A Dash to the Garden Route

Our next major plan was cycling the Garden Route, starting in Port Elizabeth, so we decided to make tracks -- heads down and drive. This first section began with the drive from hell-- never to be repeated!

We needed to get from the southern end of Krueger National Park to the west coast, south of Mozambique. It may have been faster to cut through Swaziland -- apparently the border is quite seamless -- but we had not made arrangements for same when we rented the RV, so have to drive around or chance no insurance coverage. We drove around. It was actually a pleasant drive at the start. We were on secondary roads, but they were tarred, so conditions weren't bad. But the road were narrow and winding and often steep (we at one stage climbed a series of switchbacks to 1770 metres), so progress was slow. That is, we went slow. Many local drivers still go at or even exceed the posted 120 kph - yikes!

Cattle farming is common. There are lots of sugar plantations. We see interesting wildlife (zebra, mongoose) and an ostrich farm. We meet baboons. But the poverty is very real. And there seems an added sense of restlessness. Perhaps because there seems no escape? Closer to the cities, life must be more difficult in many ways, but perhaps people aspire to jobs in the industrial maw. Here there is nothing to do, it would seem. That's if for pop psychology, the essence of it all is that the journey is longer.

It was the right decision to move through these areas since there's be nothing for us to do, but we hadn't counted on such slow speed. In addition, this is where we first encountered what would hereafter be steady roadworks with the associated delays. Many of the roads badly need improvement and some of the projects are clearly "community uplift programs" so one can hardly complain. Yet late in the day, it is unwanted tedium. Day turns into dusk, dusk turns into evening, evening turns into night, and we haven't reached our destination of St. Lucia Estuary. We rarely have destinations, we normally make it up as we go along, but caravan sites are rare here. All day, after 14 hours driving, I've seen one caravan park and only two other RVs on the road. Its dumb and intimidating to be driving around in the pouring rain, lost in back country roads where there's no signage and, even if there were, it would mean nothing because we have no map of a scale that would be useful. The RV is not the most maneuverable of vehicles and I have visions of us in a ditch somewhere in the back of beyond if we fail to make one of the many U-turns involved when you're completely lost. It is very quiet in our RV!

Once again, however, our horseshoes are with us. We eventually find the coast, find the road to St. Lucia Estuary and, after 30 more km of driving in the pitch black, pouring rain on a one-lane road arrive at the town. There are lights. There are 2 people. here's a caravan park. Its completely locked up, but we find another, pull in and, despite the fact that we haven't registered -- there's no one around now -- park, crash, snooze.

The next morning we discover there is someone else around. He looks like a dissolute misfit who has taken up permanent residence in a corner of the caravan park. Tarpaulin stretched out over old sofas and miscellaneous junk, and a heap of an old car which clearly hasn't run in years sits forlornly by. He ambles over and engages Brent in conversation while I suddenly decide its my turn to tidy up the RV. These dishes haven't been done in days; they really shouldn't wait a minute longer. Conversation carries on outside. Comment, response, grunt, long silence. Comment, response, grunt, long silence. He finally gets up the nerve to ask if we've paid anyone and, when Brent responds no, says we can pay him -- no surprise! 120 rand -- that's a surprise! Twice the going rate for wonderful facilities -- probably 3 times for this dump. But you're not in much of a position to bargain after the fact. And, in any event, we were so pleased to find this place last night, we would have gladly paid double this amount at the time. So not only are we happy, he's happy and as it turns out, so are all his friends. About two minutes after pocketing the money, the broken down car sputters to life, bounces out of the park n a cloud of blue exhaust, only to return a few moments later with some suds. Shortly thereafter the party begins. Its early yet, so that party will be over by noon. So we weren't tempted to invite ourselves!

The St. Lucia Estuary is both a World Heritage Site and a gorgeous spot. It includes a long, sandy, currently empty beach backed by miles of sand dunes. Swimming is not permitted; signs warn of currents, hippos, crocs, sharks, but the waves of the Indian Ocean are turquoise blue and the surf roars. The area includes South Africa's largest lake, formed when the oceans receded centuries ago. The bird life must be quite something at the right time of year. Apparently fishing is popular here and the area is a popular tourist resort town in season. But it is the ecology and scenery that could be a real draw. Give it a couple of days to find out.

