Two nights in Knysna

Two nights of backpacking accommodation was enough for my travel buddy and I was duly informed that in Knysna we’d be relocating from skuzzy backpackers to something a little more upmarket.

Well, ‘a little upmarket’ is a bit of an understatement: we actually stayed in The Tonquani Lodge and Spa (Wellbedacht Lane, Knysna). Tucked away in a beautiful wooded area this lodge was nothing short of spectacular. Each room was in fact a chalet complete with personal swimming pool and braai area, kitchen, plasma screen TV, two fantastic double rooms…oh and a bottle of complementary port (Yum!)

On our first day in Knysna we headed out to the Featherbed Nature Reserve. Once again we were the youngest members of the tour (average age 60+). It was a lovely couple of hours though with fantastic views over Knysna and the Knysna Heads (where the river meets the Indian Ocean). That evening we had a lazy evening in with pizza, port and a DVD.

After booking the obligatory spa treatments, our next day was spent at Plettenberg Bay. Thinking it would be a quaint, picturesque little bay we arrived utterly unprepared for what we came across. The school year was most definitely over! Draped across the sands of this uber modern bay – complete with tower block hotel – were hundreds of 16/17 year olds each showing off their pre-university to-die-for bods in skimpy bikinis and designer board shorts. This was the playground of the sons and daughters of the rich and famous: the girls were manicured to the extreme (yep…apparently make up is the done thing at the beach), the boys were 16-year-old boys desperately trying to be men. It made for uncomfortable viewing for Amrita and I who had well over a decade on all of them. Furthermore, we had no beachwear with us and sat in our shorts on a patch of sand very much on the outskirts of the action. There we sat and watched and marveled at how simple life is to be 16 with the whole world ahead of you!

A couple of hours later and we too were manicured: I opted for a pedi whilst Amrita treated herself to a massage. On our way back to the lodge we’d also picked up food so, rather than clubbing it up with the nubile young things, us nanas opted for bubbles and a braai on our very own braai in front of our very own small-but-perfectly-formed private swimming pool.

The place with the unpronounceable name

Oudtshoorn – pronounced something like ao-ud-stern – was our next stop on the road trip. Home to numerous ostrich farms, a place where you can swim with crocs, large limestone caves and a rather pathetic waterfall, we thought we’d pay it a visit.

The Cango caves were beautiful – well as beautiful as a limestone cave can get I guess! We opted for the standard tour rather than the ‘adventurous’ tour which required a great deal of wriggling through very small crevices in the rock. Looking around at all the middle/third-age persons with whom we doing the tour, it became blindingly obvious that Amrita and I were in fact ‘nanas’ for having opted to visit caves at all. Nevertheless, from a nana’s perspective, they were caves worth seeing!

After the cave visit we decided to check out the waterfall that postcards boasted as spectacular. We headed back down the road we'd come before turning off onto shale. This was Horrid Henry’s first attempt at offroading and he managed it with style…albeit at about 20km/hr. A good 40-minute drive, entrance fee and short walk later and we arrived at what can only be described as a miserable dribble drooling over the rocks. The pools where people on postcards frolicked against the backdrop of a fast flowing waterfall were now sat idle and stagnant. In fact, he whole area felt a little unloved. A brief photo of a place that neither of us is likely to see again and it was back in the car for 40 minutes of juddering back down to the main road.

That evening we ate at a small place on the main road through town called Nostalgie – a fantastic boutique café that served up hearty grub at rock bottom prices. We had a fantastic meal with wine for under £5 each. Definitely a recommended pitstop if you are ever in the area!

Stellenbosch wines and Magical Montagu

Today Amrita and I met Horrid Henry the Hyundai – our car for our 7-day roadtrip along Route 62 (aka the Garden Route). (Horrid Henry got his name for being a bit wet under the bonnet: push your foot down to the floor and all you got was a lacklustre attempt at acceleration.)

We headed out of Cape Town, past the townships and airport and inland towards rolling hills and the picturesque university town of Stellenbosch. As we came off the motorway we were greeted by the regimented green expanses of vineyards draped across the countryside as far as the eye could see. At the end of each line of vines, rose bushes flowered to help keep insects at bay. Emerging unapologetically from amongst the vines were luxurious estate buildings and cellars where people can pop in to taste the wines.

The first vineyard we stopped at was Asara. Here we enjoyed a wine tasting of 5 reds and 5 whites. The tasting glasses and samples were bigger than at most wine tastings I’d previously been to which was unfortunate as we were driving. We tasted them all working out which were our preferred wines (the Merlot was a particular favourite) before having a wander around the estate.

The scenery in this part of the world is pretty spectacular and the Asara estate had a particularly beautiful setting against a mountainous horizon. We had lunch in a French cafe in Stellenbosch: a quaint little town replete with tiny boutique bookshops and funky designer stores.From there it was back in the car for a rather long drive to Montagu. We wound our way through the hills, over mountain passes and past countless wineries before finally arriving at The Mystic Tin and (Karoo)brewery (a very pleasant B&B / backpacker cross) where we were to spend the night.

Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden

Amrita and I had a lazy morning of coffee/ tea drinking in the sun of Lucy’s garden before we got ready to head to the Kirstenbosch botanical gardens.We walked the short distance from Lucy’s house then had a wander about. The gardens were stunning, set against the base of the mountains that encircle Cape Town and a cloudless blue sky. We had a short look around before heading for the café. Here we enjoyed some great nosh before finding a suitable patch of lawn for a siesta. This is how we spent most of our afternoon!

That evening we all headed out to the exquisite Indian restaurant chain, Bukhara. The food we ate here was some of the best Indian cuisine I’ve ever tasted; it even got the thumbs up from Amrita!

A windy day in Cape Town

It was a blustery day when Amrita and I decided to head down to the Victoria and Alfred (yep Alfred not Albert) waterfront – the tourist hub of Cape Town. The waterfront is awash with stylish bars, restaurants, gift shops and diamond jewellers; there are elegant boats in the marina and an energetic vibe all about. We wandered around, soaking up the sun and being blown around by the wind before deciding to do the open-top bus tour.

Unfortunately, Table Mountain wasn’t accessible due to the wind but the rest of the tour was doable. The bus took us through the heart of Cape Town and pointed out the key sights including controversial District 6 – a veritable wasteland close to the city centre where a township was forcibly cleared 20-odd years ago. Controversy surrounding the township clearance has left this large area of the city to form into grassy wasteland as no one wishes to re-populate it.

From the town centre the bus continued its journey to the base of Table Mountain then on to the stunning beaches and exclusive housing of Camps Bay and Clifton. Finally, we passed the football stadium, which was in the process of being built for the World Cup 2010 beafore heading back into town. Here, Amrita and I took advantage of Harrie’s Pancake House – a treasure trove of a café serving up luscious sweet and savoury pancakes.