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 41. The Willows Caravan Park.

Staying in my brother's garden has meant we were at least half an hour from the beach so, when we found out about the 50% pensioners discount rate starting from the 7th January at the Willows Caravan Park, we were very interested.  Brian's sister and brother-in-law, who are also pensioners, decided to join us for three days. Three nights for the four of us with the pensioner's discount came to R405.00.

On our way to the Willows with our bikes on the back of the motor-home, we took the opportunity to cycle along the promenade near Kings Beach. It was unfortunately a rainy day, but we persevered wearing rain gear, but stopped at Angelo's for breakfast instead of cycling further.

Outside Angelo's was a busker, sheltering under one of the umbrellas playing a guitar.

I really enjoyed his music. Especially a song called "He will Carry You."

Once we got to the Willows we admired the beautiful view of the sea from our camp site. The rain had stopped and we haven't seen it since.

Both Brian and I have history at the Willows. When I was a Girl Guide in Port Elizabeth, Guide camps were held here. Brian's family often used to caravan here when he was a boy.
I was happy to see that not only is it well maintained, but improvements have been made. It is a lovely place for a family holiday. The ablutions are clean with hot water and access to washing machines and tumble dryers (coin operated).
There is a putt-putt course,

 A super tube,

 Swings and things,

 and a games centre where there are two pool tables, a table tennis table. One can hire fishing rods, snorkeling equipment, inflated inner tubes, body boards and clubs for putt-putt as well as paying for the super tube tags.

There is a tidal pool in front of the kiosk/coffee shop. The shop seems to stock everything a camper might require from tent pegs to mini first aid kits.

 I was also impressed by the responsibility of the management. The splash pool below the super tube is covered by a safety net overnight and when it is not in use. When it is running there is somebody supervising, making sure there is sufficient gap between each person or group going down.
They also have posters in all the ablution blocks telling us how to save water.

We've had a lovely three days here although today has been particularly windy and we kept checking that our gazebo was not going to blow away!
Tomorrow we'll be packing up and moving back to suburbia for a couple of days.