Epic Adventure -- Day 16 -- 14/09/2012 -- Ceres, Moselbaai, Knysna

Our alarms were set very early today in an effort to make it to Ceres and get the issue with the car fixed before our 10:00 departure time from the cabin. We got up at 7:30 and immediately drove to auto zone in Ceres to find Jeremy and hopefully have him fix the issue with the coolant. We had needed to top it up with about 1 litre of water the night before, and a little more this morning, so it had obviously not been fixed overnight! We for d Jeremy and asked him to come and look at the car, and told him it was a coolant leek. He tested the pressure on the system and had a poke around, whilst explaining to us that with. As of this age there tends to be a pipe that rusts through on the bottom and causes major hassles, and it may be quite a big job to fix! Luckily he and and another mechanic worked out that it was just an old sealant cable that was not doing its job very effectively anymore. They replaced it, tested the pressure again, got the air out the system and sent us on our merry way, refusing payment for such a small job. What luck!!!

It was about half eight at this stage some decided to go to Wimpy and have some breakfast, I had French toast and bacon and Dan had a normal English breakfast :) 9:15 we dashed back to White Bridge farm to pack up all our stuff, dropped off our keys just after 10:00 and away we went on the rest of our adventure! Our first stop was Waverley Hills to say hi again before we set off on our way, as we tried to see them yesterday but we went by after 4 which is when they close. Phillip was away looking at a pizza oven that he had spoken to us about when we saw him, but Corrine was there :) We are so looking forward to the rehearsal dinner and food and wine paring there, and to spend more time with everyone who has travelled from far and wide to be at our wedding!

We set the sat nav to take us all the way to Grahamstown, knowing full well that at about 9 hours straight there we were unlikely to make it all the way there. We made it about 30 minutes before we stopped at a petrol station to use the loo and fill up on drinks and snacks :D about a hour and a half after that we drove through a little lawn called Ashton, and we had to stop and get a picture, for Dans friend Ashton in the States.
Dan drove for another hour and a half before we stopped for a much needed stretch. This stop is eventful enough to need a mention because when we got in the car and started up the engine again to set off.... It wouldn't start. It would turn the radio etc on, but the car would not start!! Panic ensued!!! We popped the hood and checked everything out, all looked ok, and I had the sense to shift the car in and out of park a few times and it stated again!! If you didn't already know, if you drive an automatic car and it slips out of park when the car is off, it WILL NOT start again till its back in park :D

Our next stop along the way was in a pretty little town called Mossel Bay, for some much needed late lunch. I demanded a sea view and suchi, so off towards the coast we trundled till we found a great place by the sea. We didn't pay very much for the four plates of Sushi we swiftly devoured, well not much by UK standards, but my favourite thing about the visit was the R8 pot of tea that lasted four cups! That's about 15 pence per cup :D

Where we had lunch

It was my turn to take the wheel, and as it was about 4 at this stage, we decided to stop at Knysna, another town on the coast, about an hour and a half down the road. I set Dan on the Internet to find somewhere inexpensive for us to stay for the night, but I'm better at those kinds of things anyway so eventually we stopped, switched and I found us a small but well appointed room at a place called Lakeside, with a view of the lagoon, it's own kitchenette and bathroom for just R350!

Our view from Lunch

We unpacked our things and Jenny tried to have a few unsuccessful Skype conversations with her mom before we decided to have a look at the well recommended local pub. It really was a locals pub, in so so shape and filled with the sort of people that I'm to scared to talk to. The two things it did have going for it was a very friendly barman, and very cheap drinks (R16 for a double brandy and coke, that's 70ml of brandy!) We stood and chatted to the barman for about an hour, Jenny enjoying a savanna while I had a Castle Lager and a Carling Black Label. The barman (who's name evades us) is a very talented artist, showing us his drawings and carvings while we drank, very impressive stuff! But after my 750ml Black Label I was feeling sleepy and we trundled back to our accommodation for some rest and recovery for our second leg of driving tomorrow.