Saturday 28th
Today we were driving to Mossel Bay from Cape Town, which directly was around a 4 hour drive. After checking out of the hotel by 11am, we headed out, but instead of going the direct route down the No 2 Motorway, we drove first to Stellenbosch (it was cloudy and raining most of the way) – wine country which we would have stayed at, if not for the Visa Issue. We had a little look around the town and a few of the shops there before continuing on towards Franschhoek and through a mountain pass to some reservoirs/lakes. Instead of going directly to the N2 (we avoided the toll road), we drove near the mountains, eventually taking a 12km unsealed road, before joining the main garden route. Eventually we arrived in Mossel Bay area, as you approach it was similar to the outskirts of Cape Town, smaller township type housing, but when arriving near the Protea Hotel Mossel Bay, which was pretty much near the center, it felt like a western town. We arrived at around 5.30 and the hotel staff were really friendly and offered me a glass of sherry – how could I refuse!
We asked about food, as seafood was the speciality around here, and after some head scratching it was suggested to go to a pizza/fastfood place, where we had crumbled mushrooms, salad and the cheesiest pizza (even for me).
Sunday 29th
Waking up in the morning we went for a walk. I managed to confuse a guy who was after a cigarette (or change), especially with the help of my Stewie t-shirt. After having breakfast at the hotel, we visited the Mossel Bay museum which has the largest collection of shells, before checking out at 11am. We went to the coast and had a walk up to the lighthouse and a path on the headland there, where there were lots of those animals which were closely related to elephants apparently.
We drove down the N2 to Knysna, to the Premier Hotel, which is quite a new hotel. The room we were given was quite spacious and on the second floor. After settling down, we went to the reception and asked about whether it would be possible to change our last night to another hotel (due to the really early flight from Port Elisabeth), she said that she would leave a message for her manager to see if this could be done. Unfortunately there was no premier hotel in Port Elisabeth, the next was in East London otherwise she would have been able to change us to that.
We then asked about having a walk, the receptionist was quite funny (in a good way) and basically said she would not like a couple like us going out for a trail walk, but she suggested we walk to Leisure Island and have a walk around it, which we did. It was getting quite late already, but the weather was quite hot, so we were a little tired by the the time we got back to the hotel.
We drove to the main waterfront harbour and had a look at the shops and restaurants, there seemed to be a nice Italian so we planned to come there a bit later, as Bhavni wanted to go to the heads for a sunset view. I managed to find the really nice view (Bhavni did not believe I was going the right way for a good view) on the top of the heads. As we headed back we went to look at the lower view. One of the parking attendants was there and pointed for us to go to a parking, so feeling guilty we parked and went to look at the adjoining restaurant expecting seafood. However it was a pizzeria and they made space for us out on the Balcony with a view of the sea.
Monday 30th
After a light breakfast, we had a talk to the manager, who was on duty. She said she would talk to the central office and see if it was possible to refund us a day as it was an agent booking, but it turned out even with all her help it could not be done.
We decided to go for a walk in the forest, so we drove up the R339 up an unsealed road to where we went on the Red Elephant walk – 9km but reasonably over a lot of gradients. We managed it in just over 2hours – not too bad if I do say so my self. Starving we got a toasted cheese sandwich (well less cheese for Bhavni) from the cafe at the start of the walks.
We went to the waterfront – via the hotel to change, and went to the pizzeria there, but all the tables were reserved, so we ordered a take away, though luckily when we went to collect it, someone had cancelled so we got to eat in. We went to the hotel and tried to go to sleep early.
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