Road Trip Day 50. On the Road to Knysna

Before we left Storms River Mouth this morning, I had to repair some torn sections of our gazebo. Hope it lasts till the end of the trip!

We went into Storms River Village for breakfast. It reminded me a lot of Nieu Bethesda. The place where we had breakfast was a restaurant called Cafe Bacchus which is part of Tsitsikamma Village Inn.
Lovely peaceful place with a themed water feature and excellent food.

We took a stroll down the block and came across a mini distillery.....

...and a '50's Diner  where we were encouraged to dress up a bit.

Across the road were all sorts of adventure tours, canopy zip line tours, blackwater tubing, Segway tours and a bike hiring shop.

Back at the entrance to the village we explored an art and craft shop.

I was very impressed by the art of Susan Kemp.
She was commissioned to paint a reproduction of The Duchess of Portsmith by Peter Lely, circa 1671.
It is a work in progress.

She is a very versatile artist.

Running Over in mixed media, also by Susan Kemp.

On the road again we passed signs to "Radical Raptors" a birds of prey rehabilitation and awareness centre.
Unfortunately there were no flying displays today because Dennis Robson, the falconer owner, had taken a juvenile Black Eagle to Cape Town for an operation. A raptor specialist from the UK was in South Africa for a week. The eagle had a broken leg from being kicked out of the nest by its stronger sibling. They call it The Runt. We spoke to Tania who was minding the Owl Shop while her husband was away. While we were browsing we heard a story book "Hoo Hoo." It turned out to be a Spotted Eagle Owl, Spots, in the enclosure adjoining the shop. Tania kindly allowed us to see him and took a photo for me. Apparently one can tell the sex of these owls by the hoot. Males have two syllables, females three.

We were sorry to miss the show but it was a very interesting visit.

We continued along the N2 towards Knysna and were very surprised to see a group of cattle standing on the highway. A car coming in the opposite direction hooted at them and they trotted off onto the side. Not what one would expect on a major highway.

We've set up camp at a caravan park called "Monks" on the Knysna lagoon. tomorrow we'll start exploring.

Road Trip. Day 48. The Beauty and the Missing Supper

We are at the Tsitsikama National Park, Storms River Camp. It is beautiful here. They say a picture paints a thousand words.

We've been here before - 17 years ago when we did the Otter Trail. I didn't recognise much. During the Knysna fires last year the restaurant burned down.

They have blocked off the area and set up a temporary restaurant in a big tent.

I remembered the beach.

Kayaking and boat trips still take place up the river and in the sea.

I hadn't realised how much of a tourist attraction this area is. There were busloads of tourists at the river mouth area, the majority of them foreign. Behind our camp site, stretching over a number of sites, is what is obviously a camping tour for young people. There is a large tent where the cooking is done, another one more like a marquee which serves as the dining area. From what I could see through the door it is very high class and probably expensive. Red table cloths with bottles of wine and tasteful decor. The young people all sleep in small dome tents however, although there are a couple of gazebos providing shade.

We didn't get the thunder storms or the wind. It was a beautiful, if hot day, ending again with a beautiful sunset.

Something very unusual happened to us tonight. Brian was cooking three pork sausages and a banana on our small compact braai while I was in the motor-home buttering the rolls and sorting the vegetables. I heard the sound of sea gulls very nearby.  Then Brian called me and said, "You're not going to believe what I am about to tell you."  He had left the braai for a minute or two and when he came back the grid was at a 45 degree angle and there was no sign of the sausages although the banana was still there. We think seagulls stole our sausages straight off the braai.

Is that a seagull laughing?

Road Trip Day 47. Towards Storms River Mouth

We didn't get going as soon as we had planned this morning. One of the reasons was that, because of the wind, a seam had torn at the top of the gazebo and the central pole was sticking out. We had to take off the canvas and I sewed it by hand, doing two rows of back-stitch.

We made a tea stop at Jeffrey's Bay at a quiet beach. We were just discussing whether to make sandwiches and eat them in the cab or whether to find a suitable coffee shop nearby when we were approached by an elderly man with long curly grey hair under a floppy fisherman's hat. He seemed very interested in Cubby and started asking all kinds of questions about it. Then he started to tell us what seemed to  be his life story. He used to work for the SA Blood Services as a plumber and sheet metal worker, setting up all the installations for the labs and the complex. After about half an hour of polite listening without a chance to get a word in edge-ways, we finally managed to ask him if he knew of a coffee shop nearby. He offered to lead us to Nina's in his double cab. It turned out to be a cross between a coffee shop and a Portuguese restaurant with a pleasing mixture of Portuguese and Jeffrey's Bay decor.

Even the bathroom was in theme

Surfboards on either side of the TV screen with a strip of Portuguese repeating pattern below. The long strip contains a Bible verse 

After a delicious cappuccino and two slices of special banana loaf drizzled with honey and sprinkled with nuts and icing sugar (all for R20 per person), while watching some of the highlights of the 2nd cricket test, we made our way towards Plettenburg Bay but we realised that we weren't going to make it by 4pm so we decided to aim for Storms River Mouth instead. 

The scenery was amazing -  along the sides of the road we saw Proteas and other wild flowers.

At one stage we passed a wind farm. It reminded us of our trip to New Zealand, especially as we saw cattle from the other side window.

Wind turbines in the mist

By the time we got to Storms River bridge it was 5pm already.

By the time we got to the Nature Reserve at Storms River Mouth it was 6pm. We bought a wild card and paid for two nights and barely managed to set up before sun set. It was very windy and slightly drizzly so instead of a braai we had tuna rolls inside.

The camp site was busier than we expected 

Tomorrow we'll explore and set up properly with our chairs and tables outside and maybe our side walls although there is a weather warning for the Eastern Cape including hail, floods and strong winds......