Blue Gum Country Estate Hermanus

... was quiet with only one other group in for food when we were there.<br><br>Setting off from Mossel Bay for Oudtshoorn we managed to take a wrong turning that took us 30km along a dirt track through a game reserve . No guide with us this time but we saw lots of zebra and other animals. <br><br>We travelled to Hermanus from Montagu, a small town in the Cape Wine Region. We spent a lovely two days there. On our way there we went to Oudtshorn where we ...

... long.<br><br>With the exception of Outshoorn, I found the garden route to be a strange mix of adrenaline junkies and perma-tanned retirees, great if you love beach hols or throwing yourself off a bridge tied to a piece of elastic, a bit of a disappointed if you're neither like me. In fairness we'd have been able to see a lot more with a car so probably didn't get to all the places it had to offer (there is zilch in the way of public ...

We stayed in a little fisherman's cottage by the ocean. We walked along the shore and watched the Southern Right Whales play near the shore. They were only about 50 meters away. The next day we drove to Betty's bay to see the penguin colony. They were hanging ...

Our next scenic drive took us through more mountain passes to the coastal town of Hermanus, this town is famous and popular for spotting the right whale. Its called this because the whalers said it was the right whale for them to hunt for blubber and was an easy catch as it floated on the surface when killed. Thankfully nowadays people come here just to view the whales from October - December, we arrived out of season so sadly no whale watching for us ...

... pictures ov** the coming weeks. Ov** the past few days I have been rapidly "de-Africanizing". My hairstyle has gone from multi-colored braids, to wiry dirty dreadlock-thingies, to a gen**al untidy mess, and I am contemplating shaving it all off (I'm still undecided about the fate of my tri-colored beard - some people actually quite like it!) This morning I looked at my Michelin 955 South**n and East Africa Map which I ...

... about ten minutes a 15'-18' shark started hanging out near us and occasionally went after the fish head, which the skipper repeatedly tossed into the water, pulled it towards the cage, then out of the way at the last second. So what to do next but put on a wetsuit and mask and hop into the cage! I was with the first group in the cage, and in ten minutes or so saw the shark within a few feet a number of times. Actually it really wasn't that scary, it was almost ...

... and their accompanying photographs (and vice-versa), and asked anyone reading this to think for a minute and tell me what they would like to read in their travel/lifestyle section of the local newspaper, or adventure travel geographic magazine. I promised I would greatly appreciate their contributions and credit them in my story. With only 2 nights to go I was excited, nervous and had too many butterflies in my stomach!

... have seriously reached my hand out and touched them, if of course I wanted to lose it:), he he. I actually learned a lot of about the sharks. From up on the boat, you could see a lot as well. I videotaped some of it. The sharks would actually splash around and come up out of the water a bit when trying to bite the bait, so you could see them with mouths open and everything! This is kind of funny-there were a number of people puking overboard because it was ...

... the Apple Store to use the free internet. We spent the next hour there and then returned to the pier to board our sailboat for our sunset cruise! It was everything I hoped it would be. We headed out into pretty strong gusts and healed right over, I was loving it. The other people on the boat were shrieking and I was just smiling. We got Champaign, which I actually liked better than the wine the night before, but I drank about half the glass and threw the rest overboard because I didn't ...

... not use credit. It had to be paid in cash, which they did not have. The guy we met literally went around collecting money from passengers since everyone really wanted to get home. It worked out to about 50 U.S. dollars per person. They managed to gather up enough money and purchased the fuel to get home. We have seen many ladies walking around with make shift garbage bag coats and skirts when it is raining. We found out about an ...