Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
5th July, Cape Town to Hermanus, The start of the Road Trip!
So if you plan on doing a road trip in a foreign country and you don't know your way around, what do you need? Firstly a car, secondly a map, and furthermore a SatNav comes in handy! We woke up Monday ready to leave with none of the above in place! We'd been to Avis a car rental company who told us we couldn't rent a car if we were not 23, so we ditched them and found another place called aroundabout cars which was on Long Street! Still we had to get Canadian Chris (23) or James (30-something!) to make the rental agreement. In the end we split up with Scott and I going to the waterfront to pickup a satnav whilst Silver Chris and James picked up the car.
Before this organised place took part the three of us had to wake up from our independence day hangover, drag ourselves out of bed and find the other two members of our crew who were staying at different hostels. Picking up Chris was easy enough, however James was handling his ongoing ATM withdrawal fiasco which had led to another 3 hour stint at the bank which ultimately proved to be another waste of time. There were two others from our Cape Town crew that were also doing the so called Garden route from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth, namely American Tyler, and Aussie Duncan whose girlfriend had gone home. Whilst it seems strange to have 2 in one car and 5 in the other it ended up working well as Tyler had more bags for himself than the other 6 of us had between us! They set off whilst we had no car despite the fact they said they would follow us!
The trip to the waterfront to get the satnav was incident free with the exception of a taxi ride from the mall there to green point where our laundry was. The man was a boisterous African man with a loud stereo he insisted on shouting over, and the interior of his car was all shag material! He didn't know where the launderette was so he dropped us at our previous hostel and we proceeded to walk to the launderette. At this point we had one set of clothes which we had been in a little longer than Id care to admit. Scott looked especially fetching in his yellow world cup tee and his pink flowery swim shorts! Whilst walking to the launderette we heard a feminine call "Hey boys want to jump in my ride??" We spun our heads to see James hanging out the window of our ride for the next 5 or so days (his female voice is uncanny!). The car which was driven entirely by the three British passengers as it was a manual or "stick" was a metallic blue Renault Sandero not the biggest car in the world considering it had to hold and transport 5 men backpacks and all, but it managed!
We swung by our present hostel where we picked up our bags, checked out, stuffed all our belongings into every last space of the Sandero's boot before setting off around 3pm. Silver decided to take the first stint of driving I think he was enjoying getting back behind the wheel! We decided to neglect the motorway route which took you swiftly to Jeffreys bay where the garden route officially began, instead opting for a nice drive along to Cape Point and along the coast to Mossel bay it couldn't be much longer - right? Wrong? Tyler and Duncan got to Mossel Bay in 5 or so hours it took the 5 of us a whole 2 days. It wasn't that we were driving slow (far from it) it was due to the fact we kept making impromptu stop offs based on James's SA lonely planet guide and a garden route mini guide we picked up before leaving the hostel which acted as our really rough map for the next 5 days (The map was tiny perhaps 5 x 10 centermetres - and Chris was surprised when we found out it wasn't to scale!). The route truly was spectacular with rocky mountain views on one side of the twisting turning road and the so called whale watching route on the other. We passed a variety of bays including False Bay, Strand bay, and Gordons bay. The latter of which we actually drove through due to one of us seeing a brown sign with a picture of a penguin on!
Perhaps the best part of the road trip was having the freedom to go where we wanted, when we wanted without any restrictions or taxi fares. Duncan and Tyler blasted the route whilst we preferred to saunter along at a leisurely pace - each to their own I guess. The penguin viewpoint was in the bay itself. The place they were all standing was fenced off and an admission price had to be paid to enter. As we arrived at the fence however, four or five of the penguins ran out through a hole underneath the fence and were running about around us so we saved a couple of rand thanks to these adventurous few! After seeing the penguins and taking afew photos we were admiring the view from the bay via the ramp boats used to get in and out. Chris turned to me and said "I wander how cold the water is?" To which I replied "Why don't you jump in and find out!" HE said don't be stupid you'd have to pay me a lot of money to jump in there." He followed this up with wow this ramp is quite slippy..." In he went feet first catching himself on his hands, shoes completely in the water and the five of us cracked up. I actually managed to catch the tail end of that on video and it just shoes Chris creasing up attempting to peel off his socks which he duly left at the bay! After the minor disaster we returned to our car, or at least 4 of us did as Chris was trying to get into somebody else's Renault Sandero (probably rented as well).
