Good Friday, April 3. Plettenburg Bay to Rosenhof Hotel, Oudtshoorn
We woke up to a overcast morning after a night of rain following and thunder and lightning storm the previous evening which was quite spectacular. Another pleasant breakfast.
We left at 11 am, and we soon run into rain as we headed back towards wilderness and George before turning in land to Oudtshoorn. We then went over a mountain range which would’ve been quite spectacular had the weather being better and arrived at our hotel well before 2 pm by this time the rain was quite heavy.
We had to wade through puddles on the path to get to the room after a bad reception experience. The receptionist was more concerned with having the forms filled in than with us. But the room itself was very pleasant, but with a view just over a open area and 15 other units. all of which seem to have been built in the 21st-century and certainly not in the 19th century as a literature had given us to expect.
We enjoyed a snack lunch, got the Porter to brush some of the excess water away (he was not overly keen to do this) and eventually I went for a swim around 5 pm as the rain had ceased by then and the pool was very pleasant, David sheltering in the gym beside it as there were no mattresses on the metal chairs outside.. We got some ice on the way back to our unit and enjoyed an amaretto and tapas. We watched the news quite a lot for something to do. An American plane had been shot down over Iran and the pilots were missing. Our dinner at 7:30 pm was one of the best Chris had enjoyed, but we only managed two courses before turning in for the night.
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Saturday, April 4. Cango Caves and Highgate ostrich farm from Rosenhof
The rain had ceased by the morning and the paths were relatively dry. We had a pleasant breakfast in the outside breakfast area, a buffet which included hot Cross buns which were good. We then returned to the room and made our own coffee and had this with half a hot cross bun each outside on our terrace.
We set off about 1030 for the caves and arrive there at 11:05 am only to find that the next tour was not until noon, but this was not really a problem as there was a film to watch, a shop to wander around and various other things. We were a group of over 100 to be shown round but had the luck to have a really good guide who made the trip quite memorable. The caves were absolutely huge and they have been discovered around 1798. Before this the Zen people had lived in just an outer cave but were afraid to go further into the complex for many thousands and thousands of years.
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After this we drove to the Highgate ostrich farm on the other side of town and had a guided tour there after enjoying a lime milkshake in the café. We were shown two of the four types of ostrich that they had there: we were told about their breeding habits and how they harvested the meat, 90% of which went for export, the leather for making handbags, and the eggs were sold or chicks themselves were sold. The cost of ostrich leather handbags was very high, several hundred pounds. The smell was quite invasive and up to the time we went to bed Chris could still smell this even though she’d had a swim by this time and changed all clothes. When we got back to the car we found that the GPS monitor had fallen down from it’s clip on the windscreen had disappeared completely, totally incomprehensible unless someone had broken into the car to steal this sticky grip on the window. We must take something like a handkerchief to the car in the morning to try and position the monitor comfortably just in front of the gearshift. Quite bizarrely, when we eventually returned at Cape Town Airport, they found the missing bit easily under the front seat
We stopped for petrol on the way back to the hotel , Chris then had a swim before we had a snack lunch out on the terrace and listened to more news. We were defeated as usual by a very little dinner, b we enjoyed it. Then back to the room for more reading and trying to stay awake until at least 10 pm.
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Easter Sunday, April 5. Oudtshoorn to Montagu
We left the Rosenhof hotel around 10:45 am after a good breakfast and then checking out and telling the receptionist what we thought of our welcome at the hotel. She remained impassive and said she will report the matter to the manager who wasn’t working on Easter Sunday and we had not seen on the previous two days either
. It was a really pleasant drive, first of all across the Karoo Desert and then through mountains to our next hotel. The journey took about three hours so that we arrived at Montague Vine‘s Hotel a few minutes before 2 pm.
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