The bed wasn’t as comfortable as our bed in De Noordhoek, but it was a bed and we allowed ourselves a nap before dinner. I was pretty excited to dine at Cornuti’s down by the water’s edge. However, even though I had booked a week in advance, they still didn’t give us a good table. Those stinkers. At least they provided “impromptu” entertainment. I gave each of the waiters and waitresses a name based upon the heaviness and speediness of their footfall. It was as if they were having a “stomp it out” competition in that restaurant, I’ll tell you what! (The floors were hardwood and I believe the building was propped on stilts, so you can imagine the sound.) The stomps only held my interest for so long, though and we paid our bill promptly and returned to our B&B. I just couldn’t seem to get enough sleep!
Breakfast was certainly entertaining. The lady who checked us in hung around to converse with us as we ate our usual eggs, toast and bacon. She asked about Ben’s job and he explained he is a mechanical engineer contracted out with his company to work on a power plant here in South Africa. Well, then the lady gets on this tangent about how power plants are bad, etc. etc. It got worse! She described some theory about how to create a better world if we just modeled our lifestyle after the ALIENS who came and destroyed the Tower of Babel. OH MY GOODNESS! Twilight zone crazy, this lady. I’m telling you! She finally stopped talking and we finished our breakfast as quickly as possible. We couldn’t get out of there fast enough…
We decided to take another shot at hiking through the Knysna forests. It took us a bit to find the trail head, but our little detour was acceptable. The detour enabled us to visit a very large tree, the largest in the forest! I’m not sure where or how the fascination sprouts in people to vandalize trees. Although there were many signs instructing people to NOT mark on the trees, many a tree was marked up with names and signs, etc. Poor trees. After mourning the trees booboos, we found the office with maps of the trails. Ben says to me, “The trails aren’t too strenuous, so it shouldn’t take too long.” The lady in the office makes a face as Ben turns away and says, “Well, they are pretty steep.” Turns out Ben missed this comment, but I did not. Knowing that this hike was going to be a little more taxing than intended for me, I went on ahead out of love for my husband. No point in disappointing Ben again…he was hungry for a good hike. I brought along my water and a snack…as well as plenty of Kleenex. It was only to be 7 KM…
And we were off. Bracing myself, we headed down, down, down a very steep trail. Everyone knows that if you head down a trail, you will eventually have to go back up…so I tried to take my time and drink my water sparingly. Then we headed up the steep trail. Thighs a burning. And then down again…then up. WHEW! It was around this time that Ben says, “Huh, I thought these were supposed to be pretty light hikes? That’s strange. I’m sorry babe.” Haha….I went ahead and admitted the truth…the trail was going to continue the tirade for the next couple of kilometers. By this point I had shed as many layers of clothing as I could, and there was nothing we could do but continue onward. Towards the last quarter of the hike, my knees began to get a little wobbly and I had a couple of slides (it was also drizzling a bit). But it was that last kilometer that nearly did me in. A continuous incline. I felt like a baby! I was tired, hungry, full of water and in need of a chair and a good back rub. The trail head came into view and it was all I could do to will my feet to keep moving towards our car. Praise the Lord, I finally made it. A two and a half hour hike- surprisingly we finished it in the standard time. How’s that for a preggo? I had Ben drive me to the bathroom. No way was I going to walk there after that hike!
Food time. We barreled our way back into town and found a great place to eat on a little island within the lagoon area. Their menu was pretty cool- just a bunch of “snack” type dishes. We ordered a variety of snacks (including jalepeno poppers, mmmm!) and dug in. While we could have ordered more “snacks,” we limited ourselves. We had to save room for our “dinner cruise” aboard the Paddle Cruiser of Knysna, after all! After our late lunch, we swung by an African craft market on our way back to the B&B. We found an intricately carved mama and baby elephant that we liked very much. We tried to negotiate a decent price, but the guy refused to come down. He wanted us to pay the equivalent of nearly $150!! I think not! We were willing to pay $50 tops. Dejected, we continued on and ended up talking with another vendor for awhile. He said that they charge “foreigners” more at their market. He flat out admitted it! Wow! I was shocked. He then said that since we are living in SA, he would give us a better deal. We left with a tiny stone elephant and penguin for our daughter. I was pretty annoyed though. I’m simply not a fan of dishonesty.