As we continue our way down the cost, there are sights we will forever associate with South Africa

• controlled burns a night where the flames move slowly along the ground, but light up the night sky
• the dark, dark sky filled with southern hemisphere bright stars
• eucalyptus and pine plantations with branches removed from the bottom 30 feet to promote straight clear wood
• termite mounds of grey and red soil
• women in colourful garb with great piles of firewood or pails of water carried great distances on their heads
• road signs that say things like "Cattle on road for 180 kms

There are also unforgettable impressions of African communities.

Leaving East London at 6:00 a.m. hundreds of people were pouring into the city for the hills. A few were in the very crowded tuk-tuks, the VW [Toyota] buses that serve the country, but most walk. For miles. Single- or double-file, in business dress, deep in thought or laughing in small groups, across the dirt paths in the fields to the sidewalks to the city. Only about 6 kms from the city did the steady stream change to a trickle. Only to be replaced by rambunctious kids in school uniforms. This is, I suppose, the positive of industrial activity.

The less pretty picture coming into Port Elizabeth from the back side is of truly miserable shanties. Farther out there are some newer "suburbs", but closer and closer to town, the more poverty-stricken it seems -- tiny huts, roofs of green garbage bags, not a scrap of garden, no water. What a time South Africa must be having trying to grapple with such social issues.

A third vignette is of a town like Mt. Frere. Everything is for sale on the main street. Traffic, of which there is very little, grinds to a halt. People hang out on the sidewalk, on the road, in front of the stores and buildings along this one-road town. Its chaotic. Shoes, chickens, pots, clothing, radios, bananas, you name it. Sales must occur, but it looks more like everyone milling around. I sometimes feel an obligation to contribute in some way, but there is truly nothing we want. So sometimes we buy bananas or nuts. It seems not enough.

We finished this leg with a trip to the Addo Elephant Park in another of South Africa's National parks. This park is very different from Kruger. For the most part it is very think bush so its difficult to see anything more than a few feet from the road. While it does open up in spots, generally its hard work finding any animals. We did manage to see a few kudu, 2 red hartebeest (who had moved only a few metres when we retraced our route back about 3 hours later), ostrich, black-backed jackals and, as the name would suggest, mucho elephants. When the park was proclaimed in 1931 it had 11 elephants, now they number more than 300. And there's no way you could miss them on even a 2 hour visit. Most memorable is when they move in file to a waterhole; we saw 2 herds of 15+ mother, baby, mother, teen, etc. in a scene worthy of National Geographic!

Apparently Addo has recently acquired six pairs of lions. Had we been here yesterday, we are told we could not have missed seeing them. Word spread quickly and all the cars and safari trucks beetled over to the area. Since Addo is the main attraction for the tourist town of Port Elizabeth (an easy 1 1/2 hour trip) there are also a fair share of tour buses. All congregated at the same watering hole to watch the lions mate. What must the lions think of these voyeurs?

For dinner at Addo, Brent has Springbok steak and for breakfast ostrich egg and ostrich meatballs. That leads us to ponder the question of survival of the species when people eat it. There is no shortage of cattle and since they became a popular mainstream food source, numbers of emu have risen. That debate about wild versus domestic populations will have to wait.

Its Brent's birthday today. We celebrated with a bottle of champagne. We'll have to look again for a good South African variety - tonight's wasn't it!

