The Garden Route Awaits

Tuesday March 21st –

We took time and enjoyed our last breakfast together.
Still having things to talk about and discuss, plus the fact that Jolien (Pronounced Yolien😉) and I had both moved away from home added a whole other extra topic to be explored 😋

Coffee was sipped and the morning taken slowly, them saying it was a compliment that we didn’t want to leave and us feeling badly about using their time, to our advantage 😜

But eventually we did leave 😉
With much appreciated advise about our journey ahead which would be taking us along The Garden Route.
We planned to drive it within a week or so, driving only a couple of hours a days and stopping for as much exploration as we wanted.

As you may have guessed, I fell asleep pretty quickly 😬
Road trips aren’t the way to get me to see countryside but Mike woke me up if there was something very interesting to be seen 😋

We stopped at ‘The Villiers Chocolate Artisan’ and looked around for a few minutes, buying some chocolates to taste test and not being overly thrilled with the results.

Lacking the creamy smooth textures I so enjoy in chocolate.
They were fine, but since Holland has an abundance of good chocolate, we kind of know what we like and don’t like by now.
The tour may have been interesting, explaining the process and flavours, but we decided we had other things we’d like to spend money on😊

De Villiers Chocolate

On we drove.

Passing through rugged rocks, mountains lush with greenery and more that had been turned black and dry from fires.
The fields are interesting here, the dirt looking dry and rocky, unfit for growth but then two meters further on the same ground, a farmer has a crop planted and it’s in its green glory.
Some of the dryer places with mountains scraping the sky reminded us of Arizona.

We made the odd stop along the drive, checking out a store or two and getting a quick bite to eat at KFC.

More driving and sleeping until we reached our stopping spot in Swellendam.
A little private owned bedroom and courtyard was ours for the evening. Swellendam Overnight Accommodation

There was no wifi there, so when we went it to eat we stayed a little longer then necessary at ‘The Woodpecker’.
Where we enjoyed a burger, pizza and two milkshake style iced coffees 👌🏻

Back at our room, the main lightbulb burnt out and we figured we might as well join it in slumber 😜

Wednesday March 22nd –

We awoke to the annoying sound of pigeons or doves or something of the sort, cooing on repeat, the same, short melody 🙄😬
Mixed in was the odd bird chirp that sounded EXACTLY like the iPhones message alert sound?!

Anyways, we woke up momentarily and then I ended up having a little morning nap 🙈
I hadn’t slept the best and the morning felt cooler then the whole night had, so it was a good thing.
After waking up for the second time, I got ready and enjoyed some coffee in our little courtyard.
A lovely little, closed in space which I plan to remember, if we ever have a house and funds for all our daydreams 😋

As Mike paid the lady, a large grey parrot was spotted in her living room and though we didn’t ask, I’d be willing to bet that IT was the bird behind the iPhone sounds 😏

We left happy with our stay and ready to go buy some flip-flops, since my trusty pair which had journeyed with me to many a country and trip home and to the cabin, had become lost during the Malta trip 😢
One cheap, ‘get me by’ pair was purchased and then we left Swellendam.

Placing my leftover pizza from the night before, up on the dashboard for the sun to warm up for our brunch 😋🍕

I failed to mention that I began loosing my voice Sunday night, resulting in high pitched squeaks of sound for my method of communication.
It continued to be lost during this bit of the trip, which meant I relied even more heavily on Michiel for communication, not wanting to answer people with more air then words 😬
Just thought I’d mention it, since I’m sure the quality of my words is JUST what you all want to read about 😏

Anyways, we eventually ate our dashboard pizza and Mike actually spotted (and pointed them out to me) some large ostriches and even an elephant during the drive 😊🐘

As we continued on we began driving along a curved road, bordering some lagoon water and Mike asked me where the scene reminded me of.
I immediately said Croatia by the national parks, as I’d thought it moments before and he agreed that was where he’d been thinking about.
I mentioned being reminded of Switzerland somewhere during the day before and he too said he’d seen that as well… thus the guessing game began 😜

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A lunch stop was taken at a seaside restaurant.

Fried calamari and greek chicken filling us up enough to continue on with our journey.

We checked in at the ‘Knysna Terrace‘ and settled into our slightly Greek style room.
The hostess/owner said she was actually of Greek background so that probably played a part in the decor.

We went to try out the pool there, but after dipping a toe into the icy cold water, we decided to simply sit facing the sun, with only our legs in the water 😜

Once we’d had enough of that, we went back to the room and got ourselves ready to go eat supper.

‘The Olive Tree‘ was the chosen venue and it was only a few minutes down the road.
It was busy so we got the table set up on the bar and the hostess said that was nicer anyways because we could sit beside each other rather than across 😏😜

We started the meal off with minced meat spring rolls that came with a chutney mayo dipping sauce and they were tasty 😊👌🏻

I ordered feta and spinach stuffed chicken atop pesto pasta and Michiel ordered steak.

Both were very good dishes and we enjoyed/ate all of it even though we hadn’t went that hungry.

I did have bones in my chicken, even though it was supposed to be chicken breast and the hostess (giving that ‘upper-class woman of means who’s nice but also very hard to deal with’ vibe) said she was sorry buuuuut it had to have been cartilage, not bone.
Because that makes it more pleasant somehow?
Plus the fact that I have cooked/eaten a chicken or two and I feel like I know the difference between bone or not but whatever lady 😏

The food and service were good, the menu was quite small but the dishes we ate were tasty and it was easy to find so if your ever in South Africa, stop by 💁🏻