10.02.2017 Garden Route Part 3/3

I must admit in advance that the blog posts about the Garden Route will become slightly less enthusiastic from here on. After the Addo Elephant Park, we spent one night in Plettenberg Bay, on the way there we stopped at 'Birds of Eden'. Although I'm not a huge bird fan, the park is beautifully made and the birds are truly impressive. However, the whole experience was way too expensive, I wouldn't come here again a second time.

Arriving in Plettenberg Bay, we lay down and fell asleep immediately, the next day we continued early to Swellendam. We had my birthday breakfast at a beach in Plettenberg Bay, the view was fantastic!

We quite liked Swellendam. We had my birthday dinner at the Koornlands restaurant. The owner was very friendly, funny, and the food tasted wonderful. Although the vegetarian option was actually sold out, she specially put something together for us. Apart from that, we took it easy in Swellendam. But the open-air museum is highly recommended! Spread across more than half of the town, you can visit different houses and learn a lot about the history of the little town. The exhibition about slavery was particularly impressive.

Then we went to Simon's Town, where we visited the famous penguin colony and went for a hike at Cape of Good Hope.

The penguin colony was unfortunately very expensive, but with the ticket we could also lie on a nearby beach where we could splash around side by side with the birds. Overall, it was very nice, but of course crowded. When Isa and I talk about this area now, we call it 'Little Germany' because there were so many German tourists.

The Cape of Good Hope was similarly crowded, but fortunately we found a small hiking trail there that not many tourists used. It didn't lead to the famous sign and photo spot, but it ended on a hill above this place, which offered a really great view!

Right after that, we went back to Cape Town for one last night and so our time in Africa was already over. All in all, it was incredibly impressive! Ironically, the Garden Route, which probably 95% of all tourists see and love, didn't completely convince us. This part, especially the Western Cape where we stayed at the beginning and end, is primarily inhabited by white people and is completely tailor-made for tourists. Many things impressed us, such as nature and landscapes, but at the same time we felt the injustice in this country nowhere as strongly as in these rich, 'white' places. Maybe we just had completely wrong expectations because after Botswana, Namibia, and Zimbabwe, where we enjoyed ourselves so much, we expected something more in this direction. The Garden Route is very western and therefore the complete opposite. However, almost three weeks were actually too short to discover South Africa as we would have liked. We would have liked to spend more time in the mountains, especially.

All in all, the last few weeks were truly an incredible experience. We haven't been on the road for long, but I feel like I've already benefited so much. We have been in Asia for a few days now, but my heart and my mind are still filled to the brim with Africa. It will probably take a while until I have processed all of this.