Basically, I have never ever driven on a road and seen so many amazing stops. Honestly, every single minute while driving you would pass a dozen picture perfect scenes. Sometimes we would drive for up to 5 hours at a time and I was content to just stare out the window and take in the beautiful scenery. I know that if I ever manage to return to South Africa I will build in at least 2-3 extra days of traveling so that I can go slow and stop every couple of minutes to take beautiful photos. At Addo Elephant Park we met up with a lovely pair of people. He was from England and she was from Wales. They were both in South Africa visiting some of his friends. We were just sitting and chatting with them while we were driving along through the park and at lunch and we just had to laugh since we both had the same reaction to driving along N2 to PE. That reaction was spontaneously brought about every couple of minutes or so and went something like this..."Oh wow did you just see that view we drove past, absolutely stunning. I wish we knew it was coming up since we could have stopped and stood there for hours just taking it all in. Crap! We just missed another amazing valley. There were beautiful trees, and a stream, and it just went all the way back into the mountains. Truly amazing. We will have to be more alert so we don't miss anoth...and we blew it. Missed another perfect place I would have loved to stop at." Anyway you get the idea. This generally would go on for hours while driving and at one point I told Kaity that if I lived here I know that I would have gotten into at least one car crash during my life due to the fact that the scenery is so distractingly breath taking.
Our first stop was Cape Agulhas. There we got to climb a very cool light house and explore the southernmost point of Africa. Driving there also gave us a chance to drive through some nice little towns, including one that was preparing for some festival or celebration which included making large sculptures and statues of people out of straw. Again I was too busy staring at them to take photos but I did manage to snap one horrible photo where you can just barely see one of the many sculptures that were made. After that we drove to Knysna. The B & B where we stayed was located on a hill. In fact it seems most of the town is which allows for amazing views of the bay and the two heads. The two heads are two hills, one which is developed, and one which is a nature preserve. In between the two heads is where they bay meets the ocean I believe. Regardless, of all the places we visited I definitely could see myself living in Knysna because of the hiking, canoeing, kayaking, places to shop/eat, and a very nice, but quiet, water front.
From Knysna it was on to PE, but before we got to PE we got the chance to stop at the Seaview Game and Lion Park. It was a great mini safari paired with the chance to interact with lions, tigers, hyenas, leopards, and cervals. Plus it was very entertaining getting to point out the fact that giraffe were blocking the road and then see Kaity almost go into a Kristin Bell sloth meltdown. All of the animals and volunteers were truly amazing and I hope to be able to go back someday. From Seaview it was time to go to PE and then early the next morning we headed for Addo Elephant Park. We had an amazing safari guide who often got animals up closer to us by using animal calls that he knew. He was very knowledgeable and I learned a lot. His family owned a citrus farm and I had the best oranges I have ever tasted there. He also made us an amazing meal with several courses including desert. Again, I had the best chicken I have ever eaten. It was so tender and the marinade was delicious. Overall it was a great experience.
We left for Oudtshoorn from PE the next morning and decided to go zip lining in the rain. The zip lining wasn't as much fun as it was up in Quebec but it was definitely amazing to be among the canopy of the trees during the rainstorm that refused to let up all day. Again we met another amazing family. This one was an Indian family who raised a family in Philadelphia but now lived in Saudi Arabi. They had too little ones with them that were both very brave and joined their older siblings for zip lining. Sometimes it took a little bit of encouragement to get one of them to go, but it just gave the rest of us some much needed time to sit back and enjoy the experience of being so high up in a lush forest. After zip lining we headed straight to Oudtshoorn where we visited the caves in the morning before heading home. The caves were really amazing, but it was also quite sad to see the amount of destruction that were done to them in the name of a souvenir. All in all those 5 days went by way too quickly and were filled with too many memories to count.
However, our fun South African adventures didn't end there. After our trip to PE we got to go to the IRB Junior World Championship to see South Africa defeat New Zealand, Speir Winery, Cheetah Reserve, Cape Point, Boulder's Beach, False Bay, Camps Bay, and Hout Bay. Truly a whirlwind of adventure that has left me exhausted but with some amazing memories with some amazing friends.
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