WESTERN CAPE: ON THE ROAD AGAIN
In our previous post, we’ve spent a few slower days in Malgas. Totally relaxed, with a packed car and overambitious gameplan for the day, we were off to our next destination.
The Gameplan.
The plan was quite simple.
Stay on the alternative route as much as possible
Get some breakfast
Visit a few places along the road
Struisbaai
L’Agulhas
Pearly Beach
Gansbaai
Hand in some laundry in Hermanus
Check into our new accommodation.
Easy and simple, right?
**Spoiler alert: We never saw Pearly Beach and Gansbaai, plus the last bit of our road trip was a rush and only the main road.
The alternative route.
As mentioned in our previous post, Malgas and its surroundings are mainly farms, and our alternative route would be a gravel road between these farms.
This had to have been some of my favourite pieces of roads we drove during the whole trip. The gravel road meant you had to drive slower, allowing you to observe the surroundings better. It also meant we could stop at any point to get out, stretch some legs and take some photos.
Roadsigns are usually very dull, necessary, but dull unless you travel in SA with their love of animals, especially the smaller species. We saw many road signs warning you to look out for them. Although taking photos of them wasn’t always possible, we did so as much as possible.
These signs aren’t just for show. We saw loads of small animals on the route, and T even managed to create a traffic jam in light of saving two tortoise’s lives.
Breakfast at Issie
Bredasdorp would be our first town for the day, which meant this could be our breakfast spot.
We found a quaint little cafe with trusty old Google – Issie Kitchen Cafe. The interior is very homey with loads of blue accents, with which T fitted right in. I prefer T’s company 99% of the time, but this little spot made me yearn for times spent with my girlfriends in a coffee shop, chatting away.
Struisbaai
Our visit to Struisbaai was very brief, but the vibe we got was quite chill. It also looked as if it was quite popular for fishing. Since I took so much time on the road stopping every few kilometres, we didn’t stay much longer and decided to move on.
L’Agulhas – The southernmost point in Africa.
This was starting to turn out as one amazing day. L’Agulhas is widely known for its blustering and howling winds due to its unsheltered location with rough seas because of the Indian and Atlantic meeting there.
We couldn’t have asked for a better day. The wind was a mere breeze, the temperature ideal, light clouds which were everchanging, and the ocean as calm as it gets with all the different kinds of blue.
Knowing what we know now, we would have definitely stayed in L’Agulhas a night or two. I couldn’t stop shooting photos despite it being in the middle of the day and, by usual standards, the worst time to be photographing landscapes.
I’m quite a visual thinker, and in my mind, it felt as if T had to drag me away by my hair, all kicking and screaming, although it was just a mere “suggestion” as we still had quite a stretch to go. I really feel sorry for him, as he always has to be our relationship’s realistic and savvy person.
Make it stand out
L’Agulhas Seafood Restaurant
Once I stepped away from the camera and the stunning landscapes, my (and probably T’s as well) stomach said: “HELLO!!!! WHERE ARE YOU? I’M HUNGRY”
We’ve had some seafood a few times already but woke up that morning with a craving for some fresh calamari. Once again, Google came to the rescue.
I feel embarrassed to say, but we didn’t take any photos of the restaurant, and only after I’d eaten a chippy and piece of calamari did I remember to take a photo. We don’t always take photos of our food, but
try to add it in for variety in our blog
keep it for memory sake
we want to give credit where it’s due
make everybody hungry looking at the pics, including my future self when blogging about it.
So please don’t take my lack of photography enthusiasm as any indication, as this was the best calamari and fish we had during our entire trip.
After lunch, we had to rush to Hermanus to get our laundry done since we’d run out of underwear by now, thus having to take the main road and cutting out our last two intended spots.
This specific day was in our top three days of the entire trip. A combination of breathtaking views and landscapes, good food, phenomenal weather conditions and heartwarming company made up for an unbeatable mood.
In our next post, I’ll tell you all about Hermanus. We visit our first wine farms and discover our favourite MCC (Method Clap Classique or more commonly known as bubbly) of the trip. Oh, and T has some pre-breakfast breakfast (which should really be a thing).
Wandering off now…
T & Me
