Guesthouse LaRachelle Swellendam

... the tourist information centre and we went for a stroll along the main street stopping for a beer in a local pub. Several white locals were watching the start of the South African rugby tour match against Italy. We stayed see, amid great cheers, RSA go into a convincing two try lead before driving down the other end of the street to Bloomenhuis, tonight’s accommodation.

Another lovely place! Patio doors open from our room onto a beautiful well kept garden and small pool. The ...

... we get to Swellendam it is a quiet little town nestled in the mountains; the place we are staying at has a huge garden with a tree house, hammocks and plenty of space. Eden finds a ride on tractor which she calls a choo choo, she asks to ride it and the boy there says she can. She has a nice ride and Marianne sits in a hanging chair, whilst I relax in a hammock and enjoy a bottle of the vine dessicated Shiraz that I bought from Solms-Delta.

At seven o'clock we are served a meal ...

Have just returned to Cape Town from a short visit to Montagu, a small town about 2 hours drive east on the edge of the Little Karroo. The town was first settled in the 1830s by Boers who were escaping from British rule in the Cape, (they do not seem to hold this against us, we found everyone very friendly!), it is now a popular tourist destination and a week-end retreat for Capetonians. However it has remained largely unspoiled and is a pretty little town ...

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.

... For example, after asking someone for help in locating an ATM in Cape Town, having tried a nearby ATM that seemed to be broken, the woman offered to leave her office and come with us to see if she could be of assistance.) After checking into our incredibly cute cottage room, we left for De Hoop - an almost 90,000-acre coastal reserve apparently mysteriously seldom visited, given its incredible beauty. We ended up on the "long road ...

... discovery by a Karoo farmer in 1780, led to ever progressive numbers of visitors. In the early days, when the Western Cape and Klein Karoo were places far off the beaten track to even adventurous tourists, intrepid Dutch and English farm families would venture up to the caves to explore as far as they could with candles and lamp light (and cart off prizes of stalagmites and stalagmites (yes, we know the difference!). Since then, explorers have ventured ever deeper into the cave system ...

... lining the flat area at the foot of the mountain. Their signature was a Youngberry liqueur which is a blend between a blackberry and raspberry and was fantastic. They also had 12 other fruit liqueurs in addition to coffee, anise, chocolate, and some other exotic flavors. Unfortunately, they didn't sell it by the keg but we bought a couple of bottles and were on our way. I need to say that Rachel did an absolutely fantastic job of ...

... waar de olifanten langs onze auto liepen, echt super gaaf! De volgende dag hebben we in Addo, een private game drive gedaan, daar hebben we alles gezien behalve de olifant!Giraffen, Neushoorn, Krokodillen, Nijlpaarden, Leeuwen, Zebra's, en verschillende soorten herten. Een super gaaf park! Op onze weg terug hebben we een boottocht gemaakt op de oceaan waar ik EINDELIJK dolfijnen van heel dichtbij in hun eigen omgeving heb gezien ...

... side was Dyer Island, which is maybe 3 km long, and apparently is home to a large penguin colony, several thousand strong. Unfortunately we didn't see any of those funny little *******s, which is a shame cos they're cool. But the other side of the channel was this long rock, maybe 500 meters long, just jam packed with seals. So between the seals and the penguins it's pretty much an all-you-can-eat shark buffet. We were anchored about 20 meters from the rock of seals, which was ...

... along the plateau reminded us both very much of parts of California (as had much about Cape Town and environs). Lots of fairly dry hills and greener valleys, low brush, few scattered trees. Overall quite pretty though. Round about 2pm I was getting tired of driving, and we were just arriving at Swellendam. This is a very old (3rd oldest white town in South Africa), very picturesque village at the foot of some gorgeous mountains. It was in our guidebook as ...