Keisie Cottages Montagu

After a full day yesterday we were happy to have a late breakfast and so it was after 10am before we said goodbye to our new found friends. On Victor's recommendation we headed back south for a few km to the winery of Blaauwlippen – the second oldest on the country, dating from 1680 - where we got stuck into the wine tasting. Two very nice Cabernets, two Shirazes and a Malbec later, it was gone midday before we eventually hit the road to Montagu.

We were soon out of ...

... 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 ...

... road through and this ' hole in the wall' is still the only way into the town from the west. During the Boer War the British built a small fort on the rock above the hole presumably to control the comings and goings of the inhabitants of the town, it is still there but is less than impressive. The afternoon of our arrival we went to the museum which was not very interesting and probably not worth the entrance fee but followed that with a visit to the ...

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.

... of antelope, birds and other animals, and rarely another human in sight. Irene and I spent some time on the dunes and then hiked a bit along the coast, making our way to a tiny cove. We then left with enough time before the sunset to make sure we were off the dusty backroads and back in Swellendam before dark. That night we had an incredible dinner at our guest house and shared with the cook and waitress a bottle of wine Irene ...

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 ...

... v japan 6 - 3 (a win!) v singapore 4 - 3 (another!!) v nz 0 - 19 v wales 1 - 2 v eng 0 - 5 (1/4 final) As we were knocked out on the saturday (finals were on sunday) a few of us went on a recce into town for the team of course. We went to check out where the bars were as our exploration of the bosch had been fairly limited - found a few watering holes supped a few cold ones. Then stumbled in about 5 am, I say stumbled, we almost tripped up on our president ...

Arrived at Stellenbosch University grounds, which is our home for the week. We're neighbours with the English, South African and French squads. The tournament referees are also staying at the university... we've been getting coffees for them in the hope of favourable calls come match day. After a chilled out ...

... d been working there for just two days was nice and kind of trying but clueless. So I went on to George, from where Moses, the strangest driver ever, picked me and another guest up in his van and took us to Oudtshoorn, ostrich capital of South Africa in the middle of the stunning Klein Karoo semi-desert. The ride, once we got out of the fog, was scenic and sunny: mountains, scrubby hills, red/orange/yellow desert ...

... places (its definately off season), we were heading to Port Elizabeth for the weekend to have a chance to socialise & meet a few more people... We were pleased to find that despite it having a reputation for being a fairly undesirable stop over, we thought it was a really interesting town... We stayed at a really good backpackers too, which had lovely en suite rooms at a pretty bargainlike price. There was a really good mixed group of people there too, including a bunch ...