St Francis Bay

 

We have moved to our final destination before the journey home. St Francis Bay is a beach town about 100km from Port Elizabeth (recently renamed Gqeberha). The beaches along the garden route all have golden sands. Our first stop after leaving Knysna was Plettenberg Bay, which was around 25km drive.  

Plettenberg Bay

From Plettenberg bay, another 150km to St Francis Bay, driving through the difficult to pronounce Tsitsikmama national park, which is a mountainous forest cover region with various nature reserves. It is also the boundary between the Western and Eastern Cape Provinces. 

St Francis Bay and the near by Jeffreys bay are ideally suited for surfers. Golden beaches with waves perfect for surfing. It must be pointed out that these waters are popular sharking feeding grounds, so surfing does come with a risk warning. 

The buildings here are all white with either thatched or grey roofs. The building regulations are tightly controlled to ensure homes and nature to blend in. Natural sea water canal's have become the location for homes. The canals connect to the sea via a natural lagoon, which allows the owners of the houses to have quick boat access to the ocean. The lagoon is a perfect location for kite surfers or boarders.

St Francis Bay has a Jack Nicolas designed links course, which is rated in the top 5 courses in the country. It seemed rude not to play while here and the course did not disappoint. The course was designed into the sandy hills overlooking the St Francis bay, with tree and bush lined fairways. These are home to many  Puff Adders, so looking for balls is not advised.. The course is also home to many other creatures, including giant snails who harmlessly feed on the fairways.

 

It seemed appropriate to visit the St Francis bay lighthouse. The Seal Point Lighthouse was built in 1878 and is now a tourist spot and has a fantastic restaurant. The only challenge is the rain started as we arrived. Apparently this is very unusual summer weather for South African…

   

 

Knysna

 

Next stop is Knysna, a coastal town within the garden route and popular with tourists. About an 1hr 40min drive from Oudshoorn with much of the road hugging the white sandy beaches of the region.

        

Our hotel is close to the waterfront and quays, which is full of leisure boats. Many of the wealthy South Africans live here or have their summer homes here. A schools water polo competition is taking place in the quay, which is being run over a 3 day period, so the area is busy and the restaurants are full.

Time for some golf. The Pezula is situated on the hill overlooking Knysna and the sea. I managed to get an early morning tee time. The weather had changed from the previous day. The clouds had arrived, but it was still 20 degrees celsius, but not the sunshine I had hoped for. 

I picked up the buggy and rental golf clubs and drove to the first tee. A four ball was before me, but when they realised I was on my own they proposed I go ahead of them. The pressure was on, I had not hit a golf ball in 4 weeks and I needed to tee off with clubs I had never used before with the four ball looking on. The golf demons started to whisper in my head and then bingo, my first ball sailed at a right angle into the trees. The four had that “oh dear we have one here” look. Time to drop another ball and just get one down on to the fairway. Fortunately things started to get better after that. A frustrating game.

 

Knysna sits in a lagoon which makes it a safe natural harbour. The Heads are the dramatic rocky headlands which create the gap for the Indian Ocean to meet the lagoon.  

Thesen is a small island in Knysna, which is predominately full of holiday homes and restaurants. It was originally owned by a family who ran a tree logging and boat building business. They have long gone and replaced by many wealthy South Africans. 

As a side business from tree logging, there used to be a power plant which used wood chipping to power electric turbines. At one point it provided all the electricity for the towns of Knysna and Plettenberg bay. This closed down in the 1970’s and replaced by a municipal power plant. The old power station is now a boutique hotel (they love to label a hotel as boutique in South Africa) and a micro brewery pub. We had dinner in the pub last night. Just after we arrived, load shedding started and they needed to fire up their backup generators. Quite ironic that this old power station worked so well for 30 years and has been replaced by a system that cannot provide the electricity they need. 

 

Ostrich Farming

 

The big question: Is Ostrich worth eating? In our view the answer is undoubtably yes. It tastes great and is nearly indistinguishable from a really good fillet beef steak. Apparently it has much lower fat and cholesterol than a beef steak.

In the early 1990’s, all the talk was about ostrich becoming the next big farming thing in the UK. It didn’t happen. No idea why, but to guess the UK weather, the ostrich evolved to live in the heat of Africa and Oudtshoorn gets hot. These are birds that look like descendants of dinosaurs, with feet that would not look out of place on a raptor in Jurassic Park. They can run at speeds of 60km per hour for up to 2km. Their brains are the size of a walnut, so they are not the smartest and do not make good pets. They will easily kill a human with their sharp claws on their feet, but they are not meat eaters, so this is a defence mechanism rather than any hunting instinct. 

We visited the local Ostrich Safari, which sounds grand, but in reality it’s a tractor trailer ride around a farm. In the trailer you are perfectly safe, although it does feel intimidating as they run up to the side and use their long necks to find any food you are carrying. However, you can’t help but feel affection for these funny flightless birds.

 

Ostrich farmers know how to make the most of their birds. First of all, they get tourists to pay to visit them and feed them. Then there is the meat. Each bird produces many steaks. The feathers make dusters and the skin is used for luxury leather items. It’s a good business. 

The ostrich produces a very large egg, which they can lay daily, but it’s not for eating, unless you fancy the equivalent of 20 chicken eggs in a single meal. Death by cholesterol will come quickly. The eggs are however very strong and they will take the weight of a human.

 

So that was our ostrich farm experience, which finished with one of the ostrich’s taking a fancy to Janice’s shiny ring. To our amusement it was caught on camera.  

