Hermanus & Knysna
Trip Start
Jan 01, 2009
1
6
38
Trip End
Jun 30, 2009
Knysna, Western Cape, South Africa
Friday, February 6, 2009
We are in Knynsa, a town on the 'Garden Route' along the Eastern Cape. Have I told you about Sophie yet? She is Darryl's 1978 red Mercedes The day we arrived, Darryl kindly said he could lend us this car. The problem being it has no seat belts in the back. As you can imagine, this was a big concern for me. Next to murders, death by road accident seems to be unimaginably high. It said in one book that there were 11,000 MVA fatalities in S.A. in a single Christmas season a few years ago - this was considered lower than usual! We're not certain why the tally is so high. In fact, the road conditions and signage are superb - much better than in Canada, or almost anywhere else we have seen. The drivers, too seem to be very good. Unlike other major cities outside North America we have ventured to (Paris, Rome, London, Bangkok) driving in Cape Town is relatively sane. Now, it certainly helps that Andy is comfortable driving on the left - I have always deferred to his skills in this regard. Even on the highway drivers seem courteous. If it is a single lane road, the slower driver in front pulls off and drives mostly on the shoulder to allow the faster car to pass. Sometimes, the slower car is virtually using the paved shoulder as a proper lane it spends so much time there. Perhaps the problem is drunk drivers? Apparently the drinking and driving attitudes are similar to Canada 30-40 years ago. People think nothing of drinking enormous amounts and getting in the car to drive home. There is just now a campaign to increase awareness about this problem. It seems to need a bit more work though. We were at a restaurant with live music and lots of drinking in Hout Bay and the crowd cheered when the fellow announced that there were no roadblocks tonight - 'yippee, we can tie one on tonight and not have to bother bribing the police if we get caught!' It seems the police are considered entirely ineffective in S.A. They are poorly paid, underfunded, undermanned, still associated in many ways with the old apartheid regime so not respected by the black SA's, and open to bribes. I've read we say "Can I pay the fine now?" if we are pulled over - a polite bribe that keeps everyone's dignity intact.
Anyways, back to Sophie. The first day, we went immediately to a garage so we could arrange to have seat belts installed in the back. Some needed to be found first though. In the meantime, after considerable debate, we decided to take our chances and drive without them. This is how Sophie was named. The child that got the front seat with the seat belt was 'Sophie's Choice' the other kid has to sit in the back and take their chances with their mother (Andy of course being the driver). It seems one can get used to this. We still had no word on the seat belts by the time we were due to leave on our excursion, and so we have left anyways, taking our chances and driving very defensively (and not at night). The kids seem comfortable with this - after driving in the back of a pickup truck in Pai, and tuk tuks in Bangkok they accept the fact that much of the world does not function on the same safety standards as at home. For my part, I cross my fingers every time we get into Sophie and the choice is made who is sitting in the front seat.
Thursday Feb 5: Hermanus
So we spent a few days in Hermanus, the land based whale capital of the world. From July to December, you can watch the large Southern Right Whales calve from the shore- apparently very spectacular, and quite appealing to someone like me who doesn't fancy wallowing around in a small boat on the open seas to glimpse a whale while trying not to be sea sick. Alas, the whales have returned to more southern climes and the only whales we saw were three life size models that were being transported on flat bed trucks through town. This caused quite a stir as local residents and tourists alike thought they were real carcasses.
We stayed in a lovely Boutique B&B, the Aloe Guest House - out the window went our commitment to stay in more economical lodgings as soon as we saw what the high end had to offer. The town was at first a disappointment - we wandered though thinking we must be missing something as many people had spoken of it's charm. But after a day the attractions were evident. Hermanus has won awards as the cleanest, most environmentally friendly town in S.A. It is incredibly clean - actually, we are very impressed with how clean everywhere we go is. This might be explained by the hordes of clean-up crews in fluorescent bibs (all black S.A.'s) roaming the streets and sidewalks picking up litter. Hermanus has a 5 km cliff side path that stretches along the dramatic rocky coastline - we enjoyed morning runs along it both mornings, admiring the views. We spent one day on Grotto beach, which is actually a misnomer as it is not a grotto but the most spectacular 11 km stretch of fine white sand and rolling surf I have ever seen. We stayed an extra night in Hermanus, hoping to go on a shark cage dive (yes, that's right - go to Youtube and enter shark cage diving South Africa if you don't believe me). Sadly, or perhaps fortuitously, the whether wasn't in our favour so we couldn't go out that day (perhaps on our return we might try again Andy and Duncan say enthusiastically).
Friday Feb 6: Knysna
We are now in Kynsna - a town that had it's beginnings as the 'hippy capital of S.A.' but has since been discovered and resembles Granville Island more than say, 4th avenue in it's hay day. Again, we were sucked into acting on our desire for creature comforts by choosing to stay in an apt on the docks of the Knysna Quay (canals, boat slips, restaurants, shopping) instead of the converted Victorian house Knysna hostel that had a certain funky appeal but didn't have an ensuite bathroom (I still hold out for that as a basic requirement for now). Both kids agreed (well Duncan more so) this would be a funky place to stay but when they were 20 something and not with their middle aged parents! We went mountain biking yesterday amongst near here. The bikes were in great shape (?more than we were). Maddie struggled at first managing the bumpy trails - we actually haven't really mountain biked much with the kids at home yet as the trails are a bit difficult for younger kids. I'm not sure if this experience warmed Maddie up to doing more at home or persuaded her to not bother! She was doing great by the end and we all felt like we had some good exercise to advance us towards our ever looming Mt Kili challenge. Off to Storms River today.
Comments
Envious..
Seems like you're having a great time, I'm sooo envious!
You're right, people drive drunk, without seat belts and worse, in overloaded mini van's. The overloaded vans are the main problems on the roads, causing these major accidents with multiple fatalities. Twelve or so people in a van with small tires doesn't go well together, the tires blow and the packed van steers into oncoming traffic and, boom, twenty four people are dead!
How far east are you planning to go?
Storms River is beautiful, hope you are going rafting. Or what about bungee jumping off the bridge?
You're almost in PE! My daughter Suzann is moving there tomorrow (!) to start university on Monday. She's been accepted into the Interior Design program at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) - previously UPE. If you get there, give her a call :) 71-2090703. Ann :)
Party at the Waters-Banks Casa Lilla Tonight
Hi Hamilton Ross's - we are drinking Mexican wine, cooking up the beef tenderloin, and getting ready to run in the 'Run with your Hun' Los Barillos charity fun run tomorrow. The pool and hot tub are wonderful, takes the chill off the cool evening breeze. Bussies from Bernd, Lani, Terry and Cathy. Wish you were here!!! Bussies, enjoy Africa :)