Riding along in our automobile...

The next few days we would travel from Cape town to Port Elizabeth taking a rather round about route at the beginning only to rejoin the Garden Route at Wilderness. Our first stop Franschoek, a lovely wine region founded by the Heugonots. We were lucky enough to get a reservation at La Petite Ferme, where we enjoyed a fabulous meal and lovely wine in a spectacular background of hills and vines whose leaves were turning red and yellow due to the impending autumn spell cast across the region... we enjoyedc teh garden before heading to our next destination. Our car ride took us around sloping hills, green valleys and plenty of curves which of course had me at my seat's edge. Cleber is most definitely a very competant and safe driver but there were defintely moments where his confidence and my position as passenger did not always go hand in hand. I so didn't want to become the nagging passenger so I sat back, took a deep breathe and let Cleber have his well deserved peace.

We were headed to Montagu, which I now kindly refer to as the one chapel town. I chose this little town as it was in the right direction towards the Garden Route, not too far from Franschoek and apparently according to the guide was knwn for its hot springs. We didn't see nor experience any hot springs, but did however manage to stay in one of the largest guest rooms I had ever seen with a bathroom that was quite literally the size of my Paris Apartment. We attempted to enjoy a bath, only to relize that there was no hot water. Romance was scratched for that evening... We headed out to dinner and were told that a must see was a local tree that was home to hundreds if not thousands of birds who resemble egrets. The smell certainly gave it away and the ground was no longer earth but white. Our guest house kindly reserved us a table at a local establishment and as we were exhausted we decided to attempt to get in a little earlier. Apparently a no go, as they only accepted a certain number of people per sitting. Mission aborted we tried a few other restaurants and were kindly denied immediate sitting because they were sooooo busy. It made Paris and New York seem simple. We eventually found ourselves in a simple Italian restaurant across the street and returned home fed and ready to dream our way into the morning. The morning arrived and thanks to the magnificent gardening effort of our patron we were greeted by a cacaphony of birds who were early risers and especially talented in the vocal department.

We had enjoyed our time but were eager to get back on the road as we had more terrain to explore and hadn't the slightest idea where we'd end up.