• its hot, rainy and windy - we find this surprising but the locals don't seem to notice, so it must be "normal". When it went from 16 degrees to 40 degrees over two days, we couldn't believe it; got mention here, but only in passing.
• lots of make-work projects. Good ones, because largely based on improving infrastructure, especially roads, but there's lots more needing to be done to improve the education levels, good jobs and distribution of wealth. In some areas unemployment is as high as 32 per cent.
• some folks have created their own jobs, watching cars on the street or in parking lots. People pay them a few cents. People seemed to have mixed feelings: like it (keeps their stuff safe), resent it (it shouldn't be necessary), fear it (if you don't pay, will your car unaccountably get a nick?)
• many of the roads are tolled. No one seems to think twice about it, perhaps because there is a very big difference between the back roads and the wide, smooth, multi-laned, speedy express routes. We travel 100 kph on the flats, the speed limit is 120, most people do 130 kph and 140 or 150 isn't unusual
• all the roads serve as walkways as well. The wide shoulder on all the main roads is usually full of walkers. Slow and not so slow trucks and cars also use it as a spare lane. This makes me very nervous; the two uses are not compatible, but we don't see a lot of accidents, so I guess it works. The idea of a bike on this shoulder as well makes me a bit nervous; not all the trucks are diligent about using the only when there's a clear view.
• along the highway south of St. Lucia, the area starts to seem like one long strip. The houses and shacks go on and on; there is a steady flow of towns, and an occasional town hub with lots of activity and chaotic commerce on the street.
• food is pretty basic almost everywhere we've been. But its all quickly prepared and served, reasonably tasty, and is always very inexpensive except in the fancy places that we don't frequent. Couple of days ago had Xhosa putu porridge and homemade scones with clotted cream for breakfast; that's about the most African/British mix imaginable!
• everyone in the cities has a cell phone - or two. The etiquette is even worse than in Canada. When the cell phone rings, all else comes to a stop. Whether its personal or business, whether a customer is being served or not, whoever is on the end of that line comes first. Customers calling by cell trump those face-to-face.
• often all else seems to come to a halt when sports are on television. Patrons and waiters alike in restaurants have their eyes glued to the televisions that are invariably on in a corner of the room. They're as bad as the Aussies!
• newspaper stories are just like I've never left home. Legal aid lawyers say they don't have enough money and innocent people will go to jail; politicians are under investigation for either the letter or spirit of disclosure obligations; Catholic priests continue to oppose the use of condoms (in a country where HIV/AIDS is such a problem, I find this attitude unconscionable); infrastructure and hydro development proposals are in dispute; the internal politics of mergers of universities make election battles look like child's play; local zoning arguments and allegations of favouritism are dividing neighbourhoods; small business believes it doesn't have appropriate access to growth capital. Who needs the Internet to read the news -- one country is as another, it would seem -- despite being on the other side of the globe and having a completely different geographic, ethnic and economic construct!

• Campsite is in Tsitsikamma National Park, which is an 80 km long strip along the coastline, not unlike our own Pacific Rim National Park. In fact, it too has a famous walk which is popular to foreigners; this one is the Otter Trail, 42-km, five-day hike, basic cabins.
• While we were there an Emergency Medical Services team was doing a mock search and rescue exercise, complete with dogs, boats and helicopters. I talked to the woman who was to get herself lost. A helicopter was to drop she and a companion somewhere along the route, she'd walk for a couple of hours, then stage an accident.
• This is the best site of the Garden Route. Yellow Sands is runner- up. Cabins can be rented and are nice, but the camp spots have the best location. Flat grassy area; right beside the water which is only about 10 feet down on rocks that cause the surf to splash and spray up into the air. Beautiful.
• Short but nice walk to the deep, deep narrow gorge. Great view from the highway above, and fun to bounce along the suspension bridge here at the river mouth. Interesting trees with some signage.
• bought socks for ballet girls and Gina's kids 10@45R
• had planned to visit Dr. Tom, Deputy Minster to Premier Stofile and Slu Ncame who I spent some time with in Victoria, but too much to do, too little time...
• O/N Storm's River Mouth campsite

