7th-10th August
Swellendam to Plettenberg Bay, Garden Route

The Women's Day public holiday was coming up and pants was worried about difficulties with accomodation as a result, thus we agreed to settle in one place for a couple of days
I set about finding somewhere appropriate while we had breakfast at Schoone Oordt





Breakfast included a buffet and "set menu" which was interesting

Vanilla poached pears

Goats cheese scramble with smoked trout

The car had been washed while we ate which at the time we thought was unusual but which we rapidly discovered was considered normal here


Despite high levels of grizzling from pants, I managed to get into the town itself to have a bit of a look around
The church was as pretty as expected


And a historical reminder that South Africa used to be part of the British Empire (unfortunately my grasp of pre WW2 SA history is not that extensive)


We proceeded to Glentana via Heidelberg
Pants as usual did not want to stop for photos but the views even at high speed were rather nice


The intention at Glentana was to check out the wreck of a floating dock in one of the bays there. Unfortunately our timing was not correct as regards the tides so it remains unvisited. However, a nice walk on the beach was had
(https://www.mosselbayadvertiser.com/...wreck-20171213)



The hotel we had settled on was the Quartet in Plettenberg bay, which was very nice (http://www.quartethotel.co.za)
[unable to upload photo of room here due to ongoing FT "security token" issue]


We didn't realise until dinner time that this hotel was in a retirement complex, and that we were the only people below the age of about 65 there



Breakfast was an included buffet, with paid for cooked options available, and was excellent
[add photo when FT uploader decides to work]

We spent a couple of days touring, including a walk up to the Eastern Heads lookout at Knysna



Poortjes beach


Another walk/scramble up to Arch rock




And the Garden of Eden- featuring monkey


we had a dinner down at an Italian restaurant near Arch rock beach, which gave us a nice sunset


It was also our anniversary and pants took me to a nice restaurant ()- the golf club
Can't tell you what I ate but the wine came with ice cubes
[upload wine picture]
I was however introduced to the "Dom Pedro", for which I am eternally grateful


Finally, a day up the Outeniqua pass


Then back down the Montagu pass




...past the Dutch Reformed Mother Church at George


and finally down the 7 passes road, where we found a delightful tea garden, The Tea Junxion, near Wilderness






Greeted by "Or you looking for the ti gawden" (my terrible typing of the accent!), pants went for the chicken tikka masala while I had pea and ham soup. Was hands down the best meal we had the whole trip