Photo Album: Garden Route to Port Elizabeth
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After hugging along the coast lines from False Bay to Cape Agulhas, and then went inland north of Hwy 2, I finally went back to the coast and reached Mossel Bay. Mossel Bay is a town on the Garden Route, a popular self drive touring route on the Westerm Cape region of South Africa, essentially along the Indian Ocean coast.
After a night at Mossel Bay, I walked around Cape St Blaize and followed the St Blaize Hiking Trail with the hope to see some whales activities.
However, the only animals I could find was a family of Rock Dassies.
And some students presumably in recess at a nearby school
Bartholomeu Dias Museum in Mossel Bay is one of the major tourist attractions, its exhibits includes a Museum of Shells,
A very old tree that was once served as a post office over 500 years ago. It seems quite common in the middle ages for seafarers to leave their letters in various well known spots like this, for other ships to come and collect on their way home, as a means of communicating with their families at home. A similar system can be found in Galapagos as well.
And large whale skeleton, a reminder of the old whaling days in the region.
A life size replica of the ship, Caravel, which Bartholomeu Dias captained, and first landed in this part of Africa back in 1488.
After lunch, it was time to head north into the hills again, to Oudthshoorn where a number of ostrich farms are open to visitors.
We were introduced to the entire process of Ostrich farming, from incubation of eggs, birth, hatchery, and all the way to full commercialization of all the products.
In the incubator, here was a just hatched chicks, no more than 2-3 day old, still feeble.
And those of a week or more old, were let outside to be with their parents.
Fancy riding on them for a race, very hilarious !
Very surprising to see how hard the egg shells are, withstanding quite a heavy static weight, but don't jump on them !
Here are some of the artworks created....
By the time I reached the coast heading towards Knysna, it has decidedly become colder. Afterall, it was Spring.
The next morning, whilst waiting for my laundries to be done, it was a good time to drive around the small harbour of Knysna.
At the harbour head, with a small hike uphill, gives a full view of the Indian Ocean. Unfortunately, the whales were too far out to be observed easily.
Further driving eastwards, is Plettenberg Bay, also a very neat and tidy little coastal town, with plenty of what seemed upper middle class residential houses, juggling for a good ocean views.
The Western Cape from Cape Town eastwards, by my reading, seems to be a coveted place for many European retirees, with its relatively lower cost of housing, temperate climate and above all, excellent coastal environments.
The Storm River Mouth Reserve further east, offers some good hiking and excellent coastal scenery, unfortunately, I had other plans, which limited my options to stay longer.
Again, spring was showing her colours.
By early mid afternoon, I reached the beaches of Port Elizabeth. Port Elizabeth appears to me to be
a bigger town then Mossel Bay, Knysna etc. along the Garden Route, nevertheless, it is quite neat and well laid out, with some excellent white sand beaches.
It was here, that since leaving Cape Town, that I had good wifi connection and more importantly the time to research and book my accommodations for Kruger National Park, of which I would spend 4 days at the final part of this journey.
Very nice trip David.
ReplyDeleteA fascinating trip. Various birds, geographic features, residents life, Indian Ocean view etc. Open my scope of view. Thank you for sharing. Derek Li of Hong Kong
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