South Africa #21

On our way to George. We are leaving Route 62, the wine route, and entering The Garden Route. I’m not sure why it’s called that, there aren’t any gardens to see, but perhaps the landscape and temperature is more conducive to gardening than the wine route. I don't actually know. The landscape is much greener, and we are climbing over the Larangeberg Outenique Mtn Range and will be heading down towards the warmer coastal area soon where the weather is warm year round. The mountains are not as “craggy” as at home, these are much older and have had time to smooth themselves out. (Hardly a geological term, but you get my meaning.) 

Oyster farming is huge in this area, but I never did see oysters on a menu. Like the shoemaker’s kids I suppose.

We are seeing a lot of zebras and springbok on the sides of the road. Here’s food for thought: as Canadians we say “zed” as the last letter of the alphabet. Americans say “zee”. The proper way to pronounce zebra is to rhyme it with Debra. Our guide corrects us constantly. So why do we pronounce it the American way (zeeee-bra) instead of the correct way? Too much American influence. In any case, seeing wild zebras just gives me goosebumps.

We are now driving though Tsitsikama National Park where our home for the night is the Storms River B&B. Another amazing place. This flower is The Bird of Paradise. 

The rooms are beautiful, as usual. 

The pool was surrounded by lemon trees.


We walked over to the tiny restaurant for dinner where I had 2 South African dishes, for dinner it was boboti, similar to shepherds pie, as far as the ground meat goes, with an egg-bread topping but the spices were more Moroccon; cinnamon, nutmeg, apricots and currents. It was delicious. For dessert I had Malva pudding with a custard sauce, very similar to UK sticky toffee pudding. 

Early to bed as the next morning was another hike. I kept my windows open to smell the air. There are jacaranda trees all over and the smell is just incredible. 

Not too sure what goes on inside this building, nor am I sure that I want to know.