April 15, Knysna to Stellenbosch

Wednesday, April 15, Day 72 - Knysna to Stellenbosch
It rained during the night and is showery and blustery as we get up. Breakfast is served from 8:00 - 9AM and we make it to the table about 8:30AM. This is not the best breakfast we have had but it is fine and we are packed up, checked out and heading for our next stop by 9:30AM. We first drive up to the view points for the Head.

As we head to N2 we first stop at an open air African Craft market where Carolyn makes the day for several vendors. We are especially happy with a carving out of ironwood depicting the "Big Five" game animals; lion, elephant, cape buffalo, leopard and rhinoceros. How we will get it home is another question and Dick expects to cuss it for the next six weeks.

We buy gasoline and head out for a long day’s drive, some 375km, along the coast and then inland across the bread basket of South Africa. It is still showery and the inland mountains, supposed to be a very pretty drive, are mostly covered in clouds with obvious heavy rain falling some of the time. We had planned to go that route, but there is nothing wores than driving in the mountains in the rain and fog.  This route is very scenic also and time passes quickly.

 

We stop to stretch our legs and walk to the beach in the Wilderness National Park and again for a McDonald’s lunch in Mossel Bay, something we never do at home. We are being to see the communities that are the old Townships around Mossel Bay. We continue our drive on N2 which continues to be a very good road. It is not toll for any of this day’s drive but it is also not interstate quality but is a good, well maintained, two lane highway with frequent passing lanes for the whole way. Other than the scenery and watching the storms in the mountains, there is not much to do on this lower route and we put the kilometers behind us with speed limits of 120km/h (75mph) most of the way.

It is 5PM by the time we get to Stellenbosch and rush hour is in full swing. The in-town traffic is horrible but we make it to Summerwood Guest House with no trouble and move into our ground floor room #2. The hostess, a college girl, makes reservations for us at Apres, our third choice. The others could not take us until 8:30PM; probably because the town is expecting another "Load Shedding" power outage 6 to 8PM and, sure enough, the power goes out at 6:02PM. We make it to our restaurant in the evening twilight and have pizzas and Caesar Salad and a bottle of wine for dinner.

Back in our room, the power comes on promptly at 8:02PM and we work on the blog and picture downloads until sleep calls us.