Swellendam Country Lodge

... we visited a local linen shop that was holding a pre Christmas sale. This was actually two rooms of a private house, but the owner made us really welcome (I really love the English language she said) as Vanda browsed the goods for sale against a backdrop of Hark the Herald Angels Sing. We could only buy small (no space in the cases) or non food or plant (Australian Customs) stuff, so Vanda settled for a couple of pretty linen angel tree hangers.

The meal was the best yet. Sat in the ...

... say they smoke it because it tastes nice. The boy gets out a guitar and I get out my harps and we have a bit of a jam, neither of us know anything the other knows so he just strums chords and I play the blues, Marianne says it sounds pretty good anyway.

When we've played for a while, we all call it a night because they all have work in the morning and we have to drive back to the coast.

During the night it rains pretty hard and the rain on the tin roof wakes us all up.

... plenty of old Cape Dutch style buildings and wide tree-lined streets. The Boers chose the site as it was surrounded by mountains and isolated but this isolation made it difficult to reach the nearest big town- Swellendam- in order to trade and collect supplies, they had to cross the river eight times with their bullock carts and the journey took several days. Eventually to improve this journey they blasted a hole in the rock face at Cogmans Kloof to allow ...

We set off for Montagu and Route 62, calling in at the Olympia Cafe in Kalks Bay for a take-out coffee and a quick look at the harbour and the local fish. Then we hit roadworks for 30km.... Finally arrived in Montagu late afternoon, which is a beautiful little village set in a gorge. We found a very nice place to stay, wandered around a bit and then found a very nice place to eat dinner, in the courtyard of a Cape Dutch mansion under a 100-year-old pear tree.

... is, and I realized that I would love to come back one day and spend a week there - particularly during the South African winter, when scores of right whales can be spotted right off the coast. De Hoop is easily one of the most strikingly beautiful places I've been - untouched, immense sand dunes (called "Koppie Alleen", or "Head Alone") that contrast with a crisp blue sky, fynbos and rocky coast pounded by turquoise water, many ...

... out an astonishing # of miles of caves. The first portion - accessible to visitors who pay for the 'standard' tour - is impressive enough - though compared to the caves we visited in Northern Thailand, they are presented in a much more commercial way, understandably given the # of visitors. There is another tour though - the 'Adventure' tour for the more intrepid. NOT ME, said I, right from the start. Given my propensity to claustrophobia, this was not an experience I had on my ...

... up a trail that was supposed to take about 3 hours. The trail was fairly steep but it wound its way up quite gently and was definately no match for the stair master that Table Mountain turned out to be. Every time we stopped to catch our breath, we would turn and the view would totally blow us away. We climbed higher and higher before heading down into a very lush, rainforest valley with a stream running through it. It was just stunning ...

... for me, and even though I had expected to see conditions like this, it was so different seeing it with my own eyes than in pictures. Apparently it has improved in recent years, with an increase in infrastructure such as brick housing, electricity and water taps on streets. Reading a Cape Town tourist website it claims that Khayelitsha is one of CT's leading tourist destinations, hmmmm not too sure about ...

... All in all, it was one of the best birthdays I ever had. You know what else is weird about this hemisphere? I'm pretty sure the phases of the moon are reversed. It looks like it should be getting smaller (spells a C), but I'm pretty sure it's actually growing. I may have to double-check this to make sure I'm not talking out my ass like usual ... Yesterday I checked out Cape Agulhas, which is very pretty but not spectacular, and I was the southernmost person in Africa for ...

... river, and started following a path along the banks. The path was very narrow, and there was a bit of scrambling required up rocks, and ducking under bushes. We were feeling quite adventurous. We took the trail up onto Aloe hill. The top of the hill was very similar to the Russian Steppe. Lots of low grasses and tiny ground hugging plants (and lots of wind). As we began down the slope though, we entered an actual forest of Aloe and thorn trees. Many of the ...