Road Trip Day 50. Montagu

Yesterday was too hot to do anything but laze around the pool and jump in frequently. Today was much cooler (by at least 15 degrees) with patches of drizzle every now and then. We decided to do a bike trip into town, find somewhere for breakfast, do some exploring and buy some groceries.

Not far from this view we found the Joubert House, the oldest existing home in Montagu.  The original mud walls have been plastered over but one section was left and protected by a piece of glass with a frame so we could see a man's hand print in the original mud wall. One wall in the bedroom, the west facing wall, was made of stone instead. This was so that it would retain the heat of the late afternoon sun into the evening. The kitchen floor is laid out with genuine peach pips.

As usual, I was attracted by the dolls, .....

                                                            ....especially the large wax doll.

2 Victorian corner chairs

The Montagu Hotel was built in 1875. In 1880, Paul Kruger, the president of the Transvaal, visited Montagu with a large entourage, including General Piet Joubert. At the last moment, the owner of the hotel, who did not agree with Kruger's politics, decided not to go ahead with the planned sumptuous reception in his hotel. General Piet Joubert was a relative of the owner of the Joubert House and the reception was held there, catered by the local women-folk.

In the back garden we saw what were apparently original herbs planted by the Koi San. Most of them I had never heard of before but I did find this one interesting.

Wormwood is used medicinally for various digestion problems and is also used in some alcoholic beverages like Absinthe and Bitters.


We had breakfast in the garden at Mystic Tin. At the back was a very interesting garden, incorporating  some old relics and newer garden decor.

There is a lot of accommodation around town and we did notice a couple of foreign tourists. One Dutch couple said Montagu was their favourite spot!

After our shopping we rode back to the caravan park. The birds around here seem to think we exist to feed them.

Tomorrow we make for Cape Town with our water tank full and 53 litres of water in bottles.

Road Trip Day 58. Jongensfontein to Montagu

We enjoyed  our stay in Jongensfontein enormously. It was so nice to be able to walk to the beach in a minute. I could go on my own and feel safe. We found out a bit more about the town. There is a spring that originates not far from the camp site. They call it "Die Fontein" and it supplies all the water of Jongensfontein. Hence the second part of the name. A plaque along the beach told us about the first part.

There are also fish traps - tidal pools built by the Koi San in such a way that fish are stranded in the pool at low tide.


Something else I haven't seen before along a beach.

I hadn't notice the slip slop when I took the photo. Hope that's not all that remains after the shark attack!
There is a little museum on the beach. The chairman of the residents association opened it up for us. They have a very active residents association. They built the children's playground and exercise area on the beach, as well as a lovely walking path along the edge of the rocks. There are even containers of plastic bags for doggy messes at both ends of the path. Every year before the holiday season, they organise a bulldozer to level the beach and push sand into the tidal pool to make a more pleasant sandy floor. There is a very strong sense of community.

The museum showed photos of the old mud houses farmers had built. I noticed the ostrich eggs that the San had hollowed out for water containers so it seems they were in the area a couple of hundred years ago. Otherwise I was impressed by the hand-made, wooden implements and the old paraffin lamp.

We had just been commenting on how safe the village seemed (low or no walls; people don't lock when they go out), when the following day we found out there had been a murder at 4 am that morning right across from the caravan park. Apparently the Stilbaai police found the perpetrator(s) at 9 am that same morning, in the car stolen from the person killed.

We had a day and a half's worth of rain but as often happens, it was a beautiful day when we were due to move on.

We bought some groceries in Riversdale at a SuperSpar right opposite an interesting little church with a huge white bell support and a grave yard in its garden.

There have been quite a lot of road works along our route. The one near Montague had the most beautiful rock formations to look at.

We are now surrounded by mountains in Montagu, together with geese, ducks, guinea fowl and I am not sure what else. There is a indoor warm pool and an outdoor  cooler one, a dam with paddle boats for hire and a beautiful view of the mountains.
The town itself is very quaint. Even the bank looks picturesque.

Across the road from us

Unusual ducks foraging right behind our motor-home

We will be staying here for 3 nights before finally making our way to Cape Town.
Today (Monday) has been especially hot and we spent a large part of the day at the swimming pool. News24 warned that today would be 40 degrees in Worcester which is not far from here.