125 km these two days / 3782 km to date

• we stopped at Nature's Valley, a second campsite in the Tsitsikamma National park, but it had no power and was pretty much just a field. Nice beach with very few people; if that's what you're looking for would be a good place to stop. One restaurant at the beach. (The Town of Nature Valley seems to be a tourist magnet. A quaint hotel, cottages, some crafty stores etc. Probably sold out in season.) Since that didn't work out, on to Plettenberg Bay
• wealthy town; cottages for Capetowners; lots of year-rounders as well. This coast is said to be overdeveloped - Port Elizabeth to Mossel Bay. We haven't seen condos. Overdeveloped Parksville style hasn't yet happened here! There are though more and more gated homes and communities as we travel this popular more populated coast
• brunch at Lookout Beach. Awesome spot. Big outdoor veranda overlooking a long sandy beach and an ocean of surfers. Dolphins and whales apparently can be spotted here as well, although we didn't see any.
• hiked Robberg, terrific trail 8 km SE of Plett; quite a lot of scrambling; North America would have "Do Not Go Here" signs and large areas railed off, but here you scramble along rocks; quite strenuous, took about 4 hours; one of those rare occasions when it actually is meaningful to think "do it while you're young" -- another 20 years and this one would be too much for us. Trail follows the edge of the cape all the way around. On the east its gentle; on the west the surf roars; in the middle great sand dunes, one cutting across the cape and will eventually (over some years) separate the cape into a cape and an island. Barking Cape fur seals; one penguin! Sunny day; sun and wind-burned to a crisp.
• homes in this area gargantuan. Wealthy and growing city.
• had liked the Lookout so much, went back there for dinner (and the next day for breakfast once more -- three time in all). It was about this time that Brent started making plans to spend winters in South Africa.
• met two Dutch cyclists at our camp. They've been on the road 15 months. Rode from Netherlands through Europe and Asia to India; flew from there to Nairobi, Kenya and have cycled the African continent south from there. Rode in Iran in the full regalia! Only take main roads, although their bikes were not super-duper road bikes. In many of the countries, they say, there is only one road, so its not as difficult to find your way as you might think. Between them they speak five languages. Wow. I admire them, but too much cycling for me. I'd love to do that time and distance, but would want to break it up with sidetrips and boat rides and other-than-cycling stuff. But more power to them; young, fit, tolerant, interesting, cheerful.

O/N Aventura Plettenberg campsite. Good spot. Not wilderness, but nice on river, canoes for rent, cruises up the river

• everyone loves Knysna. We had heard so much about it from Lindiann, but also from many others. Seems to be everyone's #1 pick.
• en route large golden fields, very big ranches, no small holdings here, some as big as Canadian prairie farm size
• lots of wildflowers en route. So many flowers that we only see in hothouses grow wild here (e.g.lilies).
• we were lucky to be able to stay at Lindiann's mother's cottage about 15 kms into the hills from the town of Kynsna. It was quite a treat. Beautiful spot overlooking the hills. Quiet, not a sound besides the birds. Comfortable place. All wood, lots of windows, big balcony, large rooms. Also the first time we've been able to spread out for quite a while, since we're usually confined to one small room or the RV.
• talked to the caretakers of the area. Currently about 15 cottages, more in the works. cost is about $1 million rand for a big house and acreage; translates to $200,000 - a bargain by Canadian standards. Kruger gets summer rain from the Indian Ocean and dries out in the winter; Capetown gets winter rain from the Atlantic and dries out in the summer; Knysna in the middle gets a bit of both so stays green and warm without parching, hence its popularity. In the last few days have finally seen lots of RVs -- some even as big as ours. We're into holidaying territory here.
• hiked the Goudverd State Forest - 3 km walk at birding speed took two hours (I am a saint!), at sundown; only indigenous forest around so well-publicized but no one there except the Kynsna Louris [a bird], Hadeda ibis. Lots of tree ferns.

O/N Janet and Andy Collins Knysna Cottage -- a beaut!

October 29, 2003
Knysna to Bontebok National Park
308(?) km today (? - notes not clear, check against map)

• today's drive is a pretty one, wheatfields on rounded hills, patterns of concentric circles and ripples made by the wind. All broken by long-ago river valleys which relieve what might otherwise be flat prairie land.
• Bontebok was proclaimed a national park in 1931 when there were 17 bontebok, now there are more than 200 in this 2800 hectare area. The park actually generates more than that and those that exceed the park's carrying capacity are donated to parks, public and private, who have suitable terrain and who are willing to take the responsibility. The worldwide population is now 2,000 to 3,000 - a terrific success story.We first saw this very strange looking character at Yellow Sands and probably hurt its feelings by laughing at it. It has a bog white patch down the centre of its face, but its eyes are just outside the white patch, making it look cross-eyed, or beady eyed or something like that. Now that we see them in great numbers and look part the eyes, they are graceful and gentle.
• the area apparently also is home to Cape Zebra and we spent hours trying to spot one, without success. we did see a hartebeest, two bat-eared fox a grey rhyesbok (we think) and, right in our campsite, a tortoise.
• the campsite is quite a find. Because it has no electricity and because its down a shortish (maybe 6 - 10 km) gravel road, it doesn't get much camping traffic. We and two other trailers had the place to ourselves. The park is on the Breede River with the Langeberg Mountains forming a scenic backdrop. It is perfectly quiet.One of the other set of folks in the site were particularly friendly and helpful, giving us advice on routing into Capetown and insisting that we must return to South Africa and stay with them in Durban for a week or two. Won't they be surprised when they find out Brent wants to spend several months in South Africa!
• did a one hour hike along the river and back over a low headland just as the sun was setting.

