An entry in the TFS Travel Journal
We enjoyed a leisurely morning and light breakfast before heading off to our 11am chiropractor appointment, for our mid-trip tune up. We had ascertained beforehand that the doctor had been trained in the U.S., but were surprised when we walked in and found that he was in his mid 70s, and had been in practice for 54 years! He was very nice and personable, and gave us competent, but not extraordinary, adjustments. He is South African, but his wife was American, and he served in the U.S. Air Force during WWII.
We then had a little time to kill before the hotel began serving lunch, so we drove up to the nearby Afrikaans Language Monument. Not that we had tremendous interest, or that the monument is so fabulous (in fact, it is an oddly shaped concrete creation with one huge spire and a few rounded shapes at the base), but the view from atop Pearl (hence the town name of Paarl) Mountain was sweeping and grand. It was also hot as hell, so we bought an orange popsicle and drove back.
Lunch was at the Grand Roche’s famed restaurant, and lived up to its reputation. We started with a lamb and roquefort salad and a terrine of springbok (a local deer-like animal), both of which were great. Then a grilled yellowtail (with rice and paprika sauce) which was plump and tasty, and grilled crayfish that was perfection and was served with some mussels and the best and biggest clams we’d ever had. Dessert was a coconut crepe with lemongrass ice cream. We also enjoyed (thanks to Wendy’s creativity) some freshly brewed, iced mint tea which we’re looking forward to making an upstate staple. Thus sated, we packed up and motored off to the Garden Route.
The drive took about 5 1/2 hours and passed through a variety of scenery. First, we crossed the Drakenstein range through a rocky (all colors of reds, oranges and whites) pass, then drove for a while through desert and mountains that looked much like eastern Arizona or New Mexico. For a couple of hours we were off the main hiway, and saw amazingly few other cars. We then descended through another pass, which sliced and wound narrowly through some thickly forested mountains. We were then along the coast, and we stayed there until pulling into Knysna around 7:30, arriving at the Yellowood Lodge. We chose a room with a nice patio (with plants and hydrangeas all around) overlooking the town and the lagoon it sits upon, though with the heat that’s forecasted for our few days here, we don’t know how much time we’ll be spending on it! We spent the evening relaxing in the room.