Road Trip Day 54. Through Mossel Bay to Jongensfontein

We woke early to be able to do a load of washing and still leave at 10. It was drizzling and overcast so we opted for the tumble dryer method.
We wanted to stop at Mossel Bay and look around. We took a turn-off that said Mossel Bay but saw a shopping mall almost immediately and went in as we had to buy groceries. First a stop at Mugg and Bean and then Brian wanted a statement from the bank. I saw the best idea for bank queues in Langeberg Mall branch of the Standard Bank (which actually turned out to be in Hartenboss rather than Mossel Bay)

A barrier made of the usual barrier stands and tape interspersed with stools to sit on. 

When we finally did get to Mossel Bay,

We went to see the Diaz complex including the Post Office Tree.

Then we went into the Maritime museum and saw the reproduction of a caravel like the one Bartholomew Diaz sailed in. It is a life-size model which was made in Portugal and it sailed from Lisbon to Mossel Bay in 1988 to mark the 500th anniversary of Diaz's landing.

There was also a model in icing sugar!

We moved from Mossel  Bay and arrived at Jongensfontein caravan park just after the office had closed, so we selected a site intending to pay this morning. It is a beautiful place and we will be staying here four nights.

My internet ran out last night. I've bought more but I'm going to be sparing until the end of the month so I won't post another entry until we get to Montague.

This morning when we went to pay, we found out that somebody else had booked the site from today  so we had to move - but only to the site next door!

By the time we'd moved, had breakfast and settled again it was almost lunch time so we went for a short ride on our bikes (not much more than the distance from our cottage to our gate at home) to a pub-type restaurant where we had some lunch.

Later we explored by foot, following a beautifully maintained path along the sea. The scenery continues to be stunning.

There is a lot of red in the rocks (iron rich?) and dassies were sunning themselves on the rocks.

One was particularly brave and came quite close to investigate us.

I think we are going to have a lovely relaxing time here. There's a tidal pool, beach walks and of course I have books on my kindle.

The owners make no bones about the fact that they are Christians.

There is a large white cross on the beach and behind the toilet doors, instead of graffiti, are scripture verses on different coloured wooden plaques.

Road Trip Day 53. Knysna Heads and Wilderness

After packing up this morning, we went to visit the Knysna Heads. Beautiful views.

The first view site had a metal sculpture dedicated to SANParks.

After filling up with petrol, we made our way to the Wilderness National Park, "Ebb and Flow"

We have a site on the Touw River. The bird life is amazing. We've seen ducks and ducklings, Coots and guinea fowls and chicks.

When I was taking a photo of a guinea fowl chick with my telephoto lens on my camera, the mother or father attacked me, going for my head. It obviously thought I was threatening its chick.

I later heard that the same bird had subsequently attacked another camper. She also had grey hair. She was knocked to the ground. I think the bird thought she was me - the chick-stalker! I have taken to wearing a disguise. My cap!

Road Trip Day 52. More Fun in Knysna

It rained overnight and settled into a steady drizzle this morning. No wind, fortunately. We decided to brave the wet and cycle to Knysna centre again. Knysna has a very distinctive character. The main industry used to be timber mills and a lot of the forest was decimated. More recently controls have been put in place to save the forests, eg only one tree in a hectare can be cut down per year. Trees that will die in the next ten years are also cut down to make space for younger saplings. Wood and wooden products are big here. So is sailing.

Along our lagoon foot path we came across a lot of the sailing character.

We got to the Waterfront, which is obviously a very popular tourist attraction.  We saw and heard tourists and tourist groups from many countries. Shops selling curios and Africana abound, plus a number of eating places (some specialising in oysters and other sea food.)

Again, there are boats moored all along the water's edge. We saw a huge mast being installed on a large luxury catamaran by a mobile crane-truck. Apparently the mast was manufactured in Cape Town and trucked to Knysna.

Wooden carvings and sculptures were everywhere.

We needed to buy some more meat for tonight's braai as well as bananas. (The ones at the KwikSpar up the hill were R23.99 per kg.) We explored two more malls. Each seems to have a theme.  The one where Checkers was had machinery from the saw mills as display pieces all over.  The Woodmill Lane Shopping Centre was themed on machines. There were working water features where variations of paddle wheels turned, buckets got filled and emptied.

There were also various wall sculptures involving bicycles or bicycle wheels.

The weather cleared up a bit in the afternoon and then started drizzling again soon after we got back.

Again it stopped for us to be able to braai and gave us another beautiful sunset.

The end of another lovely day in the motorhome.