Montagu Country Hotel

... 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 ...

Today we are leaving Saltycrax and Cape Town. We get up early and program the GPS to take us to Swellendam via Hermanus. It picks a route that I would not have chosen, but it knocks an hour off the driving time. Once we get out of Cape Town the roads are really excellent. I would thoroughly recommend South Africa to anyone who loves driving. We drive through twisty mountain paths followed by dead straight roads with spectacular scenery. I absolutely love driving here and I'm am so ...

... was barely noticeable . The water from the springs is bath temperature which is not particularly refreshing but very relaxing. Saturday morning we woke to rain, not very heavy, just a steady shower, enough to consider hunting out the umbrella but not really worth the bother of putting it up. This is the first rain I have seen since arriving in South Africa. It was time to head back home but first we stopped at the weekly craft fair in Montagu , this was ...

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.

... faster than we'd expected, arriving after only a few hours of mountain swtichbacks and two-lane "highway". One of the things I actually loved about driving in South Africa was how incredibly polite everyone was - people would drive onto the shoulder so that you could pass them more easily. This seemed to be completely in keeping with how friendly everyone is - they would go above and beyond anything I'd previously experienced to ...

It was wine all round on the longest wine route in the world, Route 62. A jolly long road with more vineyards than you can shake a stick at. We can report back that South Africans do like growing wine and it tastes very good. If you have never been on a vineyard before and had a tour or a wine tasting experience then its well worth it. We toured around six stunningly beautiful vineyards in one day and spent some time at each with the owners ...

... but we decided not to chance it and not take any showers in the place. It was too late to find another place so we just negotiated to get some $ back from them. Unbelievable!!! We recuperated the next day from our shocking experience by going to one of Montagu's natural hot springs. That was a really nice place and quite a bargain, at R30 per person (about $5) ... Our last stop before arriving in Cape Town was in the ...

... to a few aussie boys and a lovley manchurian couple. The winery tour was loads of fun and it turned out to be a very boozy fun afternoon with us buying 4 mangnums of champers to drink on the bus journey between wineries. Pix will be uploaded soon no doubt... The tour finished up around 6pm and we invited our new manchurian pals back to a BBQ at 'Brads Pad' in Camps Bay...... Brads Pad is another luxury villa ...

... in the second half but it wasn't enough and England went on to win 5 to 3. Dissappointing result but a good game and we'll hopefully meet them again later in the tournament. Boys vs Australia 1 to 23.... Gals vs Australia 0 to 19.... Don't think we need to say anymore about those ones.... Okay so day 2... We started off against South Africa which didn't turn out to be our proudest game. Lacking pace and concentration we ...

... The actually put a paper bag on their heads (ostrich thinks he disappears and nothing can happen to him) and once they remove it, that thing runs and runs and I was so glad that one of the guys was holding on to his wings to keep him steady and so as not to let him run too fast (they make 70km/h)... wow! Then a wildlife park, a bit sad because it's like a zoo. The animals are well-kept and have plenty of babies so they ...