juststuff: pictures to puzzle together = awesome mini break

THE DATE:-

1 - 5 APRIL 2012

OUR ROUTE:-

Cape Town to Knysna on the N2. Destination Noetzie (just outside Knysna on the Plettenberg Bay side).

DEPARTURE TIME:-

Must not be too early in the morning. 9.30 - 10.00 is perfect. Too early interferes with the time that the bakery in Riviersonderend opens. If you arrive at RSE at around 11 it is not too early to have a mutton pie for brunch.

As you drive into Riviersonderend from Cape Town you pass the Shell garage on your left and

Oumeul is on the next block.

Michael's Mutton Pie

We drove back from Plett a good few years ago with Nic who insisted that we stop for a pie. This we did and now we cannot drive past without stopping (when travelling in either direction). Five years ago it was quite a dingy shop - it is still no Gourmet Garage but business is booming (along with their prices). They now have a fancy coffee machine and churn out amazing cappuccinos (not that we had one, but they looked and smelt awesome) and you have to queue for your pies. The price has jumped to R24-50 for the mutton pie and the rest (snake and pygmy, plain snake, chicken, babotie, mutton curry, cheese and ham, feta and spinach - to name a few) are around R19-50.

We had a good leisurely journey up to Knysna with quite a few road works stops along the way. We met Jan and Ellen in Knysna and headed for Noetzie. There is gate to unlock to enter and a very steep ravine to negotiate your vehicle down before you get down to ground level. Bags to unpack and load onto a trolley. But worth every effort for this..................

A perfect day and my first picture from "Da Deck". The green Adirondack chairs are my best. Impressed with my knowledge? Thanks to Colin and Jenny because when we visited the States in 2009 we drove through the Adirondack region to get to their home in Saratoga Springs.

The whole mountainous area of the Adirondacks and particularly around Lake George was spectacular. Everywhere you see these fancy holidays homes with this type of wooden (Adirondack) furniture. (Geography and furniture lesson is now over).

Back to local stuff.

My first ice cold Appletiser on "Da Deck" (with the sepia effect)

(April fool!!)

Adirondack chair, sun going down, Krone champagne, sepia effect (without flash).

Whose the April Fool?

New camera setting - sunset with reflections on the lagoon

"Ellen, please help me remove the date"

"Thanks Ellen"

Kitchen / Dining area inside the cabin

Bottles next to the stove are unopened (if you were worried)

The Krone champagne and bottles on the table were work in progress (you should have been worried)

(No prizes for who drank the Coke)

Another perfect day (in Africa)

Does the use of brackets make it less of a cliche?

(I think so)
(Hope so)

My three housemates invited me to walk around and watch them play golf at Goose Valley in Plett. Not meaning to be rude, I declined and headed off to see what was happening in town. (I would have been there like a bear if Phil Mickelson or Tiger Woods were in the area. We did once see Gary Player at Goose Valley, dressed in black, in a golf cart (he even complimented Ellen on her first drive). If you love Gary Player, you must take a look at this site. Back to Plettenberg Bay, they now have a market on Main Road (next to where Cranzigot's used to be).

The Food Hall - pizza's, pancakes, fish and chips, beer on tap

One of my favourite views from the circle

I headed for Central Beach to read my book and play with my camera (like a proper tourist)

Then popped in for an iced coffee (coffee milkshake) at Moby Dick's
(Don't you love it when you think your iced coffee is going to be healthy and watery and made with extra strong coffee and then it arrives and is like the best double thick malt you have ever tasted - I love it when that happens to me (like it did))

"Beckers" (the house we rented in July for many years)

The golfing threesome completed their round and we headed back to Knysna to meet friends Manfred and Kathy for sundowners and an early supper. They recently moved permanently from Cape Town to Knysna and are about to renovate the awesome house they have bought close to the Simola golf estate as you drive into Knysna on the left.

Birds feeding on their deck

View of the Heads

Sun beginning to dip

Same view using the zoom on full. You can nearly see into those homes on Leisure Isle

Okay, I am getting a bit carried away and this is not a photographic blog and I do not pretend to be a photographer. The four days at Noetzie were great, the weather was perfect and we had plenty swims in the sea. The sun does leave "da deck" a bit earlier than in December and the first evening was pretty chilly and dewy. However, for the rest it was warm, we made great meals and played Sequence by lamplight at night. It is good for the soul to not have electricity, television, radio or cellphone reception. It is wonderful to feel salty and slightly prickly from the sun and to sleep under the stars (not really but they have no curtains or blinds). On your first day there you keep feeling as though you have forgotten something (yes it is that little appendage that we have become so reliant on, that is always within a metre or two of our bodies every moment of everyday). Liberating indeed.