O/N Bontebok National Park - basic, quiet, nice albeit short walking trail. 65 rand.

• Hermanus is a pretty seaside town, full of tourists. Its a slight side route from the N2, but a pretty drive and a nice place to break up the journey, since we're not pressed for time. Had we been in a hurry, Bontebok or even Knysna to Capetown is easily doable.
• dinner at a wonderful restaurant with huge plate glass windows for 270 degrees. It seats about 200 people and we get one of only three unreserved tables. But its in the weirdest location. Going in from the wrong way, it felt like running the gauntlet through a ghetto, although in hindsight it probably wasn't that bad. But I wouldn't want to be there at night, so glad we found the smarter route out. The restaurant is in a gated area that had its origins in fishing piers and processing stations and boat repair. Looks like it was ripe for redevelopment, but the redevelopment stopped after the restaurant was done and the "new market area" is occurring down the stretch. Good food, nice view. Fun to celebrate our last day with the RV by having something other than cucumber, a can of beans and a can of baby corn, which is our normal meal in the RV.

O/N - campsite. Don't remember the name, but its the big one right on the water about 5 km west of Hermanus. Recommended. Although a bit crowded as private enterprises tend to be, the location on the water is unbeatable. Looks like some people come for a week or two.

October 31
Hermanus to Capetown
200? km today ( no notes, rough guess from unreliable memory, but think it took about 3 hours?)

• today is Hallowe'en and we've seen nary a sign. At the risk of sounding bah-humbug, this is fine with us.
• breakfast at a cute little outdoor cafe, then some whale watching. We and 50 other tourists all with binoculars trained on one whale out in the bounding main. Its close enough that we get good views of it diving, surfacing, flukes and fins. But not close enough that the pictures are any good. Brent is so attached to his camera that, without a picture to prove it, its almost like it didn't happen!
• the trip to Capetown is a nice one, as you come over the last range of hills, there is a terrific panorama view of the Indian Ocean, white beaches, etc. at Strand. Outward appearances suggest this could be a great holiday spot from Capetown? I wonder. Among other things, the water in the Indian Ocean side is many degrees warmer than the Atlantic side of Capetown.
• having stayed at Janet and Andy's cottage in Knysna, we are about to now meet them in person and to stay in the cottage on their property.
• we stop by, meet Janet, rush back out to return the van and rent a car ($200 CDN - Brent loves South Africa!) for our few days in Capetown and then go back to the house to become truly acquainted.
• we are SOOOO lucky. Janet and Andy are incredibly welcoming and the cottage we are staying in is story-book perfect. Janet is an avid gardener. The cottage is set amongst her flowers, is sparkling white, a big comfy bet with quilt and a sunny sitting area. We might see nothing more of Capetown than this nd their patio and their swimming pool.
• Best of all, they are great fun to be with. Janet is an artist who specialize in painting but has a million other artistic interests from cloisonne to etching. Her work is all around the house. Andy is a businessman who works during the week in Johannesberg and returns home to Capetown for the weekends. During the week, in addition to her other interests, Janet is also an instructor in a form of strength and toning exercise similar to pilates -- but I've gone and forgotten the name again. Must ask her. So she is in incredible physical shape. By the time we've all been together for a couple of hours (this being a Friday so Andy came home tonight), it feels like we've known them forever. (And my kindred spirit's favourite tipple is champagne, so this was a friendship meant to happen!) We go for dinner at a funky place in Muisenberg where the folks are dressed up in Hallowe'en costume (so much for bah humbug); Brent's favourite costume is a skinny guy who wears a big fake bare bum that all the women feel they must pat -- Brent?) Andy takes us there and back along a route where we can see the lights of Capetown in the distance. Its quite a place!

