Emily Moon River Lodge, Plettenberg Bay

A really excellent breakfast and then a farewell to Alison and her fantastic works at the hotel. We left about 10:30 am. We missed the petrol station which was meant to be 6 km out of town but found one around Heidelberg and filled up: the car in fact only needed 9 Litres of petrol. It was the time of the energy crisis due to Trump‘s attack on Iran and there was uncertainty about the continuation of petrol supplies. We meant to fill up as we arrived at Plettenburg Bay but the petrol station that we entered there had no fuel. So we’ll have to deal with this to morrow.

We eventually found the hotel Emily Moon about 5 km outside the town and we’re surprised at how rustic it seemed, although the room itself was modern and had a pleasant balcony overlooking a meandering river and water meadows. The view was partially obstructed by a tree bang in the middle. It seemed a pity that we were not overlooking the sea.

Set on the banks of the Bitou River in Plettenberg Bay, Emily Moon is a luxury hotel with a quirky attitude and a distinctly African air. The hotel comprises of sixteen, lodge suites set in an indigenous garden, with magnificent views of the river, wetlands and mountains. The hotel is filled with the treasures the owners have collected from their travels all over Africa, Asia and Polynesia. Most of their rare finds are destined for Amarula Artefacts, their eclectic trading store in Johannesburg but some find a home at the Emily Moon River Lodge.

Reception was not overwhelming but I suppose was sufficient. We settled in and had a late snack and then went down to the swimming pool. This being down a long flight of wooden steps halfway to the river. It was a quite old pool but perfectly adequate for swimming although on the cold side We had some tapas with Amaretto on the rocks as we had a fridge in the room which had ice in it. A short siesta and then into dinner around 7:30 pm and the place was absolutely packed and very dark with candles on all the tables. We had a really pleasant bottle of wine and David had rack of lamb which was excellent, Chris’s vegetables being somewhat iffy. Then back to the room for a coffee and choc and watching the television news for awhile.




Somebody threw her bud box off the balcony	Somebody going for a swim	Looks like breakfast time	The view over the meandering river

A good breakfast with very nice juice. We chatted to the owner of the hotel, which had 16 rooms. He gave us some instructions of where to go during the day. We went out about 11 am for three hours. First of all to a local Wednesday market at Mungo Mills. The Mill was established in the late 1990s and was quite interesting but the market was just tourist paraphernalia for a consumer society. There were loads and loads of cars around and parking was quite difficult.

We then headed further into town and went to get petrol but although the first garage tried now had petrol, which it had not had the night before, the Internet was down and they could not sell it. we later tried two other garages, but they did not have petrol Then back to the first garage, which now had connectivity, and now we were able to get the necessary petrol. All this being due to the world crisis created by Donald Trump and the resultant closure of the Hormuz Straits.

We parked in the centre of town and walked along the High Street and then down the hill a bit to get a good view of one of its beaches. Once back at the hotel, we went down to see the canoes and then to the swimming pool where I had another swim before returning into the room for a snack lunch and reading during the afternoon. Then Tapas with Amaretto on the rocks and finally into the informal restaurant , where we had an excellent value pork and honey pizza and a glass of Stella Artois for a very reasonable sun. Then we watched on TV the buildup to the Artemus launch for American astronauts to the moon.

Following the hotel owner's recommendations, we set off for the beach at Nature's Valley. It was a spectacular beach in a national park. However the waves were too big for Chris to be tempted in to the sea, and even in the sheltered lagoon, she thought it too cold. My feeling was that Plettenberg and its surround, has attracted too many tourists for its own good, and like so many tourist "hotspots" around the world, needs to find a way of curtailing numbers


Mungo Mills Market was a bit of a disappointment	Mainly tourist tat	The fabric making factory was interesting	The beach below Plettenberg

Nature's Vally National Park	Nature's Valley from above	The lagoon	and a very large sandy beach

And our next stop was another of his recommendations - The Free-flight sanctuary was under a 5-acre mesh dome featuring 200+ bird species, with self-guided walks.

Birds of Eden is the world's largest free flight aviary and bird sanctuary. The mesh dome of the sanctuary was built over 5.7 acres of indigenous forest, and is up to 180 ft above ground level. 1.2 kilometres of walkways, about 75% of which are elevated, let visitors see the birds at all levels of the aviary. There were certainly a lot of very colourful birds

It was our third night at this hotel and we decided to eat dinner in our room, rather than in one of the restaurants. The centrepiece of our meal was the left over cold pizza from last night - Chris did not think that it kept well