What a way to end a tour.

On Friday, I walked around the Robberg Peninsula again, the first half seemed easy compared to my memories of the same route two years ago but then I hit the boulders on the  start of the second half an my euphoria rapidly drained away, it was a tiring walk especially in the heat but well worth it for the amount of wildlife I saw and it is a quiet peaceful, place. Next time I will just take a picnic to the beach and chill.

Looking back at Robberg beach from the start of the walk.

Cape Point the halfway mark, still full of confidence.

Path?, What path?

The goal next time with my picnic.

Yesterday, I said goodbye to Sedgefield and made my way along the N2 to Caledon, my last stay before catching the plane on Monday. En-route I stopped for a relaxed two hour lunch at an excellent restaurant on the outskirts of Swellendam, The Bakers Dozen. The N2 for most of that journey is a boring repetition of sheep and wheat, I much prefer the R62 through the Little Karoo. My garden cottage at Zoop B&B would make a fine base for exploring with a large lounge/kitchen/dining room, two bedrooms and a huge bathroom. My host Lindy is a well renowned chef locally and provided a scrumptious braai dinner for me last night of BBQ local sausage, lamb chops, oven roasted veg, new potatoes and a great little Afrikaans side dish, Smoor which is slow cooked onion and tomato with a touch of garlic and vinegar, I will have to try that one when I get home. Talking of which I am looking forward to cooking for myself after six weeks of mostly restaurant food.


Today was the ideal way to end my tour, the Caledon hotel is also a casino and spa with the added advantage of having natural heated mineral pools. I started the day with a quick exploration of the town, nothing to write home about but apparently there are a lot of interesting attractions in the local vicinity. My next point of call was the mineral baths, the hottest was far two hot for my sensitive skin but I spent an hour and a half soaking in three of the pools before going into the spa for my first ever full body massage, what an experience, I came out the other end feeling like I had been through the mangel but so relaxed as well, thank you Cisoxolo. I did pop in to the casino afterwards but there was nothing there to entice me and to see the people fixated on the one-arm bandits is quite depressing.

Well my host, the chef is making me her version of lasagne tonight so that about wraps up this trip, I need to do some serious planning for next month but I have booked again with Wicked Campers for both Oz and NZ so that is half of the work done.

22m long pick up and trailers.

Is that legal?

Bye now, got to go.

Winding down.

The Island from Across the river

There are two tiny paragliders in this picture.

Our time is coming to an end here in Sedgefield, tomorrow we head off to Caledon and then up to the airport on the 15th to catch the overnight flight home.
The past few days have been good, we have left the car behind and gone exploring first in the Wilderness National park with a peaceful walk where we only met a few people so it was quiet enough to stop and actually see and hear the wildlife. The walk itself crossed and recrossed the small river and we ended up at a dry waterfall (South Africa is experiencing the driest year for over 150 years and if things do not improve they are looking at turning off the taps in Cape Town on 22nd April)

No waterfall but a nice place to cool off.

Yesterday we went up to the paragliding launch site to watch loonies jumping of a cliff but the views from up there of Sedgfield were gorgeous.

The Island Sedgefield.

Sedgefield town on the left.

Isn't that gorgeous.

Then we went for a stroll along the river and around The Island which is a posh area with what seem to be mostly holiday homes and you can see why. It was peaceful and pleasant to stroll along and chat to the fishermen but at one point there were a couple of kids having a whale of a time splashing in the shallows and I found myself puposefully not looking at them, isn't it awful the way our lives are ruled by political correctness.



In the afternoon we ended up walking along the beach for a couple of hours and if I wakeup early enough tomorrow I will go down there to catch the sunrise

RAIN!!!

It has been raining on and off for the past 24 hours and the temperature dropped so low that I actually put on a pair of socks, whats going on, it is supposed to be summer here in South Africa.

My current accommodation is in a garret with roof beams and a dormer window but it isn't all Verdi type gloom, the place is immaculate and I have a northeast facing window so the sun wakes me up in the morning and then the room stays cool in the afternoon. I am also around the corner from the Sedgefeld Arms which serves good ales and very reasonably price food but they fall down on the PCness, pints of beer are listed as such on the bill but the smaller schooner measure at 300cc is listed as a Ladies glass.

