Before we get on with today, I forgot to mention that last night we were each given a really nice quality textile shopping bag. Intrepid (our Tour company) is trying to encourage their use instead of plastic in all areas of the world and asked us to be ambassadors of the cause and to use them whenever we were shopping. It’s part of their responsible travel mandate.
The Cape Milner Hotel has been a great home for the past several nights. The staff have just been tremendous, always willing to go the extra mile. Aside from a bit of road noise in the morning, it was very comfortable.
I was relieved when we assembled in the lobby this morning to discover that my suitcase was not the largest by any stretch and in fact was one of the smaller ones. Now I can feel guilt-free about opening the expansion section if necessary.
The Intrepid purpose-built overland vehicle stood ready to go this morning and once we and our luggage were all stowed in lockers we were off.
Our truck/bus is equipped with power and USB power plugs about every 2 seats, has really large viewing windows (which open for cooling), and two refrigerators.
Since it was Sunday morning there was little traffic and we were out of the city in no time. We travelled north on a major road, the M7, towards Namibia. We stopped just north of the city for gas for the truck and to bid farewell to Table Mountain, until we meet again.
We travelled mostly along a lush valley with the Cedarburg Mountain range to the east and small coastal range to the west. The farmland looked quite productive with crops of canola and some I couldn’t identify. We went through an area called Citrusdel that not surprisingly had groves of citrus trees, primarily oranges,which were heavily laden with fruit.
Further along there were fields of low growing bushes of Rooibos for making Nanci’s new favourite tea. Innocent said they make the tea from the seeds rather than leaves.
Just after noon we turned west towards the ocean on to rural highway R364 towards Lamberts Bay. After driving through the small town of Lamberts Bay we pulled into a parking lot that was already packed with cars and trucks. We walked in to a seemingly chaotic scene of cooking smoke and music and piles of people at a restaurant on the ocean. The music was an eclectic mix of Afrikaans songs and cowboy harmonica music. It was an all you can eat BBQ buffet or braai as they call it here only open on Sundays. Aside from us, the guests were all local farmers. We joined the queue and dug in and then scattered throughout the venue to find seating. After filling up on several kinds of fabulous barbecued fish, salad, bread with fig preserves, sweet potato, rice with muscles, and stir fried veggies we discovered there would be more courses! Curried beef and lamb and even lobster (which was at a premium price). We all waddled back to the bus to carry on.
We had only a short drive to the wharf and a marine park to see “Bird Island” and the nesting area of Cape Gannets. While most birds spread their breeding area out these guys practically nest on top of each other. They can do that because their nests are made of guano (dried droppings) which can’t be stolen by other birds. We watched them for a time from a blind to see their behaviours. They are quite aggressive and they use their various movements to keep fights from breaking out. We don’t have wifi so I can’t upload the pics I took of the birds tonight but I’ll add them another day.
Next it was off to our swanky hotel, not. It’s a small hotel that is supposedly under going a renovation. But the room is spacious and clean if somewhat tired.
We are having dinner at this hotel tonight and will turn in early as we have a long day tomorrow.
Lois' Adventures 