Well the Garden Route was not as spectacular as we had heard, nor how we had imagined it to be! It was pretty, but we have seen far better places and far better scenery than what we saw on the Garden Route. It was a little dissapointing to be honest, the towns were extremely bland and there really wasnt much to see at all, they all consisted of a busy traffic choked street, with all of the usual shops.
Knysna had a nice waterfront with some restaurants, the lagoon and Knysna Head was nothing to shout about, we passed some stunning beach on the way to Knysna in a little town called Wilderness, not anywhere near as developed as the other resorts on this coast.
We visited Plettenberg Bay for the day, the beaches were absolutly stunning, especially the huge sand spit on the eastern side of the town, the bay was literally sweeping sand and turquoise waters...to be honest Plett Bay was worth seeing, the other towns were boring, Plett Bay had some atmosphere and it was just unfortunate that we couldnt get accommodation there!
After the Garden route we drove on towards Storms River, we drove to Bloukrans Bridge where they boast the worlds highest bungy, it was a beautiful bridge and the scenery was gorgeous. Yes the bridge is 216m...its high, what they dont tell you is that you jump from underneath bridge, and the freefall isnt anywhere near the 216m, so we felt it was a bit of a con!! Matt was delighted that he threw himself off of Vic Falls Bridge, and I was delighted that he diddnt want to throw himself off of this one!
We drove into Tsistsikamma National Park, which was stunning, plenty of hiking trails and things to do in these very mountains. We turned off of the tarmac road to Storms River, onto a mud potholed road, that reminded you instantly that you were in "Africa", and not the "modern" place that we had gotten used to called South Africa, a whole world away from the other countries in Africa that we had experienced.
Storms River was just an overnight stop for us, it was set in beautiful countryside and was really quiet, it was nice and relaxing...However we did forget that it was sunday, that no shops would be open and that we diddnt have hardly any food on us! Luckiliy we had sausage that we hadnt eaten for brekkie, a little pasta and a tin of tomato puree! So we put together a pasta meal for dinner that evening!
Next morning we drove an hour east to Jeffreys Bay, known locally as J Bay, its a Surfers Paradise! The waves here are absolutly huge and down on the long wide sandy beach yesterday we watched surfers and guys on boogie boards take on the huge waves!
At this moment in time Matt is down on the beach having his first Surfing lesson...he was awake soooo early this morning cos he was major excited about learning this sport! So, I look forward to hearing all about it later!
The shops here are great, they are mainly surfer shops, they have a HUGE Billabong factory store that we hit big time a couple of days ago, and big Roxy, Quicksilver and Ripcurl factory shops, its great!
So, tommorow after 4 days here we are heading further along the coast, maybe just to Port Elizabeth, but we may go a bit further up towards East London, we are spending Christmas in Cintsa..just 30mins north of East London on the coast, theres plenty of surf there as well so Matt will be happy! Between Christmas and New Year we are in Coffee Bay...just sounds delightful doesnt it! Then we spend New Year in the big coastal city of Durban...in a caravan!!
Love, Hugs and kisses to all....not long now until we get home! Agggghhhh...its gone so fast...just deciding if its gonna be Asia or South America next!
Ali and Matt
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