Schoone Oordt Country House Swellendam

... rolling valley surrounded by mountains in the distance, were still covered in vineyards: Route 66 claims to be the longest wine route in the world. We needed cash (not as many places take credit cards as we had imagined), and found an ATM in Robertson, a bustling, clean and well kept town.

A quick stop for petrol in the predominantly black township of Ashton, and 20 minutes later we rolled into the deserted but quaint town of Montagu (shops close Saturday afternoon). A quick browse ...

... 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.

... would now be considered middle class and their life style was surprisingly comfortable and sophisticated in spite of the remoteness of the area. We were fascinated by the floors in the kitchen and pantry which were made of peach pips set into beeswax, apparently an old local method which creates a very hard wearing surface which was as good today as it was when first laid. We spent the next day at the local hot springs whose healing properties are said to ...

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 ...

Somewhere in the Klein Karoo... Weary travelers, venturing across the desert landscape of fynbos, with the occasional river bed snaking across the veld - some offering a lush sanctuary to green willows and others more a distant memory or future hopefulness of wetter days. We are headed from the Cango Caves, one of the declared 7 th Wonders of S.A. These caves were first discovered by the local San hunter-gatherer people, who used the outermost caves as a source of shelter. Later ...

... country kitchen type serving rustic and wholesome food. Steve had springbok carpaccio and I couldn't resist the sushi plate. The carpaccio was lovely and lots of it and the sushi was just ok but I should have expected that given we weren't near the coast but I just wanted sushi! Main courses were very good. I had a steak that was huge and cooked to perfection and Steve had kudu, sprinbok and ostrich also cooked to perfection.

... winkelen in 'the pan african market'. Op deze market kan je echt alles aan souvenirs vinden! Afdingen verplicht en Jeroen en ik hadden daar erg veel lol in,, of niet Jeroen?!Daar heb ik een heleboel souvenirtjes gekocht ( die mama lekker voor mij mee naar huis neemt,haha ) Van donderdag tot dinsdag hadden ze hier een lang weekend vrij. En ben ik lekker op een klein reisje geweest waar ik heel veel heb gedaan! We hebben cape point gezien ...

... was keeping every little piece of me in the cage, but still it looked way too flimsy all of a sudden, plus it seemed as if the shark could swallow the whole damn thing if he decided. It was unbelievable. Saw a couple of smaller ones afterwards, and it was cold, cold. By the time we got back to shore my stomach wasn't feeling all that shweet for the rest of the day either to be honest. I had dinner at the hostel, cooked up by stouie the resident sctosman, and it was fantastic, I ...

... had gone out the West) was a restaurant and tea garden (L'Alliance?). Since it was the only thing we had seen open in town, we decided to stop here to eat. We sat outside in the shade overlooking a small creek. Alison had a delicious pork loin with mushrooms, and I had a slice of chicken pie. Both were quite tasty! Very dark clouds began to loom over the very tall and dramatic mountains above town, but no rain came. Now that we were refreshed, we were ready to ...