Roadtrip!: Mossel Bay to Cape Town, Day 1

Sooooo ... we just had the-best-road-trip-ever.

No, I'm serious.  11 out of 10, 5 out of 4 stars, three thumbs up (hey, hey now, I keep telling you people to get your minds out of the gutter!)

If you go straight through, it takes about 6 hours to drive from Mossel Bay to Cape Town.  But instead, Aaron and I decided to stretch it to 3 days!  SO AMAZING.  I'll just go day by day, shall I?

The first day we drove from Mossel Bay through Oudtshoorn to Montagu.

Here's the route:

There were pines and mist and bluffs as we left Mossel Bay that reminded me so much of the North Shore close to Duluth that I got a little tear in my eye.  Then we wound up and up and through the mountain (and just at the right moment -- and completely unplanned -- Marvin Gaye's "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" started playing.) 

And the scenery ... I mean, seriously, no words.  These pictures (many taken from the frigging car) do not do it justice -- at all.

Here's our little Chevy Spark ... Aaron derisively called her a "golf cart."  I thought she was plucky.

Notice how there was no sun in these pictures?  Once we got through the mountains it turned into a glorious, no-cloud day and we were in the much more arid land, red sand and scrub of the Little Karoo:

Ostrich farms, towering mountains and this:

 

 Ronnie's Sex Shop is to South Africa what Wall Drug is to South Dakota, USA.  Basically just a place to get a cool drink in a hot, dry place and must-stop for tourists.  And I hate to burst your dirty bubbles, but it's just a bar with bras for decoration.

If you squint, you'll see Edoras on top of that flat hill.

And then we took Route 62 (again with the parallels -- Route 61 starts in Minnesota, you know I had to play a little Bob Dylan at this point) into the start of South Africa's famous wine region:

Then we drove into the small town of Montegu and found a place to stay for the night:

We highly recommend this place.  Beautiful little self-catering bungalows, affordable, swimming pool and ...

A resident cat, named ... wait for it ... TEABAG!  

Our bungalow came equipped with a GE-NUI-NE "Telefunken" television.  I'm gonna spend the rest of the day saying "Telefunken ... teeeellleeeefunken ..."

We walked around for a bit, taking in this GORGEOUS town.  Look at that Dutch colonial architecture!

Tomorrow I'll cover the Montegu museum, some amazing wineries, and being happily lost in the back roads of South Africa...