Up and down the Garden Route

(Elke) After a short break yesterday, here we are back again. About yesterday there is not that much to tell. It was mainly a driving day. The first part of the driving was a bit boring until Mossel Bay. Once we reached that village, the road got much better and the scenery much more beautiful. Also, it allowed us to understand why this region is called the 'Garden Route'. In Mossel Bay, we got to see a beautiful lighthouse, as well as the tree that is called the Postman Tree. At this tree, people used to put a shoe with a message, hence the name. As real tourist, we posted a post card for ourselves from there which should get a special stamp. We will see.....

Today was a beautiful day, not only because of the nice sunny weather but also because of what we saw. We started off in the Tsitsikamma National Park. This seems to be a very popular national park in South Africa, second after the Kruger Park. The name is derived from what is called land of water. We went there for the 6.5 km Waterfall hike. That one is rated as difficult. For the first few kilometers we did not understand why but then came the tricky part. There was a whole part along the sea which included a lot of climbing on the rocks. Francesco continued for a longer while than me, but the walk was beautiful.

After the nice surprise of the national park (we didn't know what to expect from it), we took a nice scenery road back along the Nature Valley Village. The name is not stolen as the nature is beautiful with nice lakes and lagoons. After the drive we ended up in Monkeyland, a place Francesco wanted to visit.
(Francesco) Well, the hike was beautiful but I had to drop my camera and backpack with Elke since I needed to climb up and down rocks. Very nice. It reminded me of when I was little and climbing rocks on the italian shore. And the waves along the coast (since the hike was along the coast) .... amazing.

Anyway, I guess we deserve a nice dinner. What Elke forgot to say is that this morning our morning was started by watching dolphins passing in front of our window and quite near the shore. As for Monkeyland ... it was funny. So many and funny looking monkeys. And so many noises and running around. Luckily no dropping on us while we were walking in this sort of jungle ... A very nice day!