on the mattress!
Montagu Country Hotel
A Week in the South