Days 38 & 39
Today I'm in: Knysna, South Africa
I'm consolidating two entries into one because much of the past two days have been spent in transit. Interesting things continue to happen, but it's not quite as photogenic or exciting as a regular day spent exploring a new place. I definitely think airports and airplanes are a lot of fun, but I recognize that some other folks reading this might not, so I'll annotate a little. :)
For our last night in Windhoek we visited the semi-famous Joe's Beer House, a Windhoek institution that is part beer garden, part restaurant, part dive bar and part nightclub. As I've written before, Windhoek is sort of a sleepy place, but Joe's was by far the busiest place we saw there. Their specialty is exotic game meats, so Aaron and I split a bushman sosatie kebab as an appetizer - with chunks of ostrich, zebra, kudu, crocodile and chicken meat. The kebab-sized portions meant we didn't have to eat much of the really horrible meats, and crocodile turned out to be REALLY awful - fatty and greasy. The rest weren't too bad, actually.
We didn't get to go too wild at Joe's because we had a 3:30am wake-up call the next morning for our 7am flight back to South Africa. That might sound like a little too early to get up, but the Windhoek airport, as I mentioned, is a *very* long way out of town. We took off right at sunrise and landed in Johannesburg mid-morning - getting a phenomenal view of the city as we came in to land - then switched planes and flew down to George, on the Indian Ocean coast a few hours east of Cape Town.
George was our jumping-off point for the Garden Route, a term cooked up by the tourist industry to describe the South African coastline roughly between Mossel Bay and East London. We're driving the majority of it - from George to Port Elizabeth, overnighting in three different towns along the way. The weather in George was incredible when we landed - cloudless and warm - and to top it off, we got to deplane through the tailcone stairs, which is something you almost never get to do at home.
Our first stop on the Garden Route, however, wasn't naturally occurring. My running shoes have been getting a lot of wear on this trip, and since they're already more than two years old, I wasn't surprised when the bottom of one shoe split open while at Sossusvlei. Thus it was that I found myself inside a store called Tekkie Town ('tekkie' is South African slang for sneakers) at the Garden Route Mall in George. I was able to find a great pair for a great price - basically the same Asics that I wore out - but I had to run the gauntlet that is checkout at any South African chain store. This is a multi-step process involving lots of sales personnel consulting with each other, poking tentatively at cash registers, making notes in manual ledgers, and summoning managers for help. At one point there were six people working to ring up my shoes. Fortunately there was a humorously-named bookstore across the mall concourse, which made up for the delay.
I feel like I throw superlatives around on this blog quite a bit, but the little bit of the Garden Route I've seen so far has been really amazingly beautiful. It's sort of a cross between the Pacific Northwest and northern California - lots of mountains, pine and eucalyptus forests, fog-enshrouded bays, sandy beaches and really snug-looking towns. We drove first up to the Outeniqua Pass, which separates the coast from the more agricultural interior valleys. The road hugs the mountainsides for a few miles, then dives back down into the forest before skirting the coastline all the way to East London.
Our stop for the first night is Knysna, a town of about 50,000 people arranged around a lagoon connected to the ocean by a narrow channel through the rocks. Before coming to Knysna, we pulled off into the even-smaller village of Buffelsbaai to wander the beach and soak up the last hour of sunshine. The water is freezing cold this time of year (all year, actually) but it looked really inviting; it's popular with surfers, who wisely wear wetsuits. Jeffrey's Bay, where I'll be staying in a few days, is the big surf hub on the Garden Route - Knysna is known more as a family holiday destination, which was evident from the dozens of hotels carnival-like waterfront and legions of paddleboats parked in the lagoon.
It got dark shortly after we reached Knysna, but we'll have much more time to explore tomorrow. For now I'm liking what I see!
Today I'm in: Knysna, South Africa
I'm consolidating two entries into one because much of the past two days have been spent in transit. Interesting things continue to happen, but it's not quite as photogenic or exciting as a regular day spent exploring a new place. I definitely think airports and airplanes are a lot of fun, but I recognize that some other folks reading this might not, so I'll annotate a little. :)
For our last night in Windhoek we visited the semi-famous Joe's Beer House, a Windhoek institution that is part beer garden, part restaurant, part dive bar and part nightclub. As I've written before, Windhoek is sort of a sleepy place, but Joe's was by far the busiest place we saw there. Their specialty is exotic game meats, so Aaron and I split a bushman sosatie kebab as an appetizer - with chunks of ostrich, zebra, kudu, crocodile and chicken meat. The kebab-sized portions meant we didn't have to eat much of the really horrible meats, and crocodile turned out to be REALLY awful - fatty and greasy. The rest weren't too bad, actually. 
We didn't get to go too wild at Joe's because we had a 3:30am wake-up call the next morning for our 7am flight back to South Africa. That might sound like a little too early to get up, but the Windhoek airport, as I mentioned, is a *very* long way out of town. We took off right at sunrise and landed in Johannesburg mid-morning - getting a phenomenal view of the city as we came in to land - then switched planes and flew down to George, on the Indian Ocean coast a few hours east of Cape Town.
George was our jumping-off point for the Garden Route, a term cooked up by the tourist industry to describe the South African coastline roughly between Mossel Bay and East London. We're driving the majority of it - from George to Port Elizabeth, overnighting in three different towns along the way. The weather in George was incredible when we landed - cloudless and warm - and to top it off, we got to deplane through the tailcone stairs, which is something you almost never get to do at home.
Our first stop on the Garden Route, however, wasn't naturally occurring. My running shoes have been getting a lot of wear on this trip, and since they're already more than two years old, I wasn't surprised when the bottom of one shoe split open while at Sossusvlei. Thus it was that I found myself inside a store called Tekkie Town ('tekkie' is South African slang for sneakers) at the Garden Route Mall in George. I was able to find a great pair for a great price - basically the same Asics that I wore out - but I had to run the gauntlet that is checkout at any South African chain store. This is a multi-step process involving lots of sales personnel consulting with each other, poking tentatively at cash registers, making notes in manual ledgers, and summoning managers for help. At one point there were six people working to ring up my shoes. Fortunately there was a humorously-named bookstore across the mall concourse, which made up for the delay. 
I feel like I throw superlatives around on this blog quite a bit, but the little bit of the Garden Route I've seen so far has been really amazingly beautiful. It's sort of a cross between the Pacific Northwest and northern California - lots of mountains, pine and eucalyptus forests, fog-enshrouded bays, sandy beaches and really snug-looking towns. We drove first up to the Outeniqua Pass, which separates the coast from the more agricultural interior valleys. The road hugs the mountainsides for a few miles, then dives back down into the forest before skirting the coastline all the way to East London. 
Our stop for the first night is Knysna, a town of about 50,000 people arranged around a lagoon connected to the ocean by a narrow channel through the rocks. Before coming to Knysna, we pulled off into the even-smaller village of Buffelsbaai to wander the beach and soak up the last hour of sunshine. The water is freezing cold this time of year (all year, actually) but it looked really inviting; it's popular with surfers, who wisely wear wetsuits. Jeffrey's Bay, where I'll be staying in a few days, is the big surf hub on the Garden Route - Knysna is known more as a family holiday destination, which was evident from the dozens of hotels carnival-like waterfront and legions of paddleboats parked in the lagoon. 
It got dark shortly after we reached Knysna, but we'll have much more time to explore tomorrow. For now I'm liking what I see!
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