The Secret Garden Guesthouse Montagu

... lit garden surrounded by backlit exotic plants we both again had the sampler dish – this time, lamb, springbok and ostrich, each in their own distinctive sauce. To finish, I just had to try the peanut butter ice cream (tasty and very more-ish) whilst Vanda settled for drinking chocolate with kalaur.

Because of our late start and early stop, we felt we had been chasing the day today and had fewer sightseeing stops. In future must try to get away earlier and pace the day better.

... a whale. Would you believe it there one is, just playing there a little way out, he jumps up and splashes down, then rests a little before doing it again. All that time looking, then just as we are about to leave we see one.

The drive to Swellendam is just as fun as the drive down, miles of perfectly straight road where we see what the car can do, followed by a drive through the mountains, I wish the car was a 1.6 instead of1.4, but these VW's really are nice cars.

Swellendam, Western Cape, South Africa frontal

... 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 ...

... they proudly explained the long process of producing a good bottle of wine. They are keen to let you taste the wine and when they produce twelve types, it can take hours. Sometimes the staff would be too busy with other customer and so they came up to us with six different bottles of wine and asked "Would you mind if we just left us with the bottles to taste at your own time"? "Not at all" we happily replied. Cooper Out Love Dan & Kat

Been a few days since the last entry, have hit the nation's capital now and staying in the lushest pad you could imagine. We're at the foot of table mountain and about a 10 min cab ride from town. Of course the purpose for the whole trip was of course the world cup so here are the results boys v eng 1-11 v aus 1 - 23 v lebanon 4 - 15 v SA 1 - 11 v japan 4 - 8 v wales 4 - 1 (we won!!) v nz 1 - 19 v nz 1 - 23 (1/4 final) Girls v eng 3 - 5 v aus 1 - 19 v sa 0 ...

... baths..... great for removing the lactic acid from the legs our physio told us... the were fecking freezing. The only way we could bear the icy temperatures was to sing, much to the disapointment of our ice bath attendie.... as for the boys the only way the could bear it was to take photos of the bikini clad gals. Speaking of which Eddie has a fine collection of female tottie body parts for your perusal on return, hold tight....

... not going to happen, pouring rain, cold, I changed my baz booking from tomorrow to today and checked out just before 10, which saved me 80 rand. Yes, it was nice to sleep in a bed for once (they wouldn't let me camp there), but 80 rand is about 10 too much for a dorm bed. And other than the view and the nice house, the place lacked in ambiance, owing to the weather and an unfriendly manager. The young British dude ...

A few highlights from the past week... We went for a couple of quick walks as we headed through from Plettenburg Bay to Port Elizabeth - at Natures Valley & Storms river mouth. Both with stunning landscapes... also went to Jeffreys bay (bit of a surfing mecca), but as the sea appeared to be colder than Brighton in winter and the outside temperature wasn't the highest either, there wasn't a huge incentive to go swimming or (attempt) surfing ! As we'd been staying at pretty ...