• today we have ambitious plans to see Kirstenbosch Botanical gardens, then the Atlantic Coast then the Harbour area. But as always happens when we get near plants, we end up spending the whole day at Kirstenbosch. It was established in 1913; is 528 hectares, or which 36 are developed, and sits at the lower slopes of Capetown's unmistakable Table Mountain. Its roots (so to speak) are much earlier than that, associated with the Dutch East India Company (whose history IS in many parts the history of the country) in the 1700s, and then was in the hands of private owners , the last of whom was Cecil Rhodes, who left it to the country on his death in 1902.,It sports a great collection of some of the Cape flora, a significant portion is found nowhere else in the world. The Cape fynbos its called. Brent takes about 200 pictures of erica (heather), protea (beautiful, brightly coloured flowers on succulents), fynbos, the medicinal gardens, the fragrant gardens and others too numerous to mention. One of our favourite parts is a conservatory divided into several sub-areas which mimic the climate in other parts of the country. High mountain peaks, shady forests, hot dry desert. Another favourite is a series of stones tracing history through geology over the last 3200 million years. It is so cool!
• for dinner, we go to a Portuguese restaurant perched right on the rocks of the Muisenberg shoreline, where big plate glass windows look over the surf which comes right up the base of the restaurant. On windy days, the waves spray onto the windows. It looks like in a storm the waves would go over the top of the restaurant. I can't imagine how this all works, but its a fantastic site. Janet's daughter, Deb, and finace, Trevor, join us for dinner and they too are quite a hoot to be with. Deb is a former gymnast who now does graphic art; she weighs about 25 pounds and has a smile that is about the whole size of her. A good time had by all.

Boulders is a strange town on the coast which boats a colony of African Penguins. At the early part of the 1900s there were 1.5 million penguins, now there are about 10 per cent of that number. The colony was stocked with two breeding pair in 1982 and there are now 3,000 in this colony alone. But it is the strangest sight. The colony is in the middle of a residential area. There is a promenade which I suppose by keeping people on it protects the penguins from unwanted human intrusion. But the penguins are only a few feet away. To make matters worse, they are now breeding. When penguins breed they don't eat. They also look like they are molting. So the whole picture is one of bedraggled, woe-begone-looking birds standing pitifully in one place while their fur falls about and a bunch of people stand around taking pictures of them. The only thing worse was an area close by where for a fee one can bath on the beach with a few select lucky penguins. This doesn't seem quite sporting.

We had to visit the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point. With 40 kms of coastline, its a pretty drive and there are some nice park areas. Folks from South Africa can't figure why we'd want to go there -- there is nothing to see. But while its not technically the point where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet at the southernmost point of the Cape, that's what it "means to people". (The true point is a nondescript spot between Capetown and Hermanus). So we make the trek and take the obligatory picture at the latitude signs, along with hundreds or other tourists and a parking lot full of tour buses). The obligatory comments about following each other to the ends of the earth and we're done! Meanwhile, Brent is much more taken with the flora of the area, as having spent all day at Kirstenbosch we now recognize, in the wild, many of the plants we saw at the Botanical gardens. We feel quite expert pointing out to each other the different variety of protea, erica, restois (reeds). This kind of positive reinforcement could turn us into botanists!

There are apparently Cape zebra here and, since we were unable to spot any in Bontebok, and since we are dying to tell Beat who did his PhD on Cape zebra that we found one, we spent the rest of the day in search in the park. The park has a terrific locale, surrounded on all sides of the cape by water, the wind is blustery but cooling and the surf is gorgeous. Animal spotting should be relatively easy because in amongst the protea area some wide open areas. You can't miss the baboons and ostrich in the area, we spot a bontebok, snake and tortoise, but alas no Cape zebra. There are those who might think a zebra is a zebra and there's not much difference between a Cape Zebra and a Bushnell's zebra -- but when you're on a mission....

Jill, a friend of Janet's joined us for dinner tonight. That gave us all an opportunity to talk about the challenges facing South Africa and a number of other African countries. (Zimbabwe is on everyone's mind, followed closely by Kenya.) Education, motivation, investment, regulation, family values, the inner strength of African women. An opportunity to air questions, voice opinions, test ideas. Interesting and good sport, to boot.

Wine country is big business here. While South Africa is not a particularly large producer of wines, it is a point of some pride and the whole area does a great job of "the total tourist experience", encouraging people to travel around the for a couple of days, stay in some of the quaint B&Bs in the region, enjoy a few good restaurant meals and sample (and buy) some South African wines. They've done an admirable marketing job.

We visited Spier (as one of the big wineries with all the associated trimmings - tours, a museum, a train ride, a cheetah and eagle outreach program, equestrian events, to name a few). Next we explored Stellenbosch, a town with much evidence remaining of its early Dutch Heritage, by doing a walking tour of the historic old town area until we felt like we knew all the early settlers and churchmen in person. Its a pretty town, and its easily accessible history lesson is a good draw. Our third stop was for a great meal at La Petite Ferme (the little farm), a place we chose in order to see where Lindiann and Jim were married (and to pick up a few bottles of the local vintage), and finally a quick visit to Haute Cabreiro, an underground cave in which one can dine. That's only one of the many advantages of local hosts -- we find all the best spots! La Petite Ferme sits on a hillside looking over vineyards and irrigation channels. Drinks on the lawn, before lunch on the terrace. No wonder they got married here -- its gorgeous and peaceful!

Logistics

• in the rural areas the banks dole out only 1,000 rand per day, and there is not an ATM in many rural communities, so there is always a bit of an effort to keep cash on hand. Next time, load up before leaving a major centre.
• a cycling trip would be OK here. In the country, the distances are too long and the accommodation too sparse to non-existent. The only real alternative is the main highway. While there is a fair amount of traffic, it would be quite safe. The shoulders are wide and could easily handle two-people cycling side-by-side. It is also very well paved. The whole section from Grahamstown has great paving and wide shoulders, with the exception of only one small stretch around Knysna. The (eastern) road to Addo is also terrific for cycling and very flat. There are a couple of side roads which I think would work pretty well. Specifically, west of Swellendam, heading off of N2 southwest to Stanford and on to Hermanus. Then again, east of strand, the coast secondary road into the south part of Capetown (even as far south as Muisenberg) is a good route.
• I haven't estimated how much we spent in South Africa because we used credit cards a fair bit and I'm not sure I got all the entries. Also the RV cost a ton, so it will skew the daily cost. Without the RV though, as a general estimate, a nice B&B looks to be about $50 - 80 CDN. Meals cost nothing at stalls and are about 2/3 the Canadian price in nice restaurants. Most consumer products are inexpensive, fruit and vegetables are good quality and value, and car rental (rather than RV) was very cheap.

After quick goodbyes with Janet, off to the airport for a very long day(s). We picked up some new binoculars during our stopover in Johannesburg (Rand 220 = $40CDN). The flying time to Hong Kong from J'Burg is 12 1/2 hours so we were ready for a break. We had an 11-hour layover in Hong Kong, so contemplated a nap at a hotel close to the airport which offers just such a service ($60USN 6 hours), but in the end decided to zip into Hong Kong. I had fond memories of HK from the 6 or 8 visits I had paid over the years -- both business and personal. Old meets new, east meets west, chaos meets order.

But its been almost 20 years since my last visit and things have changed. Its a remarkable city; just not the same. We took the funicular up to Victoria Peak -- its now like a small mall. Restaurants, coffee shops, tacky souvenirs, even Ripleys Believe It or Not. The view is still there, of course, lush green trees sloping down the steep hillside to the busy city below -- but the ambiance is gone.

The city centre is now a giant concrete and glass wonder. The skyline is tall and full, the density is hard to believe. There would no longer be much joy wandering the streets, so we did one of my old favourite pastimes -- hopping onto a Star ferry to be ferried across the busy harbour to Kowloon. This boat, though part of the Star Ferry family, is a tourist boat which does a complete circuit around the whole harbour. The skyline is in a bit of a haze, but as the ferry covers some distance, more and more skyscrapers emerge from the smog. It is continuous buildings, condos as far as the eye can see, and beyond into the haze, in every direction. And the buildings and roads are edging out on pilings into the harbour. If Hong Kong has had a slump and if investors are wary following the British hand-off, it is not visible. It looks like a brand new sparkling white cityscape -- with haze.

Lots of people love Hong Kong. I bet the shopping is great and out of the city centre if may still be quiet and beautiful. But in its modernity, it has lost something I treasured.

Arrived Sri Lanka 11:45 p.m. after 21:50 hours flying time and 12:45 layover time and some time changes. Exhausted.

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