After an incredibly slow lunch, we head up the coast to Knysna which looks to be a great shopping town for tourists. Unfortunately, shops close by 3:00 pm here and we have missed them. We discover though, that on the harbor is a tourist enclave with shops, restaurants and entertainers. We find a great outdoor pizzeria and a few good shops. It feels alot like Hilton Head to me. We stay tonight at the Knysna Log-Inn. Pretty nice hotel, made to look like a big old lodge with timbers.
Sunday: We head off early to Mussel Bay, another coastal town. We manage to just catch the next sailboat tour out to the Seal Island (rock really). The seals are really interesting, but extremely smelly when we get down wind of them. We lunch on the coast watching the surfers battle the waves.
Todays drive brings us to Swellendam, a town inland. It is a desolate drive, a big contrast from the coast. There is not much here in this little town, but we have a good meal, and our accomodation is a small house to ourselves with a pool. We spend the afternoon lounging in the pool.
Monday: We drive back to Capetown today for two nights at the Palm Garden Hotel, in the city. Though the girls are a bit tired, we head immediately to Table Mountain to take the cable ride to the top. This is the top tourist attraction in Capetown and it is really busy, with a long wait. We park way down the road, but as soon as we start walking, a nice man offers us a lift to the entrace. The cable ride offers great views and the top of Table Mountain is lovely. Unfortunately we forgot to bring our jackets and the it was quite chilly at the top. We spend a bit of time looking around, but not as much as we could have if we were warmer!
In the late afternoon, we head to the famous Victoria and Albert Waterfront. Another large restaurant/shop area, typical of many port tourist cities. It is a fun place to wander. We end up staying to see a movie at the theatre. Seats in the movies theatres in S. Africa are reserved, so you don't have to get there so early and wait for the film.
Tuesday: We spend the day sightseeing in the area of Capetown. We visit the Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden. Beautiful spot for wandering, picnicing or going to concerts. There is a fantastic Sculpture garden and I fell in love with the sculpture style. If I could have, I would have bought one to take home!
We carry a picnic lunch to Simons Town beach to spend part of the day with the Penguin colony that lives on this beach. Very popular spot, but we find some sand to relax on, have lunch, wade in the water and watch the penguins. They are quite tame, but prefer not to have people touch them.
Later, we make a quick run out to Good Hope Nature Reserve to get to the Cape of Good Hope. We take the cog rail to the point, and then Peter and I walk out as far as you can towards the point. The girls skip this extra walk and instead head back down to the parking area to wait our return.
People never cease to amaze me in their ignorance. As we are standing on the viewing area at the top, a few idiots have climbed over the rail to crouch on the cliffedge to get better photos. One really intelligent guy crouches on the cliffedge to write his name on the rock in permenant marker. This makes me nuts so I finally call out to him "You know that is illegal!" "Oh it is? I didn't realize that." He stops defacing the national monement and decides instead to climb back over the rail and deface the concrete viewing area. Well, better than the rock.
Wednesday: Our last day in South Africa. We spend the morning at the V&A waterfront again, having one last tasty lunch and one last shopping spree. Kate complains that our house will look like a museum of African artifacts after all the craftwork we bought.
The flight home is uneventful, but packed full. Somehow we have managed to check the tall wooden giraffe we bought wrapped in a rug we bought and then shrink wrapped for good measure.
This is New Year's Eve and the attendents serve extra drinks and champagne for midnight. I manage to get some sleep on this trip home, but Anna stays up most of the night watching movies on her individual movie screen.
The family consensus is that it was a fantastic trip, but we are ready to come home.
