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travel log
We traveled the Garden Route of South Africa during the second half of November in 2007. We only had two weeks,
which was a little short to cover the whole distance from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth.
We flew from Washington DC (USA) via Johannesburg to Cape Town. Our friends - Karin & Anco -
had a direct flight from Amsterdam to Cape Town.
We only had about one hour to change flights in Johannesburg which seemed too short. It took quite a bit
of time to go through Immigration and to wait for our luggage. Next we found out that we had to walk with
all our luggage from the International Terminal to the Domestic Terminal through a parking garage.
By the time we arrived at the check-in desk for our flight to Cape Town we were too late.
We made this a bike vacation "luxury style": staying in B&B's/Guesthouses. In advance, we booked two nights in Cape Town
in the Blackheath Lodge, and two nights at the end of the trip in Woodall Guesthouse near
Addo Elephant Park. While staying in Cape Town, we quickly found out that many of the guesthouses are a member of some type of
organization. We took two booklets with us which we used most of the time to find a place to stay for the next
day. These were: www.portfoliocollection.com and
www.greenwoodguides.com.
During this time of year, it was easy to find accommodation everywhere we went, except for Plettenburg Bay.
Plettenburg Bay was completely booked due to the fact that this a very popular destination for students to
go and party after the universities/colleges close. By the time we reached Jeffrey's Bay, we were told that the
busy holiday season was only one week away. So it seems that the months of December and January can
be quite busy in the popular vacation destinations.
Since we had only two weeks, we knew we had to find some form of transportation to get us in time in
Port Elizabeth. At home, we studied bus and train routes, but in the end it seemed very easy to find
some type of shuttle. Prices were very reasonable compared to the distances we traveled.
We used a shuttle service four times:
- Cape Town to Stellenbosch - Blackheath Lodge arranged a transporter bus for us to drop us off in
Stellenbosch. This way, we didn't have to cycle through the city. And they also picked us up from the airport on arrival.
- Hermanus to Barrydale in the Klein Karoo - the owner of our B&B in Betty's Bay convinced us
to skip the distance between Hermanus and Swellendam and instead ride through the Klein Karoo (Oudtshoorn).
Our B&B in Hermanus was helpful in finding us a shuttle service.
- Barrydale to Oudtshoorn - we were caught in the worst rain storm since 60 years for almost 3
days. Riding our bikes was not an option - but we needed to keep moving to make it to Port Elizabeth.
Thanks to a helpful lady in the Oudtshoorn tourism office, we were picked up in Barrydale and
moved to Oudtshoorn, where the weather finally cleared and we could start cycling again.
- Jeffreys Bay to Addo Elephant Park - this shuttle was also pre-arranged with our booking at the
Woodall Guesthoust near Addo Elephant Park. Woodall Guesthouse also transported us back to PE Airport to fly back home.
Most of the times, the roads were in good condition with plenty of shoulder to ride on. This certainly is true for the main road (N2) along the coast from George to Port Elizabeth. It is a fairly
busy road, but due to the wide shoulder safe to ride on. The road through the Klein Karoo is more narrow and does not have a shoulder, but traffic is light. We had planned on riding
some gravel roads, but due to 3 days of very bad weather (not common for the time of year) we never tried to ride them. From Plettenburg Bay, we wanted to ride the detours to Nature's Valley
and Bloukrans Bridge, but both roads were closed for traffic after the bad storm. We were happy that we skipped the last day into Port Elizabeth. The road is busy and it didn't seem fun to
ride.
Three more things:
1. Traffic rides on the left (we only figured this out while on the airplane).
2. Although it doesn't seem that bike helmets are required, the use of helmets is promoted in SA.
3. From our experience, it seems smarter to ride from PE to Cape Town, as we experienced quite a bit of headwinds.
We carried two travel guides with us: Lonely Planet South Africa and Rough Guides Cape Town & the Garden Route.
In Cape Town (tourist/gift store at the Waterfront), we found two good maps.
One being MapStudio Winelands of the Western Cape (1:130.000, ISBN 978-1-86809-947-4). The second one,
MapStudio Cape Peninsula & Surrounds (1:325.000, ISBN 1-86809-722-6), which covered the whole trip.
Both maps were very helpful.
Send them to info@bronmans.com.
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