We spent three nights at the Drifters Knysna Inn located in the forest outside Knysna. During this time we visited the Tsitsikamma National Park for a boat trip in the lagoon, the towns of Knysna and Plettenberg Bay. On leaving Knysna, we took the (slow!) Outeniqua Choo-Tjoe steam train along a very scenic route to the town of George, and then we drove the rest of the way to Cape Town. Although it was not as cold at night in this part of South Africa, the weather during the day was not equally good, and we ran into rain for the first time on our journey.

Day 16 - July 12

We got up at 0730, ate breakfast at 0800 (English type as well as yoghurt). Again breakfast was prepared by the staff at the Drifters Inn, so the tour was more and more starting to feel like a holiday. Afterwards we drove eastwards, heading for the Tsitsikamma National park. Again, all the forest in the area really reminded us of Norway. It was almost like being back home!

After a while we came to an area where everything that was completely burned down. Clearly there had been a forest fire here recently. However, we soon realised that the fire was actually still going on as we could see the smoke coming up not far away. However, the park itself was in pretty good condition and seemed to have avoided the fire so far.

Inside the park, we drove down to the coastline and once more we stood beside the Indian Ocean watching the waves break. Around us were some hills that were completely covered in green vegetation, making it all look really beautiful. Most of the areas we'd been through so far on the tour had looked really yellow and dry now in the winter time, but this place seemed to be green and wonderful all year round.

After a short walk along some kind of trail we came to a small suspended bridge across the lagoon. It swayed violently from side to side when we crossed it, but eventually we got over safely.

We were now at the foot of a hill, and some of us decided to climb to the top. It didn't look very far from below but the path was very steep so it took us at least twenty minutes. All of us were exhausted and had blood taste in our mouths when we finally reached the top. At least it was good exercise and we had a wonderful view of the entire area, so I guess it was worth it.

I'm not particularly crazy about heights, so I didn't enjoy the walk down very much, as I had to look down all the time to avoid taking a wrong step and reaching the bottom very fast! In the end it probably took me longer to walk down than up. Fortunately, we got down just in time for a boat ride on the Knysna Lagoon. The lagoon was very narrow and very deep, and in total it was a stunning sight! The boat ride was also great for refreshing our energy after all the hard work of getting up and down the hill.

On coming back to the car, we left the Tsitsikamma National park and drove to a bridge nearby from where some of us would face the ultimate challenge - bungy jumping. And even worse, this was not just another bungy place, it was the highest bungy jump in the world, a whole 216 meters!!

We stopped for registration near the bridge and our three brave volunteers May Tina, Stijn and Enzo went inside the office to register. However, they all came back very disappointed because all bungy jumping from the bridge had been cancelled today due to safety reasons. Apparently the wind was too strong and in addition there were small particles from the forest fire nearby blowing around in the air, and these could cause damage to the bungy equipment.

There was nothing we could do about this, so we just sat down at the bungy view area, eating lunch and thinking about what might have been. For lunch we had sandwiches with leftovers from the chicken dinner yesterday.

Around 1300 we drove to a small town nearby called Plettenberg Bay. Kurt dropped us off and we were given four hours on our own. The Belgians and Iain decided to go with a boat on some kind of whale safari, while the rest of us settled for just walking around town and exploring the area.

The first thing May Tina and I did was to visit the tourist information center and ask if there was an Internet cafe around. Fortunately there was, so we went to check it out.

The Internet cafe was not very big. In fact, I think they only had three computers, but this didn't matter since we were the only ones there. It cost us 20R for half an hour, in which time we managed to send some e-mails to various people back home telling them about our trip. Having completed the e-mails, we strolled around the town for a while. This was not a very timeconsuming task, as there was basically only one street.

It was not long before we ran into Lone, Lisa and Julie at a cafe. We sat down with them and had an icecream with hot chocolate sauce. It was very good, just what May Tina needed after the disappointment of the cancelled bungy jumping. After eating and relaxing at the cafe for a while, we walked down to the beach together with Lone to meet the rest of the group. Down there, we took off our shoes and walked out into the Indian Ocean. Now we could claim to have bathed in this ocean as well!

It turned out that we had to wait quite some time for the guys on the whaling safari to come back, so we all sat down at a restaurant and had something to drink. Around 1745 the whole group was gathered. Apparently the whaling safari had been well worth the money as well.

