Our hostess, Naomi, had said that we could take our time before leaving today so we were in no hurry to get packed up and go.
The lapa and tee pees are positioned amongst a number of huge pecan nut trees which is part of the income for the farm.
While I was drinking my coffee I heard Lesley shouting something from in the bush. Thinking something was wrong, I hastened to find her – only to discover that she was excited about finding a jackal buzzard. The bird had long since flown away, but Lesley had 20 photographs to prove that it, did in fact, exist. I think that I should buy her a whistle that she can use if she is in trouble any time.....Knowing her, she will probably use it anyway as I would be more likely to respond to it than her just calling me, but I will remind her about the Cry Wolf story.
Now that I was with her I decided – if you can't beat them, join them, and we went for a walk to the river. We found a signpost that read BEWARE B-ody watching – Man Ahead. (Picture below). Later when I went to pay Naomi and her husband, Ingo, I asked her about the sign. She told me that the property next door was owned by a hermit in his 80's who once lodged a complaint about the fact that when he used his binoculars he could see nude people swimming in the river. Hence the sign!! Seems some clients had skinny dipped and he was shocked when he saw them......
L: After we had breakfast, packed up and showered Steve decided that we should walk up the steep hillside to see the cabins. There are 4 wooden chalets built on the hill, quite far from each other for privacy. They are 2 bedroomed with one bedroom en-suite with a balcony overlooking the valley. They are fully equipped with everything you need for a weekend getaway. Some of them overlook the trout ponds, but apparently there are no trout breeding at the moment, but we forgot to ask the owners the story about the trout at the moment.
S: I left Lesley at the one little pond to take photos and went off to the reception to pay and met Ingo, Naomi's husband, who was cooking up a storm for the 40 guests arriving on motorbikes the next day......
Naomi and Ingo are avid mountain bikers and Ingo enjoys hunting which he does in the Willowmore area, where there are a number of hunting farms. He is a more unconventional hunter as he uses a crossbow. Lesley came and met me at the reception and was also introduced to Ingo.
All in all, Ingo and Naomi were very good hosts and very informative about the area and we really enjoyed the conversation and our stay.
By the time we got away it was 11h30 and we got back onto Prince Alfred's Pass and headed for Knysna. Along the way there is a turn off to Plettenberg Bay and someone has erected a structure which consists of a series of hollow steel square tubes each culminating in a horn. There are mouth pieces on each pipe but at different heights through which you can blow and see how well you can blow a trumpet. It is supposed to be an elephant call, or so they say. Needless to say you have to stop and try it out. Don't forget your sanitized wet wipes.
L: We stopped off at a place advertising a Big Tree, only 100m from the road so we decided to go for a walk to see it. The tree was a Yellow wood, 46 meters high with a trunk circumference of 7 meters. Further down the road we saw another Big Tree sign, but did not see that one. We did, however, turn off at a view point called Spitskop and drove the steep 500m to the top. It was well worth it with beautiful views all around to the Baviaanskloof mountains and the sea with the Heads of Knysna visible in the distance. We took lots of photos and had a little picnic up there.
S: It was back on the road and off to Knysna. The gravel was quite bad in places due to the damage from water run-off from the rains and the effects of the heavy logger trucks, but because of our air-springs the suspension softened the effects of the bumps considerably. It was a bit of a shock coming out of the mountains and straight through a squatter camp/township as we turned onto the N2 into Knysna.
We stopped off for some supplies at the first Spar we saw and then it was a few more kilometres to our friends, Bart and Cheryl's place. They are renting a place until moving into their new home next month.
We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening chatting and catching up, with a really nice chicken curry meal in between. We can recommend this 'guest house' to anyone!
It started raining soon after we arrived and was still raining on and off when we eventually went to bed.
No comments:
Post a Comment