On our first day trip around Cape Town, we were awestruck by how beautiful it is. Within seconds I found myself imagining living in a house overlooking the beach here.

We took a drive around the peninsula, through Chapman’s Peak and then onto the Cape Point nature reserve.

Here we visited the most south-western point of South Africa – the Cape of Good Hope.

Afterwards, we continued around the peninsula to the seaside townships of Boulders, Fish Hoek and Kalk Bay.

On suggestion from Carrie (the bride we mentioned a few articles ago) we stopped at the Brass Bell in Kalk Bay for a beer and some fish n chips. It was just wonderful.

The thing that struck Michelle and I though was that in the space of about 6 hours we managed to see tortoises, ostriches, baboons and penguins all in the wild and in their natural habitat.

It was a truly magnficent day.

Signage in South Africa can be very confusing. We’ve often overshot turnoffs as they generally put the sign for the turnoff just after the turn – which is a little quirky.

Now that we understand the system we’re getting most turnoffs first go now.

However, the other day while enjoying a burger on the beach we came across this sign in the carpark where we had parked.

I’m really perplexed about the no cars allowed icon at the bottom right.

As the garden route ends you have two options for continuing your trip to Cape Town.

Option 1 – progress along the N2 Highway at brake neck pace and get there asap.

Option 2 – head inland, and enjoy some of the wonderful mountainous terrain on offer, travelling along route 62.

We chose option 2.

Michelle had done a lot of research in planning what is fast becoming the best holiday of my life and had us down to visit a town famous for its ostriches – Oudtschoorn.

We made our way there on one of the most magnificent scenic drives we’ve ever taken to find that the town is an old, out-in-the-middle-of-nowhere country town – similar to the likes of Stanthorpe or Gayndah.

We drove around a bit before hesistantly deciding to find the hostel we were booked in at. Arriving at the outskirts of town, we found a not-to-flash building with a burnt out front wall. It looked like an abandoned detention centre. We decided then and there to head back to the coast and visit the last town on the garden route – Mossel Bay.

Mossel Bay used to be a commercial center and as such isn’t that pretty on the way in, but once you get to the point you are greeted by a magnificent coast line. We enjoyed many a fine beer at a seaside bar overlooking kids, grownups and dolphins swimming just offshore.

After Mossel Bay we were hesistant to head back onto route 62 for our final destination before Cape Town – Montagu – especially after the hostel chick was puzzled as to why we would want to go there saying ‘it’s quite small and not generally where people go’. Turns out, this is true if you are after the party scene but not so if you enjoy romantic getaways.

Montagu is a picturesque town hidden within a dusty mountain range. We enjoyed some great walks, good food and a bit too much wine.

Next stop. Cape Town.

Over the last week, we’ve been driving down the eastern cape from Port Elizabeth to Cape Town along what is known as the garden route.

We’ve been driving about 150-200 klms per day and enjoying the glorious views from the beaches to the mountains.

We’ve stayed in many great beach side towns in some absolutely fantastic accomodation.

I cannot describe how wonderful our holiday has been so far in words.

An early morning walk on the beach at our beach front guest lodge near Plett.

A stop-over on the north coast, near Durban.

We stopped by Monkeyland. A 12 hectare rehabilitation centre for monkies rescued from captivity. We saw the most amazing white haired gibbon – an ape called Claudia Schiffer.

Leaving Plett, we enjoyed some scones and coffee overlooking this amazing beach view.

Just another of thousands of beautiful beaches along the garden route.

After I took the bungee plunge, we did a tree canopy adventure. You get suited up with a harness and what seems like endless cables and hooks and you zip down and across 12 zip wires through untouched natural forest.

No matter what your opinion is on this matter, I think you will find that this is clever marketing!