Thursday, August 15th and Friday, August 16th on the way to Port Elizabeth

Yesterday we went to the airport and traded the van for a smaller car - Volkswagen - so Thursday we are ready to head towards Port Elizabeth on the garden route. We had heard that this was a very pretty drive, but didn't quite know what that meant. I had my camera handy just in case. It is a long drive from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth, so we reserved a room in Wilderness (just outside of George) so we would not have to try to do it all in one day. It's too hard for our bones to sit in a car that long, so we left about 10 am and planned to enjoy the scenery. We didn't have an appointment so far until Saturday.



What we saw was acres and acres of farmland that appeared to be mostly for sheep and cattle, because we saw many grazing, but it created a landscape of different colors of green and also a plant with a yellow flower that added yellow. These photos do not do it justice, but I tried. Of course it was a cloudy and sometimes rainy and always windy day. It increased the drama of what we were seeing. All I can say is it made me happy. There were also mountains that seemed to follow us the entire way in the distance and sometimes the clouds would cover part of them. It was amazing.

There were also pastoral settings and then more of the acres and acres of vivid colors. This went on for miles and miles. I just kept snapping photos as we drove along. Each time we would crest another hill, and even more beautiful sight would appear. All we could think of was what a beautiful world Heavenly Father created. And, he made it so we could have joy, which is what we had this day.




 Does this look like you pictured Africa? Well, I certainly never expected anything like this. This is just a huge, but beautiful country. The freeways are amazing. They have wonderful little cement tables and benches underneath trees for rest stops and elaborate and clean service stations with restaurants scattered along the way. I would say the gas station stops are way more clean, modern and advanced than in the US no matter where we have traveled in this country.

We even saw a baboon by the side of the road. He was an ugly creature with long coarse hair that seemed a two-tone color of dark gray and dirty brown. He had large ugly teeth. He just gave us a dirty look, but never moved from the side of the highway as we went past. There were signs saying, "Don't Feed the Baboons" along the roadside. Maybe that was why he was so mad.
We drove for about six hours and drove past lots of towns with Africaneer names that looked to be very German or Dutch. We made a game of saying the name when we passed. Since we were going pretty fast, we didn't have much time to study the usually VERY  LONG unusual name, so the pronunciations were pretty funny sometimes...names like: Swellendam, Suurbraak, Riviersonderend, Kleinjongensfontein, Vermaaklikheid, Hoekvywerbaii, Pacaltsdorp and even Heidelberg on the way to George. Elder Kyle was better than I was and he was driving! Of course, I am sure we didn't pronounce a one of them the way it was supposed to be pronounced, but that is what made it fun. Our children would have had great fun with that game, but Shannon would have an unfair advantage, having spent a year in Germany and speaking the language. They say that Africaner language is a mixture of Dutch and German...a made up language, but it's all Greek to me. Ha.

We finally got to George, but instead of taking the turnoff, we just kept going a few more kilometres to an area called Wilderness. I booked the B&B online, because it was on the ocean and cheap, so I didn't know what to expect, but we had a nice surprise. IT WAS BEAUTIFUL! Our room had a private entrance and looked out at the ocean. The sun was finally shining and the salt air smelled wonderful. We immediately took a tour around the place, which was immaculate. This is the view from the back patio where we enter our room.


I just stood out there watching the ocean and once again felt joy. There were beautiful plants everywhere and a stairway right down to the beach. The sand was clean and soft. My only disappointment was that we were only there for one night. Sigh...I keep telling myself, "This is not a vacation," but when you see the wonderful things we've seen, it sure seems like it is.

They had wooden decks for suntanning and reading outside. The plants and yard were very well tended. The three doors you see lead to three rooms. Our's was on the far left.

After we got our stuff inside and rested a bit, we got a recommendation for a restaurant we could walk to that was supposed to be very good, called the Blue Olive. We had not eaten since breakfast and it was about 4:30, so we were hungry. Following directions, we walked to the restaurant across the highway.







All we can say is, "THE FOOD WAS DELICIOUS!" We couldn't believe how well we scored on this one...yummy food, beautiful atmosphere (fire going in the fireplace and music playing), interesting African artwork...perfect score on this restaurant. Elder Kyle was a bit surprised as I took his picture signing for dinner. This may be the first place that we were served by white people, although it's probably not that unusual. It is just a fact that over 80 percent of South Africans are black.



Wilderness surprised us as well. It is actually in the mountains with pine trees and everything, but is located on the main highway. It's like the landscape changed from beautiful farm and ranch land to a ski resort setting on the ocean. Everything is so unexpected here. You never know what you will see when you go around the next bend in the road. Tonight we saw a great meal and ate it all and now we are stuffed!!
All in all a great day! We decided to sleep in, then walk on the beach tomorrow, before we drive the rest of the way into Port Elizabeth.

Elder Kyle on his way to the beach. It's a shorter distance than it looks in this photo. You pass through some lush foliage and there it is.

 As you can see, it was still cold, but not uncomfortable with a sweater on.

