Well it is time to hit the road again! We were up and out early (8.45am) for our drive over to Prince Albert and then onto Plettenberg Bay (Plett).
Today is the day we drive the Swartberg Pass and we've been looking forward to this. Although I have to admit to waking up worrying about it in the night. I'd read some reports on travel websites about how "scary" it was.
Over breakfasts (disappointingly we saw no dolphins, whales or sharks this morning) Gary discussed our route with us and suggested a couple of other passes we might wish to try - he seems to think that as our hire car is a 4WD then we should get our money's worth out of it.
So, off we go - first of all over the Kaiman River Pass - where it is incredible to see the river rushing into the ocean. Passing through George we notice big developments of Retirement Homes - e.g. Cabernet Retirement Haven. To us, they look less like Havens and more like Maximum Security Prisons.
We take the Montagu Pass instead of the Outeniqua pass. Montagu is the small, single track, rocky dirt trail that was there before the building of the large, tarmac-d Outeniqua. It was not a great road - so bumpy and all along there is a dread of meeting any oncoming traffic, as passing places are tight and infrequent. Anyway, we survived it.
I love the colours on the Outeniqua (Montagu looks over the same mountains) Mountains. Photographs just cannot do this landscape justice. There is moss green, willow green, emerald green, pale terracotta - just beautiful layers of colour. As we head on to the road toward Oudtshoorn the earth turns red and we see ostrich in almost every field.
After Oudtshoorn we start to climb toward Swartberg Pass. Signs tell us that the pass is OOP - open. Good news! Just a short way up the Pass we see a small antelope - he runs across the road in front of us and then jumps round the rocks to our right. I think it is a Grysbok. Vistas from up the pass are stunning. We stop a few times to look and take photographs. At Die Top (the top) we can see our descent track toward Prince Albert. It was a reasonably challenging drive (hairpin bends and steep hills) but not as scary as those websites had led me to believe.
http://www.patourism.co.za/swartberg%20pass.htm#tour
So we arrive at Prince Albert just in time for lunch. It is a very hot day and so tuna / greek salads are ordered. The bread is home made and lovely - like Irish soda bread but with seeds. Iced coffees are like milkshakes.
Prince Albert is a pretty town, albeit small. There is one main road which is wide and lined with lovely buildings on each side. We ate at the Swartberg Hotel, on a veranda covered with bouganvillea.
On the roads here we'd seen signs warning of "Tortoise Crossing". We weren't sure if this related to real tortoises or slow drivers! On our way out of Prince Albert we found out - as we stopped to watch a beautiful leopard tortoise cross the road. In fact, Roy got out to help him up the kerb, and tickle him under the chin, as apparently (according to Roy) this is what tortoises like. In fact we rowed over this incident, as I advised just leaving him alone. But Roy asked me "don't you know anything about tortoises, you're supposed to tickle them under the chin!". Even wild tortoises, in Africa?? I'm not so sure.
On the road to Meiringspoort we see baboons in the fields and a lot of ostrich farms. You can, if you wish, visit an ostrich farm and even ride on one for fun (they have races). While I'm all for doing touristy things, that is the sort of thing that is not for me!
Meiringspoort is interesting - it's a mountain pass that goes through the valley floor - not over the mountain and it is a spectacular gorge. We didn't even try to take photographs as I don't think I could have captured the rock formations and colours.
For a long time this afternoon, crossing the karoo from de Rust to Uniondale, we are the only car on the road. We see some meerkat running across the road and also lots of those lovely karoo lamb, grazing. Cactus and aloe plants are everywhere.
After Uniondale, things took a turn for the worse! We stopped to fill up with petrol and then could not find our turn off. Our plan, advised by Gary, was to cross the Prince Alfred's Pass down in to Knysna. So we're looking for signs to the 339 road to Knysna. Eventually we realised that the road sign had been covered up and the road ahead was marked Closed.
So, looking at the map, we had two alternatives - drive back via George - 100kms away OR try to find a way onto the pass a bit further on. We weren't sure if this was possible as we didn't know which section of the road was closed. We REALLY didn't want to drive back to George and so we tried to find a way round onto the Pass.
At Avontuur there was a link road on to the pass, but it was also marked Closed. And yet I saw some cars coming off it. Avontuur is a tiny place but luckily they had a Post Office open. Roy went in to ask if somebody knew an alternative route (other than George!). The guy in the Post Office who spoke English told him to ignore the signs and go on to the Pass. "You'll be ok". Hmmm. What to do? Eventually we took a decision to chance it - after all, if it was closed at some point we could turn round and come back.
Well, it was NOT a pass you'd want to come back on! It was very bendy and steep, and not a great road. I think it is about 20kms long. Halfway up we saw a car coming the other way so we flashed him and he stopped... he told us the road was open. Well, he didn't actually say that, he just said "keep going, you'll get through". This pass was much worse than Swartberg - sheer drops down off the mountain pretty much all the way round. We thought we would never come off this pass. In fact, we didn't really. All the way to Knysna. After the "Prince Alfred Pass" the road turned into a forest and twisted and turned for another 70kms down to the N2 (main road to Plett). We got stuck behind forest workers going home and driving slowly, the dust off their cars was awful. There was a huge township up in the forest - we weren't expecting to see that!
Eventually we hit the main road - were we glad to see tarmac again! We had about 30kms to Plett. Arrived there about 5.15ish. Another full day's driving. The last two hours of it were 2 hours too many!
Fynbos Ridge was our accommodation in Plett.
http://www.fynbosridge.co.za/index.html
We were expecting to be staying in a room in the main house, but when we arrived, Martin - the gay looking/sounding manager (who was not gay!), told us that because they were having some work done on the roof of the main house, he'd upgraded us to a self catering cottage. But that we could still come up for breakfasts in the house. The cottage was fantastic - 2 bedrooms, huge lounge, kitchen and 2 bathrooms. The patio outside had a braai (bbq), table and chairs and sun loungers on it. And the views! On the left we had the Outeniqua Mountains and on the right the Tsitsikamma Mountains. The house is on a ridge over looking forest. Bird life is incredible here and the whole atmosphere is so peaceful and quiet.
The lounge and master bedrooms also had fires set up in them. All we needed to do was strike a match and so, even though it wasn't very cold, Roy lit the fire in the lounge.
Martin had booked us in for dinner at the main house - they do dinner a couple of times each week for guests. We wandered over there at 7-ish. There was only us and a British family (currently living in Joburg) staying at Fynbos Ridge so it was pretty quiet. We all chatted over an aperitif in the lounge and then dinner was served. R400 for 3 courses, aperitifs and a bottle of First Sighting red. We had prawn cocktail, steak, veg and potatoes and coffee chocolate mousse. Oh and coffee. Good home cooking and incredible value. We were back in our room at 9. Martin had made a huge fuss over us and amused us by presenting each dish with a grand flourish and an order to "indulge". So funny. He also kept on and on about how romantic it would be for us in the cottage. I did tell him that Roy had discovered Sports Channels on the satellite tv!!!
Liz - she owns Fynbos with her husband Brian - kept wandering in for a chat in between courses at dinner. She has an unfortunate high pitched voice but seems nice. Overall, the team here do pester you a bit too much to check that everything is ok. But I'm not complaining about that. Liz and Brian have only recently bought the place and so I guess they are keen to keep up its excellent reputation.
Early night. Was it romantic? I'm not telling.