The team

Look at that dust

Green laneing

Yesterday I went Scootertouring which is a variation on a familiar theme but this time we were taken by minibus up into the hills north of Knysna and allowed to freewheel down 3 different dirt roads on a bigger version of a child's scooter with big chunky tyres, great fun.










Today's adventure was a guided off road quad bike experience, 11kms of hills, hairpins and obstacles. I learned early on that a quad bike does not steer around corners when you just lean like on a two wheel motorbike and also if you put your foot down on a tight bend the rear wheel runs over it. I enjoyed the day but the course was one tight turn after another amongst trees, I would have preferred a more open course with the chance to get some speed up but that will be next time. After that excitement I decided to call in at the Sedgefield Craft Brewery, I had tried their Irish Red Ale on Saturday at the Farmer's Market when the place was packed to the rafters but today there was only me and the brew master Tony Hunter, the India Pale Ale was excellent an Tony was quite happy to share his brewing knowledge with me whilst getting another brew on the go. What a great day.

Down on the coast.

The view from the Outeniqua Pass towards the sea

The dirt road of the Montagu Pass 

Well where to start? I spotted a mention of The Barnyard Plettenberg Bay on one of the many leaflets that Tourist Information throw at you and on I looked them up on line on Tuesday evening to see that they had bands playing on the next day and the following day, I managed to bags one of the last two seats on both days. You can imagine on Wednesday night after driving down from Oudtshoorn to Sedgefield checking in to my new digs at Tiffany's Rooms and then on to Plettenberg Bay I arrived with some trepidation at the Barnyard to introduce myself to the other five people on the table only to find that I was literally the odd man out, the five ladies seated at the table could not have been more welcoming, they were having a reunion and celebrating Pam's the eldest's fiftieth birthday. The band Watershed were excellent and far better than their YouTube videos suggested, their act was a high energy performance and the singer was a real entertainer, I crawled into bed after midnight after a full day only to be up early for a canoe session I had pre-booked for earl Thursday morning, it was a repeat of a trip I did a couple of years ago up the Touws river then a walk up to to a waterfall. 

There is always some people who want to pose.

My trusty canoe with back support for the elderly.

The Touws River very popular for all water sports but after seeing a water snake, I think I will stay in the boat.

Just about caught the guy who had jumped of the rocks before he hit the water

That evening a repeat of the previous day only this time I was the odd man out on a table of 10 and that turned out to be true, I joined two families who after the introductions ignored me completely and the band Prime Circle  turned out to be a disappointment as well, some of their songs sounded as though they could have been good but when delivered by a shouty singer with too much thrash metal background noise, no. I am surprised that I lasted an hour and a half but I wanted to give them a chance.
The Barnyard is a brilliant venue with seating for only 250ish people so it is an intimate space where you can get up close with whoever is appearing, it is worth Googling it to see how it all came about. Apparently the theme has now spread and there are barnyards in other places, for me it is the ideal place to hear live music.

Today I had booked to go Stand Up Paddleboarding but my back is objecting so I am taking a day of rest which may extend over the weekend.

Goodbye Oudtshoorn

I thoroughly enjoyed lunch at Die Smitswinkel on Sunday, the big complaints on TripAdvisor were slow service and being left standing like a prat at the sign that asks customers to wait to be seated, so I found an empty table sat down and ordered a beer as soon as I arrived, sure the service is slow but I was in no rush to go anywhere else and when the cabaret of watching the customers and the staff dancing amongst the tables paled I had a book with me. The food was good, the beer cold and it was cool during the hottest part of the day. The place is decorated with road memorabilia especially old Harley Davidsons and as ornaments in a restaurant I think they have at last found their niche.

Hog ornament.

Tomorrow I will be leaving here and it is time, I have exhausted my list of things to see and do so tomorrow is the start of new adventures, so this morning while the car was getting valeted to hide the evidence of my off-road travels I went for a final walk and visited the water tower on the hillside above the B&B.

The western water tower.

You can just see the Eastern water tower on the hill top, brilliant walking country even I could not get lost

Tonight I am having a farewell dinner at the Queen's Hotel (where Saga Louts stay when in town) I decided to push the boat out and have something other than steak or salad.