I found some nice shells on the beach.









The lady in this kitchen photo fixed us our breakfast the next morning. The common room had a great view and there were two other couples having breakfast of eggs, cereal, juice, toast and fruit. With every hot breakfast, they serve a half tomato lightly cooked with seasoning. All restaurants serve breakfast this way.






After our breakfast and a walk on the beach, we took off for Port Elizabeth. The landscape totally changed again and it was also beautiful. We passed through this town surrounding a lake. There were jungles, mountains and quaint little hotels and buildings. Everything looked extremely clean and peaceful.







There were very old buildings as well and a cute little downtown area.

Once again, this is nothing you would ever picture as Africa. I hope that as you read this you will have a picture of Africa that you never had before, as we did. Just like the United States, the countryside is varied, but each part has its own beauty. I wish we had more time to explore, but like I said before, "We are not on vacation." Perhaps we can do this again when we are on vacation.


Of course, the view along the way did not disappoint. We just kept seeing more and more beautiful sights.











The whole way was a feast for the eyes and at times we even got glimpses of the ocean on our way. This is what we saw when we got close to Port Elizabeth. Why is it that we are so excited to get a glimpse of the ocean? Every time we did, it was "There's the ocean" and we would feel that little tug of joy at seeing it each time. It never gets old. As we got closer to the city we had to pay close attention to the GPS, because there was some traffic and we didn't want to get lost. This was another place that we booked online. We couldn't afford a place on the ocean this time, but I reserved a one-bedroom cottage that sounded really good and was only 10 minutes to the ocean. We had a bit of a time finding it and when we did, my first thought was uh oh.

The neighborhood did not look that great and we drove up to the front that was surrounded by a solid fence with electrical wire at the top, so that you couldn't see the house, only the roof. It certainly did not look like lodging. Elder Kyle went to see if anyone was there, but he couldn't even find a way into the gate and when he knocked on the door he had access to, no one answered. He came back to the car and we got out their phone number and called. A very nice man answered, Roy, and said he would call the maid to let us in and to just sit tight for a few moments and he could come in a little while to greet us. It is the white house with two trees in front in the photo.

Arrived at our accommodations in Port Elizabeth

Soon, the single garage door opened and this African lady, who was also very nice, greeted us. She told us to pull our car in. The garage floor was tiled and the garage was finished and immaculate. Someone could live in there. They had a desk by one wall with travel brochures on it. There was a security system that she told us how to operate. The garage door opener automatically closed after a minute or two.

Cute little place to stay.

Inside was a cute little apartment like cottage with a nice kitchen set up and a separate bedroom. There was a double door in the master bedroom that opened to a nice little patio with a table and chairs and a brie (BBQ). It was very tastefully decorated and outfitted with everything we could possibly need (except a bathtub for me...sigh). There was a desk in the corner for us to put the computer, a table by the window and a full stove, oven and microwave if we wanted to cook our own meals...not. Ha. And, it cost about  $80 per night. I like to find these cute little places that saves the church money and give us a fun place to stay.

The owner showed up shortly thereafter and was very nice. He told us a little about the history of the area and how it was an up and coming older area that had caught on recently with young couples. He said lots of refurbishment was being done and the area was doing well and was quite safe during the day, but to not walk in the neighborhood at night (Which is like all neighborhoods in Africa).

Jewish Synagogue close to our apartment

He gave us a brief history of the area and told us about the Synagogue across the street and how it is a landmark, but is only used on Jewish holidays. He told us about all the sights to go see and insisted that we go today, because the weather was going to get terrible and we might not have another chance. He was pretty insistent. He was very knowledgeable and said we could call him anytime if we needed help or had any questions. He said the lady that let us in would be by at 10AM everyday to clean and then pretty much left us on our own. He said there was a guest in the main house, but we never saw anyone.

As lodging goes go, this was a lot better than a hotel room, but I was still a bit nervous about the neighborhood. He told us the restaurants were in short walking distance and excellent, so after we got our suitcases unpacked and checked out the place thoroughly, we decided to see if we could find the restaurants. The area was quite a mixture of restored and rundown. We passed by this neighborhood grocery store. It wasn't much, but seemed to be frequented by all kinds of people, even though a huge grocery store was only a mile away. We found the street with restaurants and it looked totally like a yuppy neighborhood with coffee shops and cafes with outdoor seating under umbrellas. We decided to try the Two Olives restaurant (Lots of restaurants in Africa with 'Olive' in their names). The food was delicious, the service was very slow, even though they were quite nice, which was odd, because it was only 4:30 and no one else was there. But, the food was worth waiting for and we enjoyed it very much.

When we left it was getting dark, which made me nervous, but we got home without incident before it totally got dark and there were other people around. We tried using the internet but could not connect. We called the owner who was going to try something, which helped a little, but we never could do what we wanted to do. There was not enough strength to do anything with photos, etc. We finally gave up and went to bed, hoping the next day would be more fruitful.

Good night all!