After we washed up at the B&B we headed down to the docks for our “sunset” dinner cruise. Unfortunately, the clouds covered the sunset…so it was only in our imagination that we saw the sun set! The food was at least tasty and they had a good variety of dishes to taste. Being the lame “aging” people we are, we went back to the B&B as soon as the cruise was over and went to sleep. Haha, between Ben’s early-wake-ups for work and my being pregnant, we just weren’t the most energetic pair on this vacation!
We carefully made our way down to breakfast the next day, worried we would run into the crazy lady again. Fortunately, she was on her break for a couple of days and we were greeted by a much more normal woman! She gave us advice on the best beaches to visit (the sun was finally out!) and we headed out on our merry way. We opted for a “beach tour” and skirted from one beach to the next for our day. I’m afraid we carried our lameness to the beach. We mostly just sat, talked, read, slept and watched the waves. Although Ben did climb some rocks at one point. That was impressive. We also ate lunch at a little restaurant overlooking the ocean. It always drives me crazy how smokers have absolutely no consideration for others. As we were enjoying our lunch this big ol’ guy (WITH KIDS) sat down at the table RIGHT NEXT to us (there were plenty of other tables) and lit up. I drummed up my dramatic side and covered my mouth as I tried to eat my lunch. He didn’t get the hint. So we ended up having to retreat inside the restaurant to finish our meal. What a bum. He’s killing his kids and others with his bad smoking habit!
Our day concluded with a nice dinner on the docks. Funny bathroom story real quick (I know, I always have potty stories these days…). The bathroom for this particular restaurant was shared. Basically, there was a small room. In the room were two stalls with doors and a shared sink. During one of my quick trips to the loo, I opened my stall door and started to take a step to the sink to wash my hands. I stopped dead in my tracks. TWO men were standing in the other stall with the DOOR OPEN peeing. Um sick. Guys??? THIS IS A SHARED BATHROOM! ONE AT A TIME PLEASE AND CLOSE THE DOOR! I peeled out of the bathroom and thanked the good Lord for the wet wipes in my purse. We quickly paid the bill and hit the road after that. I wasn’t up for small talk with some dudes who don’t understand the concept of a “shared bathroom and stall doors.”
The final day dawned with the best weather we’d seen since day one of our trip of course. Our B&B had given us permission to shower in our room before check-out later that afternoon, so I made plans for a fun activity on our final morning. Kayaking in the lagoon with a picnic lunch. Sounds romantic, right? I certainly thought so. However, after about 15 minutes of paddling, it became clear to us that the wind was quite strong, the waves choppy and our picnic destination…far. We forged on ahead. And discovered we had taken a wrong turn! Stink! I guess we used our angry energy to paddle hard and we somehow found a spot to eat on someone’s land. Time was not on our side to reach our picnic spot after all…and we were hungry. Not to mention, we had a long way to paddle back. At least our lunch was good. Especially that cheesecake. Mmmmm. De- lic- ious.
I had a craving for fish kick in as we were driving to the airport…I think because I only eat fish when I am near the ocean (it’s fresh that way, in my mind at least…). Ben kindly made a quick stop and ordered me some “fish‘n’chips.” Hilarious. It took them forever to make the food. And then they give it to me without utensils or napkins! I asked for these items, but they said, “sorry, we don’t have those things.” What a joke. Why have carry out if you don’t have the utensils for carry out? Sigh. I ate with my fingers. For those who know me, you know that was a difficult thing for me to do. I’m a fork and knife kinda girl. I don’t like getting food on my fingers. At least the fish was tasty. And we made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare.
And so concludes the chronicles of our Cape Town/Knysna vacation. Oh, and yes, we did make it back to our SA home safe and sound and in one piece! :)
2 comments:
Amazing pictures! In spite of the twilight zone occurrences - lol - I am drawn to take a vacation down to South Africa in the near future.
It's a fun place to explore, that is for sure! Cape Town is the best...although you would also have to do a safari up near Kruger. So fun! (just a very very long plane ride...!)
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