Sunday, 28th NOVEMBER 2010
08.00hrs We wake to the sounds of birds chirping away outside the window. There is no Mass in this village. It is only celebrated here every second week, so this is not the week. We dressed in shorts, as it is much warmer in land than at the coast, and toddle downstairs to the adjoining cafe (belongs to the hotel) and have our breakfast, eggs and bacon on toast. They make their own breads here and they are great.
When the breakfast was finished, we went for a walk down the village, met lots of people and had lots of chat. Everyone seemed so friendly and helpful (like Ireland used to be). Lydia, the receptionist at the hotel, was a great assistance to our travel plans. We packed our bags and hopped into the car and off again, this time up over the mountains on a dirt track (a good dirt track). We passed many BBQ areas, specially built for traveling families and tourists (we saw this in many countries on our way, the best being in the Azores where the government even provide the wood for the fires), so at weekends, when families take to the countryside, they bring the food with them and cook in these designated areas.
Driving up the mountain was cool, the dirt track was narrow as it wound its way up, up, and eventually into the clouds. At the top or summit, the growth was more green and plentiful than lower down, and the supply of water was better from the constant cloud cover. We stopped at the "Cango Caves" where skipper did a tour of the caves, they were spectacular. These were the best caves we ever visited, and the stalagmites and stalactites were spectacular, some were 150,000 years old. The tour took an hour and was well worth the visit.
So back in the car once more, we now found ourselves driving through beautiful lush vallies, with lots of farms surrounded by hundreds of pale green weeping willows (that's what they looked like). We stopped at a filling station and filled the car, and at the same time a black young man washed and cleaned the car for the equivalent of 1.5 euros, great value.
We passed through "George" heading east this time, and close to our destination, we took off down a side road and wound up in a beautiful residential area called "Belvedere" there was old belvedere and new belvedere. The old one had this beautiful stone anglican Church. We paid a visit, and met many, more people there before moving onto the New Belvedere. Here there were some serious houses. Oh my gosh, what a posh place! We stopped at the local hotel, which overlooked Knysna from the western side of the lagoon and had a magnificent view. There we had a sherry and started a conversation with this guy, who happened to be from Belfast, and to boot, know our friend Ian Mc Millan, small world, and all by pure chance. What's your name boy? -------------- oh! Stuart Knox.... how about that?
A while later, we left Belvedere and headed back to no. Q14 "Thesen Island" where we returned the car and had dinner with Sham and Emily, they also invited Neil, and then Larry and Mary Ann from the Canadian Yacht moored alongside us in the lagoon (Traversay 111).
The Canadians were great gas, having sailed most places in the world including Antartic and around Cape horn. They even have a piano on board their boat and are great singers as well. Soooooo, of course, Sham got out the guitar and we had a jolly good sing song...
Dinner consisted of a couple of roast chickens, roast spuds, green beans, and finally chopped lettuce, gravy, etc.
All very tasty, yum, yum.
We had a very entertaining evening before Sham ran us out to our respective boats in his rib. We hit the bunks and were gone to the land of zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz in seconds.
That's all,
Signed :- Stephen Hyde ( Skipper )