Moolmanshof Bed & Breakfast Swellendam

... 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 ...

... 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 ...

... eclectic with stalls including from furniture, pancakes, books and alpaca products. We headed back through the hole in the wall and then on to take brief look around Swellendam which I thought was not so attractive as Montagu being somewhat more commercialised. Our route back took us over the spectacular Sir Lowry's Pass just out side Cape Town and so home in time for Helen to treat me to a lovely birthday meal at a fish restaurant called Millers Thumb.

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.

... For example, after asking someone for help in locating an ATM in Cape Town, having tried a nearby ATM that seemed to be broken, the woman offered to leave her office and come with us to see if she could be of assistance.) After checking into our incredibly cute cottage room, we left for De Hoop - an almost 90,000-acre coastal reserve apparently mysteriously seldom visited, given its incredible beauty. We ended up on the "long road ...

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 ...

... of the nicest things about the bus is the opportunity to meet other backpackers and then run into them again as we travel on. Our first stop was Swellendam, where we arrived around noon. The small backpacker's was just what we needed after two months in the city. There were no locks on our doors and the frogs and crickets sung to us all night. It felt like home for a couple of country dwellers like us. The rather small town of Swellendam ...

... great place but I was disappointed about the lack of baboons - I'd been hoping to see some harrassing people, but no go. They've probably been destroyed as that's what happens to the naughty ones. Anna-Marie did spot one on the way out of the point towards Fish Hoek, it was sitting on a wheelie bin. The drive to Stanford was rather hairy - lots of traffic, so our planned winery visit had to be ...

... south-east asian countries and let them walk all over the mine fields there to blow up unexploded mines? Now I don't endorse such treatment, but I imagine these roads looked something like those fields when thsoe poor cows were done with them. That, PLUS KRAP! ok in all honesty the roads weren's that bad, I just had no business being on them, but that would mean blaming myself, and nobody likes that. Plus it feels kinda good to vent. ****ING ROADS!!!! Anyway, I was biking ...

... them. Now the park is at capacity, and is constantly shipping them off to other parks. It took us about an hour of VERY slow driving along the dirt roads (not because they were bad, but because I was always looking in the bushes for animals) before we came to the rest camp. The rest camps in the National Parks in South Africa are amazing. They have cabins and trailers that are completely equipped and ready for visitors (though often booked far in advance). The ...