Cape 2010 - Day 5 (20 Jan)

Up at 05h30. Packed the car and grabbed some photos of our B&B. Because of all the rain yesterday I never got a chance to take photos of some of the beautiful buildings here in Grahamstown. As we left we ran into the students. Turns out they didn't manage to get away as early as they had hoped. Roger was a bit fed up seeing as he could have had an extra hour of sleep. Eventually we got away earlier than they did.





We headed down the N2 and soon got our first glimpse of sea. We also saw the Cerebus salt factory, complete with salt pans. Reached Knysna at about 10:35 and we wandered around, rather than fishing the laptop out for directions to the Mitchell's brewery. Manged to miss the 10:30 brewery tour, but were not too bothered. Had a beer tasting consisting of Mitchell's Foresters lager, Bosuns Bitter, 90 Schilling Ale, and Raven Stoat. The ale had a lovely strong cinnamon, spicy flavour.




While sampling the beer we noticed a comatose cat in the office's in-tray. Upon inquiry, the friendly brewery lady insured us that no, sleeping cats are not part of the brewery's urgent agenda, but that this particular one had decided that the tray sufficed as an adequate resting place for during the daylight hours.




After Mitchell's, we stopped at the Feather Gallery, makers of fine wooden ornaments. Despite the excellent workmanship of the range which is the main attraction, which consisted of wooden birds carved and painted to resemble their feathery cousins as closely as possible, James and I found ourselves more drawn towards the more stylistic or unusual works. As much as we liked some of the stuff we eventually left empty-handed and have to admit once again to ourselves that we don't appear to be bric-a-brac people on the whole.

Had lunch at Bosun's Pub in George Rex road before we headed back to the brewery to pick up our beer and got back on the road again. After continuing along the coast for a few more kilometers, we turned inland and got on the road to Oudshoorn. One side of the mountains, green and lush. Other side, semi-desert. The Klein Karoo is almost a complete opposite, and as beautiful in its own way.



We arrived at Oudshoorn fairly early. It was good to see Renier, Nelita, Elme and Jonelle again. Still can't believe how much the two girls have grown! They made us feel right at home and we spent a lovely evening with them. It was great getting a proper home-cooked supper after three nights of eating out!