We Write To Taste Life Twice

Saturday March 25th –

Almost the worst I’d felt yet 🙄
Waking with a pounding head, aching body and runny nose.

The plan was to get breakfast and then medication.
We made it into ‘Ile de Pain’, the breakfast place Mike had been wanting to go to and
a coco nutty smoothie was ordered to share and I couldn’t taste any of it 😏
Same goes for the scrambled eggs with parmesan and pesto.

Which sounded good, but I unfortunately can’t tell you how it was 😬

Mike had found a farmers market of sorts to check out so we drove there and wandered through it for a few minutes.

It was more of a food market than crafts and since we’d just eaten breakfast it wasn’t the best time to go.
That, mixed with my shivering, loss of taste and smell made it a little unappealing to me but if I’d went in good health I can imagine we would have lingered longer and left fuller 😉
Mike did buy raspberries, strawberries and ready to eat pomegranate though.

The sunshine was what felt best to me, so we headed to a beach but the wind near the water proved to cold for my frail self and the sunshine made my head pound😜

So, to a store for medication.
Mike got me some cold meds you drink with water and after downing the very odd tasting/slightly fizzy water, I began improving 👌🏻💊

I opted to sit in the car and rest while Mike went for a quick exploration of the town we were in and then he found a small bay for us to soak up the sun at.
This one having a nice grassy area to sit out of the waters winds but still visibility of the waves, some surfers and a sand bathing child or two 😜

Lions Head beach was next.

Aptly named for the rock formation sitting out in the water.

Thankfully I was feeling better, so we enjoyed walking along the shoreline, picking up the odd clam shell that was shiny enough and taking in our surroundings.

We freshened up back at the hotel, which had turned out to be a very nice accommodation.
It had a very airy design, many sitting rooms and a large eating/reception area, opening up to the pool.
In front of our room was another sitting room, and one more just down the hall.
There was a three car garage in front and a side house for the workers/guard etc.
Overall the whole place seemed like it could have been a wealthy persons mansion before being converted to a hotel, but who knows, perhaps it was just a wealthy persons hotel😋

Dressed up a little for a change, we went to eat dinner at ‘Cathy and Remys’.
Mike said he’d booked the reservation on recommendation of a cousin but he actually had no clue what the restaurant prices were like or what the menu included so be prepared for anything😂

We sat down in a little area with only 6 small tables and waited in the stiffly formal atmosphere.
We were served pita bread with three dips as a starter and it was very nice.

A hint of sweet was found after biting into the soft, pleasant texture of the bread and it paired very nicely with the olive, salsa and humus dips.

We didn’t get any menus to read and we were just questioning each other if we should ask for some or what, when the lady who appeared to be the owner, came over and began explaining some dishes wrote out on a chalk board display, talking with a thick, French accent.

Lamb chop was picked by Mike and I went for a brie and phyllo appetizer since I wasn’t looking forward to another tasteless meal.

Which it was.
Never take the ability to smell and taste for granted!!!
Not being able to smell things, whether it was the ocean we were beside or the smell of the meals being cooked in the kitchen near us, made me pretty sad 😬

Mike said both the dishes were good though😉

Sunday March 26th –

We got up in time for the breakfast our hotel supplied and were once again spoke to by the slightly odd owner.
The tables all had room numbers but ours wasn’t out since we hadn’t eaten breakfast the previous days.
She seen us sitting and weirdly whispered with a slightly aggravated tone, ‘you haven’t eaten breakfast the last two mornings’, as she placed our room number on the table.
May I remind you it’s a complimentary breakfast of the regular hotel kind, unripe fruit salad and yogurt 😜
Though there was a cook to freshly fry the eggs and bacon and those were good and we had seconds.

I was happy to report my taste was returning😏

Back in the room, I had raspberries waiting for me in the fridge, from the market the day before.
Mike was wise and recalled there was a small milk in the fridge and sugars for the coffee and he suggested I try my usually preferred way of eating the fruit 😉👌🏻💕

It was another lovely day and we had some driving to do to.

Mike exclaimed loudly over something he’d seen along the road and he quickly turned around to snap a picture.
I had missed it the first time passing but the second time it was an interesting thing to see😋

Note the casually frying pig next to the wash🐖

Our guessing game of ‘what area we were in, looked like where?’ continued (and began including ‘who does that person remind you of?’ etc.), mostly we guessed pretty accurately what/who the other meant… and other times Mike was just completely inaccurate 😉

Road trip pass times 😏

We drove down to ‘Natures Valley’ and ended up at a stretch of beach, making a bridge between the ocean and a sort of lake.

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Parking, we stretched our legs for a while, exploring the shoreline and seeing crazy amounts of snails be washed in and away from shore.

The worlds highest bungy jumping bridge was stopped at next.
Not to try, but to watch others who were brave enough(crazy enough?) to go.

There was a restaurant with a view of the bridge so people could watch and as we gazed upon others falling down on a giant rubber band, my heart beat faster for them 😬
My kind of adventure is trying a new food… not flinging my body into nothingness and swinging there for a while🤢

Then, Tsitsikamma was found, after the suggestions of a few people who found it very worth going to.

I got sidetracked pretty quickly by a little cove like place, where the waves were washing tons of shells up.

Creating a literal river of shells when the larger waves deposited their treasures in a stream running along the beaches edge, which was created by a small waterfall in the back of the rocky wall.

Mike pulled me away from there and we took the shortest hike (yes I used my recent poor health as a good excuse to avoid physical exertion 😝).

Honestly though it proved to be tiring enough when coming back up multiple sets of stairs.
We walked through jungle ish area and then over a suspension bridge to a small, rocky shore.

We may not have been able to attend a church service that Sunday, but being in the incredible nature God created works pretty good to make you think of how truly amazing He is too.
We’ve both been blessed to travel many places and to think we still see new types of creations in every new place makes a person feel pretty small💕

Our last stop for the day was in Jeffrey’s Bay area.
The ‘Surf Lodge’, our place to sleep… was very much its name.
A beach front lodge with a pool, surf and yoga lessons available and surfer folks spread here and there.
Suffice to say, we didn’t really feel like we fit in😋🏄🏼
But the people were nice and we took a short walk down to the beach right from the deck of the place.

After that it was a rushed drive to try to catch the sunset and after an extremely pothole ridden road, we made it JUST in time 😏🌅
Was it worth the 20 some minute drive over awful back roads?
Ask Mike 😜

(The view began changing from mountains and greenery, to more of a landscape typically imagined when you say ‘Africa’.)

Supposedly a pizzeria was the only place open near the lodge so Mike began driving there.
As we took a round about, a McDonald’s caught our eye and Mike joked we could go there, to which I replied I’d be perfectly fine with and in that moment he became serious and said him too, so that’s where we went.

I know being able to travel and eat out is a luxury and I am thankful for it, but I’m pretty sure most everyone knows what I mean when you’re traveling over a longer period of time and are just SICK of eating out every meal?
We reached that point.
McDonald’s had wifi, vinegar for my fries (!) and even a soccer game playing, so it was the right choice for us😉👌🏻🍔⚽️