Day 11: Cape Town to Knysna, Sunday, Sept 7

Day 11: Cape Town to Knysna (nn eyes naaah), Sunday, Sept 7

QOTD:

But we all need to be strugglin'

If we're gonna be free.

Don't you wanna be free?

Weather: Glorious! Even Table Mountain is clear

Too late for us to get up on top

Typical trunk packing job

Up and ready to leave by 8am, we’ve got a full day of driving ahead of us. While Table Mountain is clear, there’s quite a haze (marine layer?) so the view, even if we had decided to be first up the cableway, would not be very good.

The morning is extremely eventful: huge penguin colony and fewer people in Stony Point, baboons grooming in the middle of the road,

Cute penguin videos at bottom of post

and whales right offshore in the upscale town of Hermanus (very upscale!). 

There are whales out there!

The shortcut from Hermanus to the Garden Route falls afoul of roadwork, though an adventure of sorts as we try and avoid oncoming traffic on a dirt road carved out of the reconstruction. We manage and pick up the main road only slightly delayed.

A porta-loo

Picnic lunch in Swellendam’s rose garden: sourdough, camembert, olives in lemon brine, brownies and pecan tart (all from Neighbourgood Market), BOS ice tea, maybe $20.

THB takes over the driving on the wrong side of the road, shifting with his left hand. New mantra: stay left, shift, don’t hit the cones, stay left. THB is in charge when it’s time to refuel: takes two minutes to figure out how to open the gas tank cover. $47 to fill up the tank, we don’t try and figure out the liter to British gallon to US gallon conversion.

Double shower heads

The view from our room

In the bar

Arrive at Knysna around 5:30: the drive has been glorious (wide pretty valleys, lots of farmland, tall mountains, ocean views….THB gives it an 8 out of 10). The hotel appears mostly empty, 70 units spread around 3 pools. The room is a bit musty, hopefully that will dissipate and we can enjoy the extra room and thatched (extremely) high ceilings.

Dinner on the waterfront at 34 South: THB has some form of fish that was subbed for the one he had ordered (good), shares a dozen oysters with DB (11 out of 12 very good, DB has one she’s not sure about), DB has calamari salad, and M&D share one of those gigantic fish platters, two beers, three glasses of wine, $110.

Cute Penguin videos: