Leaving the Garden untended

(Lloyd)

So the Garden Route (diverse vegetation, lagoons, lakes etc) only features as a small part of our trip, running from Storms River (west of Jeffreys Bay) to Mossel Bay.  And today we left Mossel Bay so that signifies the end of that little jaunt, perhaps we could and should have ventured onto one of the hikes or foresty bits, but time kind of gets in the way.  May well be something to come back to (after Vietnam, South America and 1-2 other places)

Carys and I did a little 4 miler down to the Point to start our day, getting twitchy as I hear of people getting their marathon vests.  Got a bit of catch up to do next week.

Today was a drive to  Stellenbosch (on the outskirts of Cape Town) so a lot of time was spent with the pedal to the metal.  Broke the journey up in Swellendam, a quaint little town, its early roots tracing back to the Dutch East Indies company.   Less spice and more sugar for us today, cookies, cakes and chocolate the diet of the ardent traveller.

Onwards we went through rolling hills and into wine country, very Mediterranean in feel, not unlike some of our time spent in south of France/north of Spain in our pre blog road trips.  Started to get a bit busy as we approached Cape Town, a sense of what we might encounter tomorrow, but today we are holed up in a little piece of paradise called Stellenbosch.  Chrissi managed a bit of wine tasting, the rest of us will indulge on some other local produce from the balcony of our beautiful guesthouse, mountain peaks and sunshine all around us.

 

 

(Carys) Only a short one today as we didn't do loads -


Woke up quite early and went for a very difficult 4 mile run with dad, that included a lot of unwanted hills. It wasn't too hot, but warmer than I'd have preferred. After a quick shower we packed up and set off away from Mossel Bay.

Around half way through our drive we stopped a stylishly designed deli and café, where I enjoyed a delicious white hot chocolate and butter scone with jam and cream.

We left as soon as we finished to get to our next accommodation. In Stellanbosch, after another two hour drive, we visited a Wine Museum where mum tasted some wines from the area, and bought a couple. We then drove to our lovely little guest  home where we'd be staying for the next night.

We went for a walk past the botanical gardens and university to the mall where we bought lots of food and drink for the evening. As we strolled back to the room I realised I felt like I was in Southern France. It also felt like that when we had an awesome meal of cheese, bread, wine (for the parents),  crackers etc on our balcony.