After the penguin stop we carried on along the coast until we got to a place called Hermanus where we decided the M would be silent! We were only supposed to be stopping for dinner but it turned out after wine and beer at dinner that this was going to be our first stop on our road trip. We parked up at a touristy coastline complex with bars and restaurants recommended by the satnav. We asked a fellow British tourist for a good place to eat and she recommended the Italian restaurant Picardos. The food was good, James and I had whooping big steaks and shared a bottle of red between the two of us. During the meal Chris was receiving a few bemused texts from Tyler who had reached Mossel bay (roughly 1/3rd of the road trip) whilst we were only in Hermanus (1/20th of the trip!). Tyler felt the need to know our exact plan whilst we didn't really have one. Out of Chris's frustration from the number of texts being received from Tyler Chris shouted out to the restaurant "f***sakes Tylers sucking me dry!" Very amusing despite Chris's attempts to persuade us he was talking about call credit on his phone! We had a good time at that restaurant having a few conversations with the waitress ultimately ending with asking directions for the backpacker hostel in Hermanus. Chris had a habit during our trip of rattling out one-liners that would invariably lead to fits of laughter from the rest of us!
We rolled up to the backpacker we had been directed to and sent James in on a charm offensive in order to win us a place to stay for the night. Having James on our road trip was definitely a plus. He is one of those guys who can and will talk to anyone he meets about anything and end up putting a smile on their face - useful if you need somewhere to stay and it's late at night. From previous experience South Africa was jam packed, and we were traveling as a 5 so we thought it wouldn't be easy. We were however away from where any of the games were being held so Hermanus was no problem! James came back telling us we could have a cottage between the 5 of us (2 double beds, and a bunk bed - Scott and I had to share!) and it worked out much cheaper than individually paying for a dorm, a theme which continued for the whole road trip!
After moving into our cottage for the night we went about finding a bar. Along the walk we found a lit viewpoint where you could watch the waves crash into the coast. Afterwards we walked via a drop-and-go sign, where one of us proceeded to drop their shorts and imitate the dropping part for a photo, to a little bar James spotted called Barney's. We walked in to find the barman and two others there - dead. However the beer was cheap and the pool tables free so we sat ourselves down and drank away. We knocked back a few beers and played pool, James chatted to the owner and the barman about Arizona and Hermanus. For the first time ever I won three games of pool back to back beating Silver, Chris and Scott before James ruined my streak. Finally we tried Barney's special shot which pretty much consisted of a mix of left over top row liquor - it actually tasted alright! After Barney's we called it anight and headed back to our hostel ending day 1 of the so far very short road trip!
DC Silver Scott James & Chris xxx
- comments
Paul (scotts Dad) Another great read Dan, looking forward to the next chapter, i guess you and scotty have known each other long enough,so we cant accuse you of rushing into sleeping with each other!
Di (Dan's mum) Travel, stop, drink, travel, stop, drink!!!!! A great account - Garden route sounds fantastic Dan. Good job you and Scott have known each other a while! What an experience. xxx mum
Di (Dan's mum) LOL Just realised I pressed add comment before finishing the last comment read "what an experience you are having. Can't wait to see the fab photos. X mum
Andy (Dan's Uncle) Great story again. I feel like I am there with you. Keep up the good work.
Martin (Dan's Dad) Loving the road trip, can't wait to wake up to see what we're doing tomorrow. D x
Ga Ga & Nan Well lads what a great time you are having each blog gives more laughs than the one before.Keep it up. luv from G & N &Aunty Margaret Miss you .XXXX