Will be on Garden Route tour

Hi all I will be away on a Garden Route Tour, and will have a lot to talk about on my return, see you in the new month

Part Two on the WoW moments of my recent Tour

Day 6

Today is a very relaxing day with potential to be extremely exiting, we drive to Tsitsikamma National Park and the only thing on the agenda is the walk in the National Park and the possibility of taking the plunge off the highest bridge jump in the World ( 216m). I posed the question for the jump and unfortunately we had no takers, so we head for the park. the weather just spectacular and before we enter the park we stopped at the quaint little Storms River village hotel for lunch, they do make a "lekker" chicken burger. while waiting I decided to take all to a novelty in town, the Elvis and Marilyn Monro restaurant, yep they still have a huge Jukebox with all the Golden oldie rock songs on hand, and as an added bonus there are  68,69 and 70 Cadillacs on display. Suddenly everybody forgets their age and starts to Rock and Roll, having a great WoW moment at that. the Park has spectacular scenery and all agreed that the day was a success.

Day 7

we are heading towards Oudtshoorn and we have a rather full day planned, our first visit to the Born in Africa was interesting but was let down by the school holidays, no kids means no fun (they usually provide WoW moments for the visitors. I had an ace up my sleeve, we are going on an optional whale spotting tour. My friends the Humpbacked Whales did not disappoint, when the first one arrived it was only a few meters from our boat, we stayed with them for more than an hour always close...WoW,

Our journey continued to Knysna where the group had some time for a short walkabout, before we set off to Oudtshoorn via the Garden Route's Lakes district and the spectacular Outeniqua Mountain Pass.

We arrived just after dark for an Ostrich fillet prepared by Louis, our host, dinner was just brilliant in a perfect setting.

Day 8

So far we have been blessed with real WoW moments and everybody wanted to know what today would deliver, we went to the town for a walkabout, and apart from a traffic officer asking the bus to park at a parking spot near a hotel the town did not have that great moment that all was looking for. fortunately the rest of the program was about to deliver, consider this kissing an Ostrich, Riding these strange flightless bird, and to top it all getting an Ostrich neck message....great fun. We headed for the famous Cango Caves to view the fantastic art mother nature made over millions of years, and even for me as a Tourist Guide the caves remain spectacular, bu more was waiting for us in the form of the Swartberg Mountains, viewing these mountains from within you come under the impression of the powers released when the continents were formed created the Cape Fold mountain Ranges, and the fantastic panoramic views they offer. Our dinner was another gem at Kobus Lategans Open air Restaurant named Kobus se Gat. we all agreed that the day was one big WoW

Day 9

visiting Mosselbay without a stop at the oldest post office in South Africa and the Diaz Museum would be incomplete as would be a drive through the Robinson  pass without getting out to view the fynbos, seeing two Southern Right Whales just off the beach is very special.

Our day was rounded off with a game drive spotting Cheetah, Buffalo, Rhino and Lion up close and very personal, and then a near perfect Moon rise.............. yep a near perfect day......WoW 

Day 10

Today we head for Cape town with the sole aim to go to the top, the main challenge is the weather and believe me we just had the most perfect weather all 370 km to cape Town and to be standing on top of the Mountain in winter not wearing winter clothing alone is a WoW. Clear sky's and no wind just perfect !!!

Day 11

This is our second to last day and knowing the rout I was certain that the tourists would have WoW moments during the day, Our drive out to Houtbay was spectacular with the sun rising over the mountains in the east bathing the Cape Flats and Table mountain (on the Kirstenbosch side) in an gold sun shower that forced us to stop the bus for a photo moment. Houtbay itself also fantastic photographic scenes if you are prepared to walk about, just have a look at those multi-colored reflections in the Harbour, pure postcard stuff. We soon departed for Cape Point National Park

and our fist wildlife, a small troop of baboons have taken over the road, and giving us ample time to observe them. When we arrived at Cape Point the group went to the top and as one commented, this should be the Southern most tip of Africa with its high cliffs and not Cape Augulhas, truly Sir. Francis Drake was correct this is the most beautiful cape of them all !!!!. After a really good lunch we decided that we will all walk to Cape of Good Hope, the beauty takes your breath away. Our journey had to continue towards the Penguin Colony at Boulders Beach near Simon's Town, and once there all the oooh aahaa and how beautiful we departed along the Coastline back to our Lodge, concluding that with the fine weather it was just one very fine day with many WoW moments.

Day 12

We visited the wine districts of Paarl and Stellenbosch for most of the group it was a scenic drive and an educational moment at the Afrikaans Language Monument, but for two members of the group the last very personalised wine tasting may have been their WoW moment of the whole journey. we raise our glass to the WoW moments we had on tour.

Every day on tour should have at least one !

Wow moments is very important to a tour and every Tourist should experience a WOW moment on his or her trip and at the end of the journey they will be able to determine what moment on the tour left the greatest impact on them. I was blessed to tour a small group of tourists from Belgium that consisted of varying ages and interests, today I would like to take a moment to reflect on the experiences that the tour offered. I want to discuss each photo and point to the special moments that some my group have experienced.

The Sunset on day one
We in South Africa sometimes do not even notice the incredible sunsets we receive almost daily. We were standing on the balcony at our lodge near Pretoria and one of the ladies made the comment that it is what they expected what a sunset in Africa would be like, we just stood there in silence, certainly a WoW moment for day one.
Day two had many moments that would qualify, lunch at Dullstroom (smoked trout), Driving the Abel Erasmus Mountain Pass, our arrival at the Elephants West Gate in the Greater Kruger Park when two Giraffe arrived to greet us welcome, a White Rhino catching his evening drink at dusk or was it when we spotted some Lion around the Jeeps WoW what a day!!!

Day tree started as a stroll in the Park, but delivered moments with the Deadly Transvaalicus Scorpion,

we even did some Impala droppings (Africa Coffee beans)!!, a huge WoW moment when everybody, perhaps not everybody took a chance to have a huge Baboon spider on their hands ( take a look at facial expressions of all the spectators included! The afternoon we went on our second Game Drive supplied by Andy's Camp and Drifters and we were not disappointed, Elephants just meters away, a spectacular sighting of a Lilacbrested Roller, a sunset to dream about and to crown everything a Rhino just meters away, perhaps the Hyena's on the hunt was the WoW moment of the day, nah I think the spider won the the "I have to tell you this" and the friends would not believe.

Driving the Panorama Route offers spectacular panoramic scenes, with the Blyde River Canyon, Bourke's luck potholes and the Mac Mac Waterfall did their part to be special. Our visit to Pilgrim's Rest

 was as what tourists would describe as a Tourist trap, and wasn't it for the History one might say that it was purpose build as a Tourist Destination, however I should not fail to mention that we visited two Baobab trees in the Hoedspruit district, the oldest being about 1800 years old, I would call that the defining moment of the day.

Day 5 was supposed to be just a transfer to Johannesburg for our late afternoon flight and therefore perhaps the most uneventful on the tour, but our day was highlighted by some Buffalo we missed in Kruger National Park, at a Service Station when we stopped to stretch our legs We arrived in Port Elizabeth after dark.

This was the first part of our 12 day Tour completed, tomorrow I will complete the rest of our Journey

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