Table Mountain & The Winelands

Not wanting to take any more chances with the weather, when we woke up on Sunday to clear skies and no wind, and heeding the advice of our B&B, we decided to head straight to Table Mountain

So we made it to Stellenbosch eventually, just in time for the boks vs Wales rugby match KO on Saturday.

But what an adventure to get here!!!

So on Friday we were having "should I stay or should I go" dilemmas while the rain continued to pour down in torrents!!!! Eventually, having consulted the police, we found out that the road back to Port Elizabeth was still open, so we thought we should escape Plett before things got even worse.

We took the N2 East to start, hoping to take th R62 North of George, but when we got there, a policeman told us there had been a landslide and that we had to go via Aberdeen (not the Scottish one, but still a good 500km detour). After consulting my Lonely Planet, I thought that the Karoo (a desert) MUST be dry and we rang Graff-Reinet to check conditions. The water on the road was over 3cm deep in places and driving it has to be said was marginal, but when we reached Uitehage (near PE) the rain suddenly stopped, and we crossed the Karoo in relative peace.

Our next stop was Graff- Reinet in the Karoo. It was actually a charming little town and it wasn't raining!!! Full of Cape Dutch buildings and the Jackarandas and bourgainvillea were in flower. We enjoyed an al fresco dinner at Pioneers, even though the locals thought it a little strange that it was so cold for us to be out there, but our Malva pudding warmed us up. Our B&B was basic, and Tom was disappointed when his boerewurs turned into a tinned frankfurter!

Sadly we couldn't make the Valley of Desolation the following morning as the rain had once again caught up with us, so we hit the road ASAP, with a stop for coffee at Beaufort West, where we enjoyed sitting outside in the long awaited sun, and lunch at a roadside picnic area. The N1 was fairly dull as the road went straight through the desert, but when we came out of the Hugenots tunnel and reached the winelands it suddenly changed to being lush and green and we spotted Table Mountain in the distance with its tablecloth on!

But we did get to Stellenbosch eventually!!!