Epic Adventure -- Day 17 -- 15/09/2012 -- Knysna to Grahamstown

We awoke this morning after a wonderful nights sleep with nothing ahead of us but a 4 hour drive to Grahamstown. We packed all of our bags and repacked the car before departing Lakeside in time for their 10:00 departure. Because our schedule only consisted of a drive today we thought we would take our time leaving Knysna and so headed to the waterfront for some breakfast before leaving town. We found a nice restaurant right on the harbour where we could eat outside and had a clear view of the TV showing the rugby. We arrived just in time to catch the second half of the South Africa vs. New Zealand test. (where once again I watched the Springboks loose...... O well)

Jenny enjoyed a croissant with cheese and jam and I had an amazing crab, line fish and prawn curry! We spent a good deal of time after our food was finished enjoying the sunshine and the remainder of the test match. It has been so nice over the past two days to have nothing pressing on our schedule, there has been lots of time for relaxation.

277km's to Grahamstown!

Yummy!

Once we got back on the road Jenny drove for the first leg of the trip (turn left in 277km!) while she left me to sort out tonight's accommodation. She had found two potential places to stay last night and asked me to phone them and check on availability and price. One of the places was in Grahamstown and looked like your average hotel, while the other was a campsite on a farm about 20km outside Grahamstown that looked very interesting and appealing to both of us. I phoned the campsite first, a quaint place called Coombs Camp, where the owner Jeremy informed me that he did indeed have lodging available but that it would be easier for him to put us in the cottage instead of the camp. He even offered to charge us the camp rate of R300 a night rather than the cottage rate of R450! We very eagerly agreed to his offer and told him we would be arriving at the farm around 16:00.

Dan's 'Rafiki' stick =D

About an hour down the road we crossed a very high bridge over a river pass. And noticed there were lots of buildings on the other side of the bridge. We pulled off and investigated the buildings. Turns out the bridge is the location of the worlds highest commercial bungy jump at 216m! We got out of the car and had a wander to the edge of the ravine, Jenny was too scared to get very close but I through a rock over the edge of the cliff, after 6 seconds we lost sight of it and it was still falling.

We returned to the road but after another half hour Jenny pulled off and decided she would let me drive for a while. We were running a bit behind schedule so I drove the last 150km a bit faster than we had been driving and we arrived at Coombs Camp just after 16:00. The cottages are located about a kilometre off the main road down a very rough dirt track. We met Jeremy half way down the dirt road and he told us where the cottage was, he would be with us in a few minutes after he finished mowing one of the fields. We found the cottage and had a look around in the meantime. What an amazing place to stay! Jenny had certainly done well finding this accommodation, and may have earned herself that particular task for the rest of the trip given this result.

We chatted with Jeremy after his arrival before going on a walk to explore the surrounding area. There is a larger lodge just next to the cottage we are staying in, that has a big lounge and kitchen area, a bar and three further bedrooms. I can imagine this must be a wonderful place to come with the whole family for Christmas. Jeremy told us that the only place to get good phone signal was to climb up near the road and stand on the anthill, so I trundled off to check that and to tell everyone we were alive and had made it to Grahamstown safely whilst Dan started the fire for the braai. Jenny occupied herself while I started the fire by using the tire swing by the cottage. We enjoyed a bottle of rose J.C. Le Roux and half a bottle of Morgenhof red with our steak and salad before retiring for the night, very content with the days activities.