And then back to our hotel to sample ostrich steaks, washed down with a bottle of Ernie Ells cabernet sauvignon wine, which is really good. Ernie was a great golfer and now produces some great wine from his vineyard near Stellenbosch. 

  

Oudtshoorn

 

Next stop Oudtshoorn, which is famous for its Ostrich Farms. The day before had been another of those rainy days in Africa. Talking to the hotel owner, Mossel Bay is usually very humid in the summer, but this year the summer has been wetter than normal. Climate change appears to be affecting this part of the world as well. So it was a day of rainy weather sightseeing. First stop, another lighthouse. 

Cape St Blaize lighthouse, built in 1864 overlooks the Indian Ocean. A very windy morning and the waves were crashing into the rocks below. A very satisfying feeling to watch nature at work. 

The Lighthouse is no longer working and is predominately a tourist location, with Coffee and food as a main income. The current lighthouse manager struck up a conversation and he spent 30 minutes telling us about his son’s journey. A very proud dad, with a fascinating story, providing an insight into the way the traditional schools are still the feeding ground for the Springbok rugby team. 

Cape St Blaize Lighthouse

As we left the heavens opened, so the car was a good place to stay dry. Our next stop was the Pinnacle Point Golf Resort, which sits on a headland over looking the ocean about 13 km from Mossel Bay. This is another of those gated communities, with many european “swallows” living there. They arrive in January and leave around March for summer at home. A beautiful location, with house prices at a fraction of an equivalent golf location in Europe. An amazing golf course, rated as one of the top in South Africa. The 9th and 18th greens overlook high cliff side drops to the ocean. The course looks like a tough challenge, especially during a storm. A bucket of balls maybe required to complete 18 holes with this type of weather.

It was our last night at Betty’s Boutique Hotel. We finally figured out that the manager was from Hull Uk. He had developed an accent that was neither Yorkshire or Afrikaans, so it was a surprise when we found out. His in-law’s lives at Pinnacle Point and they had help him setup the hotel business about 4 years ago. A nice little business. 

Then onto Oudtshoorn. Inland and warmer weather. First stop the Cango Caves, which were discovered in 1780. They are a series of large caves which go into the mountain for about a km with amazing rock formations.

        

As we are surrounded by Ostrich farms, it seems appropriate to try Ostrich for dinner tonight. It comes highly recommended. We shall see how we get on. Tonight seems like the best night, as we may feel guilty tomorrow if we visit an Ostrich farm 😆 

  

Mossel Bay

Our Journey from Cape L’Aughlas to Mossel Bay via Ronnie’s Sex Shop

We made our way to Mossel Bay, which is the official start of the Cape Garden Route. It was our longest drive yet, taking us via the slightly famous Ronnie’s Sex Shop, which is in the middle of nowhere. Ronnie setup his shop on in an isolated road close to East Mountain Catchment range. To his disappointment no one stopped at his shop, until his friends added the word “sex” to his sign. This changed everything and everyone started to stop😂 From then on his shop became Ronnie’s Sex Shop and his success started. Today it is a tourist stop.

Before leaving Cape L’Agulhas we visited their harbour to see if we could get a glimpse of “Parrie” the friendly Stingray, who hangs around looking for food. We were in luck. We were not sure if it was Parrie or one of his friends, but we were treated with watching Parrie and his friends swim around the harbour.

Our drive to Ronnie’s was about 2.5 hours, going inland and across the East Mountain Catchment and the towns of Riversdale and Barrydale. Unsurprisingly the scenery was beautiful, especially driving though the mountain pass to get to Barrydale.

 

Then onto Ronnie’s for lunch, which seems to be a mecca for bikers. The bar is full of bra’s from visitors by who wanted to leave their mark.

 

And then onto Mossel Bay which is a harbour town. Another two hour journey, which was brightened up by seeing two elephants eating close to the road. 

As with many towns in this area, steep hills run down to the sea. Our Hotel in Mossel Bay was built on a steep slope up from the harbour. Braais which are wood fuelled BBQs are really popular, so we chose dinner at the Kaai 4 Braai restaurant. A fast walk down the hill to the restaurant. Fortunately they offer a free taxi home if needed. 

The food is great and everything comes with a RoosterKoek, which is bread they cook freshly on the Braai. Highly recommended. All food comes on the traditional enamelled camping plates and the wine in enamelled mugs. A lovely way to watch the sun go down. 

  

Cape L’’Aqulhas

 

A day in L’Agulhas. The weather was much better than when we arrived. The rain had stopped, but still windy. A day for a walk. Not knowing how the weather was going to change, we packed our rain jackets and set off to the southern tip and then beyond to the wreck of an old Japanese fishing boat which ran aground to the rocks back in 1982 [Meisho Mark Shipwreck].

     

When travelling in Asia, Temples are very popular tourists sights. In South Africa, its thier lighthouses. They were built for an important reason and now they love to show them to the tourists. To be fair they are impressive and no doubt saved many lives. We couldn't turn down visiting the one on L'Agulhas, which was built around 1847. To get to the top you need to climb near vertical ladders and risk the wind when reaching the top. But it was worth the climb for the view.

 

Tidal pools are popular in the south africa, as a safe way to swim in the sea. In theory they are safe, as long as you don't forget the slippery surfaces as you enter. I survived apart from a few minor scratches and the cold water, but fun.

After a swim, there is no better way to warm up than a nice cozy bar. A drink in our new local before dinner.