The Garden Route

In the next several days, we were on the famous "Garden Route". En route, we stayed at Hermanus for the first night, Plettenberg Bay for 3 nights, Port Elizabeth for 2 nights and East London for 2 nights. It was rainy along the way to and at Hermanus. Pletternber Bay is a up-market seaside resorts with ragged coast lines and golden beaches. We had breakfast at the bay front Beacon Island Hotel, an architect awkwardly standing alone at the beach front. A short visit to Knysna includes a stroll at the lookout point for a magnificent view of Knysna Lagoon and the Heads, a little shopping experience at the roadside African artisan market, a walk around the waterfront and lunch at Spur. On the third day at the Plettenberg Bay, we took a hike at Robberg Nature Reserve. This wonderful hike, voted by both Lance and me, is the highlight of Garden Route. I literally felt I was immersed in a paradise of nature that presents dramatic windswept cliffs, blue seas, small sandy doves, a colony of seals and many many interesting beach birds and schools of dolphins passing by in the distance. There was no place like Robberg Nature Reserve.
En route to PE (Port Elizabeth), we stopped at the Storms River Suspension Bridge at Tsitsikamma for walks and views. We carried on and detoured to the famous beach town- Jeffrey's Bay and only found the world's most perfect waves weren't that perfect that day. The detour served a nostalgia opportunity for Lance. We stayed at Summer Sandy Beach resort in PE. The flat where we stayed lies directly on the beach with a big balcony for swimmers and surfers watching. We spent a few lazy beach days at PE before heading north to East London. East London is new to both of us. Unlike what the tour book describes, East London city areas appear to be quite run-down and the sought after Latimer's Landing was finally found at a warehouse looking backdrop of the harbor and closed. We were a bit too afraid to get out of car and check. We stayed at Gonubie, a wild beach town situated on rocky and windy coasts. It was cloudy and misty on the beach. Waves pounding rocks shoot into the air fantastic waterfalls. It is wild and surreal. There's a pancake house on the beach that makes mediocre pancakes and attracts a lot of local Afrikaner customers. That's probably the only little hustle and bustle in the town.