The Garden Route

Mary Emily’s parents and sister arrived in South Africa last week, so for our first weekend, we went with them on the Garden Route. This is a scenic drive from Swellendam (near Robertson) to Cape St. Francis. For some of the trip, the Route winds along the coast of the Indian Ocean. There are many picturesque small towns along the way, and we stopped at several of them.

On Friday, Mary Emily’s family picked us up in Robertson, and we drove to the inn in Swellendam where we spent the night. It was there that we saw our pick for the World Cup, Ghana, lose L. I was appalled by the Uruguayan’s un-sportsman-like conduct when he hit what would have been Ghana’s game-winning goal out of the net with his hand. Many people have reminded me that he won his team the game with this illegal move, but when it comes down to it, I’d rather have morals than a trophy!

The next morning, we had breakfast at a café which served delicious French toast. We made friends with the South African family sitting at the table next to us. They even told us that they have friends in the U.S. who started the Stanley Steamer company. We sang them the jingle, and, as a result, have it permanently stuck in each of our heads. They were also very impressed that we were planning to do all 200 miles of the Garden Route in one day.

We headed out then, and our first stop was Mosselbai to stick our “toes in the water, [rear ends] in the sand” (Zack Brown Band would have been extremely proud). This was both Mary Emily’s and my first time to touch the Indian Ocean. We continued on to our lunch spot in a particularly cute small town. Once again, we were served pumpkin as a vegetable…it is growing on all of us. We also discussed the extremely disconcerting fact that coke cans are significantly heavier in South Africa than in the U.S. The weight is mostly at the bottom of the can, so all of us continue to try to pour out coke after the can is empty.

We continued on with a few short stops for picture breaks. I enjoyed traveling with the Mary Emily’s because there was no dilly-dallying involved. We saw the perfect amount of scenery and there was no unnecessary time-wasting involved. With this as the case, we were able to make it all the way to Cape St. Francis where we stayed on Saturday night. This was a town that we all agreed was absolutely gorgeous. There was a working lighthouse, and many of the houses were white with thatched roofs.

We had a wonderful dinner that night, and Mary Emily and I succeeded in our challenge of eating a massive amount of line fish, prawns, mussels, and calamari. We finished the meal with our new favorite dessert: South Africa’s traditional malva pudding. It’s a bit like a syrupy sponge cake, and it is served a la mode! However, the highlight of the meal was the realization of my dream business. As Mary Emily had produced several loud and momentous belches throughout the weekend, and then slurped her drink, she inspired us to come up with the plan for the chain of Slurp ‘n Burp gas stations (please do not steal this…we are looking into a trademark). We can give you a more detailed outline of our plans if you so desire, and we are currently open to having investors.

On the way back to Robertson, we decided to take Route 62, which is another scenic road that goes straight into Robertson. This road took us past many ostrich farms. It is very strange to see a field of animals grazing in the distance and then come upon it and see that it is actually giant birds. We decided to stop for a tour of an ostrich farm in a town whose name we cannot pronounce. While ostriches were previously bred for their feathers, meat and leather is now in high demand. The tour was very interesting, and we got to stand on ostrich eggs! However, the most exciting part was that Mary Emily and I reached the goal that we had set before we came to South Africa: we rode ostriches. To ride an ostrich, you must sit much further back than you expect. Then you have to lean back and put the wings over your thighs and hold on to the wings. Your legs wrap around towards the chest. It was not nearly as uncomfortable as I was expecting, although we didn’t ride for very long or very fast. This was certainly a better experience than the last riding adventure we had been on!

At the ostrich farm, Mary Emily and I received our ostrich drivers licenses, which had the date on them. This, of course, reminded us that it was, in fact, our country’s independence day. To celebrate this, we sang as many patriotic songs as we could possibly think of. It was an excellent celebration, although we all missed the usual picnics and fireworks (because, yes, as a 20 year old, I can finally sit through an entire fireworks show without having to go to the car and Kenny did not set anything on fire).

We finished up Route 62 by winding through beautiful mountain passes. We arrived in Ashton, where Mary Emily’s family is staying for the next few days and had a lovely dinner at their winery (including more malva pudding). Then we arrived back at our wonderful home away from home in Robertson.

Love, Mary Emily and Martha