2/26 thru 2/27

We drove down the Eastern Cape from Port Elizabeth through Jeffrey's Bay, a world renowned surfing beach with the perfect waves. Stopped for lunch at Cape St. Francis, the southern most point of the Eastern Cape. Had a beautiful seafood platter-shrimp, mussels, calamari, and fish at the Cape St. Francis Resort. We waited awhile for our meal and the waitress kept telling us it was on the way. Then, the chef came out to tell us the fish had just been delivered and it would be ready shortly. Someone told us the English have "watches" and the South Africans have "time." That certainly was the case with our lunch today! Met some engineers from the Volkswagen plant in Port Elizabeth who were attending a team building session at the resort. Team-building and meeting facilitation is very popular in South Africa, with many hotels promoting themselves as the place to "team build." Port Elizabeth is the "Detroit" of SA and there are other car plants there as well. Volkswagen makes cars in Port Elizabeth for export to all of Asia and Australia. The Volkswagen engineers told us there are 11 official languages spoken in SA. Many folks speak Dutch or Afrikaans (especially all the South Afrikaners) and most everyone does speak English. The VW plant's official language is English, but everyone must be able to speak German as well.

We just had our first mix-up. Our North Carolina Credit Union Cash Card did not work at the ATM. We will try again tomorrow. We have other cards for cash, but they charge a fee whereas the credit union card has a minimal fee. We experienced a rotten-egg odor in the car. We thought we might have hit an animal it was stuck in the under carriage. We stopped at the Toyota dealer in Joubertina on Route 62. The service manager, Jan, was kind enough to lift the car, but no animal was found, just a lot of "elephant dung" from our trip through Kruger and other animal reserves. Jan would not accept payment for checking the car. This was yet another example of the kindness and generosity that we have received from the South African people. Jan recommended we try a local delicacy called "ostrich stomach." Ostrich's are highly farmed in the area and ostrich meat is on many menus in SA. He also recommended the Cango Caves, which Lonely Planet informed us would require crawling on our bellies through tunnels. We think Jan is a fine fellow, but we decided against both of these recommendations! We drove through the mountains to Plettenberg Bay on a 75 km gravel road that was like driving through Bryce Canyon in Utah and the Sierra Nevada Mountains combined. We saw a family of 15 baboons on the side of the road and scampering in the trees, just living their lives in the wild. The male baboon was prepared to whip our ass if we threatened his family. We only met two cars on the gravel road and only 5 cars passed us.

We stayed in Knysna on the Garden Route, Western Cape, the most promoted drive in South Africa. The road goes to Capetown. We stayed at the Inathi Guest Lodges in individual wooden cottagges/huts decorated in an African motif with victorian bathtubs. The bed and bath were in the same room so we took two cottages. Nancy began settling into her room when a gecko lizzard jumped from the windowsill behind the bed. She then ran over to Doug's cottage and pleaded to change cottages. Doug slept in the "gecko" cottage, but never saw the lizzard! To shower in these cottages, you had to stand in the claw foot tub and use a hand shower nozzle to spray your body. A full English breakfast was included and the stay was well worth the price of R640 ($90) for two cottages. Side note: Lonely Planet mentioned that Knysna is a "gay friendly" town. SA is a gay-friendly tourist destination and marriage between two gay people is recognized and legal in South Africa.

We lost two wheel covers during our travels on the gravel roads. We stopped at a Renault dealership in George and replaced them for $40. Afrikaners seem to have adopted American country music as their music choice when they cannot hear music in their own language (a form of Dutch). We stopped in Swellendam for lunch at LaBelle Alliance, a restaurant located in an old Masonic Lodge. We had a wonderful South African dish called "bobotie," a sweet minced meat pie with no crust on the bottom and side, but with an egg crust on top. It was served with baked pineapple and baked wine-drenched stone pears. Also, had chicken pie and a milk tart for dessert-R192-$26. Drove to Hermanus and spent the night at Hermanus Esplanade-a two bedroom, two bath apartment just off the Indian Ocean. Had dinner at Ocean Basket-R221-a seafood restaurant chain in South Africa and Namibiagood, but not great. The dessert was sort of miniature tartuffo's with cream. Note: you have to pay for gas in SA with cash, no credit cards allowed. The country allows an 8% fixed gross profit for gas stations so gas is the same price everywhere. Just minimal changes in price from larger cities to smaller cities out in the countryside.