I was driving at 120km along the Mountain road, when suddenly Linda shouted “stop”, I immediately hit the brakes, the back wheels locked, but I managed to stop and said ‘what’s wrong’ thinking she was having a heart attack or I was going to run someone over, not that we had seen anybody for miles. “Look” She said “there’s a tortoise”. I was not amused, and did contemplate making her walk with the tortoise. A few miles along the road, another tortoise was crossing the road, so we had to slow down to make sure it was ok, and made the other side. I thought it was going to visit its flat mate!
Its now Thursday evening and we are in Oudshoorn, about 500km east of Cape Town, it’s the centre of the Ostrich industry, and there are ostriches everywhere, in the fields, on the farms and naturally on the plate! It was raining when we left Cape Town yesterday, we wanted to leave early, but Linda wasn’t ready in time, so we left about 9.45. It was a misty city we left, you couldn’t even see Table Mountain, the table cloth had completely engulfed it.
Our first stop was a Vineyard to have a look round, and buy a decent bottle of plonk. So we went to Vergelegen, about 50kms from Cape Town. It was the only one the Queen visited when she was here in 1995, but I bet she didn’t have to pay 20 rand on the gate to get in! It was a beautiful place, full of old buildings, and lovely gardens, with roses and other flowers. Mandela had his picture under an oak tree here – so Linda wanted hers done as well. We stopped at the Rose Garden Café for a tea (no Latte’s here) and then had a wandered around the gardens. We could have done some wine tasting, but I was driving and Linda doesn’t drink the stuff. We did buy a bottle in the shop, and it would be good to say I went on recommendation and the contents – but no I looked at the price – and got the cheapest! Although it did come with a nice bag.
After this, we then went to Hermanus, about 75 kms south, where the whales were. Linda wanted to see more animals! So the duty driver duly drove down to the seaside, and she could sit on the rocks and watch the whales – if you have seen one …… There were some big ones and little ones and they were all black in colour. It was a bit windy, so they didn’t come near the shore. We then went for a walk around the town, and visited a few shops, before going back to the sea front. I thought I was going to be lucky and get a coffee – but no more whales had arrived – and so we had to watch them jumping around. I had to feed the meter, well give the car guard a few more rand, so we could stay longer. We finally left about 4.30pm – and we had a couple of hours drive to Swellendam. We were staying at the Old Mill B&B, we had been thereon a previous visit so I knew where it was.
I looked at the map, and there was a short cut across country, and so I decided to go that way, so I was humping along at about 120kms, making ground very nicely, when the road suddenly ran out, and it was a dirt track. So I had to slow down, and endure 20kms of dirt track across the mountains till I came out the other side and the road appeared again. We made it to the B&B, as I was walking to reception, this duck jumped out in front of me ( a Muscovy) and made me jump. I had a word in his ear hole and told him that if he did that again he would be joining an orange in the pot and become duck a la orange. We booked in and our room was very nice, with an open fire but it was too hot. Linda managed to break the toilet in this one as well! I can never take her anywhere twice.
I knew the food was good here, and it was rude not to have the three game dish – so I had kudu, ostrich and springbok – lovely. Linda had the fish, and then a cheesecake, but I didn’t have a desert. We slept well, and got up a bit earlier today and had a pleasant breakfast before leaving about 9.15. We were going across country again and through several mountain passes, although I had to keep slowing down and stopping for Linda to take photo’s – anybody would think we were on holiday – and there was no rush.
We did stop at Ladismith for a coffee, and it was a one road town, and then it was straight on for Oudshoorn, (avoiding the tortoises) and we arrived about 1pm. We found the Tourist Information bureau and sorted out some accommodation. We are staying on a farm about 15kms out of town called De Oude Meul, and they have some animals in the front you can watch.
We dropped our luggage off, and then went back into town. We had a wander around, and then went to the Queens hotel for afternoon tea. This royalty thing seems to have gone to Linda’s head ever since she met Princess Alexandra in London recently. In the evening we stayed at the farm, and had dinner here – the choice was too much, all different kinds of meat, some I had never seen before – I finally went for the wildebeest and it was very nice! Linda had fish.
So its off to Knysna in the morning, and we are staying there for the weekend – and hopefully an animal free weekend, but I doubt I will be that lucky!