The Garden Route

We had originally planned on driving the N2 across the southern coast of South Africa, but there was a little issue with some excessive rain and the road falling into the sea.  So we went inland first, up the N1 into the Karoo and then back down to meet the N2 after the break. On the way we stopped for the night in Prince Alfred, a lovely little country town with a collection of luxury B&Bs.  It's up on the high plains, which means it can be a fairly bitter cold at night -- on the other hand, there are no streetlights and no nearby cities, so you can see the night sky in its full starry glory. After we got back to the Garden Route, we stayed a few nights in Plettenberg before heading down the rest of the way to Port Elizabeth.

Prince Albert is in drought country, but the city provides an aquaduct for each house's garden.  Each resident is allowed to divert a certain amount of water each week.

South Africa runs on 220V and yet another totally incompatible plug layout.  After I become Supreme Benevolent Dictator For Life, standardizing electrical plugs will be high on my list.

This is a little modern art sculpture I made.  I call it "12 volt".

Baboons continue to wander freely.  We saw our share of wild monkeys as well.

Bessie phone home!

Umm, Okay.

The Bloukrans bridge is the highest concrete span in Africa.

A detail from the bridge center. The Bloukrans Bungie Jump is the highest in the world...

The local water has massive amounts of tannin in it.  It's perfectly healthy to drink, but it is a vivid brown color....

This view is from up the street from The Plettenburg Hotel.  Note the large lagoon to the left of the main beach.  We saw a lot of kite surfers in the lagoon, and a lot of regular surfers in the water.

Peter, one of the two housecats of The Plettenburg.  (Oliver was hiding.)

Interesting pizza they have in this town.

Somtimes a little too interesting...