We returned to the Drifters Knysna Inn and immediately started cooking for dinner. Another Drifters group, doing the Garden Route tour was also staying at the Inn tonight. They were only three people, two Germans and a guy from Taiwan, plus their female Drifters guide called Erika. During the evening we learned that both Germans had been mugged in Cape Town, while the guy from Taiwan had been mugged and stabbed(!!) in Johannesburg! Really looking forward to visiting Johannesburg, aren't we!?

The two groups made dinner together. Again, I helped by making an excellent fire and also cutting some onions, a rather tearful experience. Dinner was another braai, but unfortunately with fish instead of meat. I don't like fish at all, so for a change I didn't enjoy dinner very much, although I think the others were quite satisfied. Fortunately, as a surprise, Kurt had bought us some cake for dessert, which we thought was very nice of him!

During the evening we also made video recordings of all the group members introducing themselves and saying whatever message they had. The end result was just brilliant, definitely one of the highlights of my holiday video. There were some really funny things in there!

Dinner was finished around 2100, and once again being very tired, I went to bed shortly afterwards at 2130. May Tina stayed up somewhat longer.

Day 17 - July 13

We got up at 0630, had yoghurt and English breakfast, and left around 0830. Arriving in Knysna at 0900, we were given three hours on our own to explore the city. Knysna was bigger than Plettenberg Bay, but still the downtown area was not much more than a few streets. Judging by the types of shops here, tourism was very important to Knysna.

For the first hour, May Tina, Lisa and me went browsing in several of the souvenir shops. We didn't buy anything, partly because we had decided to wait with the major purchases until the end of the holiday. In that way we would avoid the hazzle of dragging even more things along with us all the time.

After having seen most the shops, May Tina and I decided to go check out the local Internet Cafe. It was called Cyber Perk and although Ian and Stijn already were online, there fortunately was an available computer for us to use. Hotmail was extremely slow this day, and therefore it took ages to check our mail. However, it was definitely worth the wait because in the end there turned out to be several replies to the messages we sent out yesterday. It was really great to read news from back home!

Leaving the cafe, we noticed that the weather was not looking good. The sky was covered in clouds, and it looked like it could start raining any minute. This was almost the first time we had seen clouds during the holiday, so we clearly had entered an area with different climate from the Eastern parts of South Africa. This was of course to be expected, but having been exposed to such wonderful and stable weather for a long time, we were beginning to think that it would last forever.

It wasn't very hot outside either, so we decided to go into a restroom at a petrol station to change from shorts to long trousers. This turned out to be a good move as shortly afterwards it started raining shortly.

We hung around in some shops to stay dry and just pass time until 1200, when we were supposed to meet at the car. The car was parked quite far away from the main street so for a while we were a little bit worried because it was nowhere to be seen, but in the end we found it.

The original plan had been to go abseiling after lunch, but as it was now raining quite heavily this was called off. To me this was no big deal since I wasn't that excited about abseiling in the first place, but it was a huge disappointment to an experienced climber like May Tina.

Lunch was supposed to be the usual sandwiches, but it was suggested that we should go and eat at Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) instead, a suggestion which won the instant approval of the whole group. Much of the reason for choosing KFC was that we would be then able to sit inside a warm restaurant, but unfortunately Kurt had other plans. After we had bought our meals he drove us to a "nice place" to eat, a picnic area right outside the town. Now, I'm sure this area is nice, probably even very nice, when the sun is shining and it's hot outside, but when it's cold and the rain is pouring down I personally would rather be inside a warm restaurant. About half of the group ate in the car, while the others ate outside in the rain.

Although the abseiling had been cancelled, we still drove out to the Knysna heads, where the abseiling should have taken place. It was quite a beautiful area, but also dangerous as Kurt explained that it was impossible for ships to get insurance for coming through here.

We now had some time to kill because of the cancelled abseiling, so we all decided to go and see a movie. Driving back into Knysna, we reached the cinema just when the movies were starting. We all decided to see "The Matrix".

On coming out of the cinema, opinions were split over how good the movie had been. Some had fallen asleep quite early and therefore were not quite sure. Then there was a large group (including me) who thought it was crap, and finally May Tina who thought it was quite OK. On coming back to Norway, I now see that the Matrix has gotten good reviews in the media, which is usually the sign of a crap movie.

Time was now approaching 1630, and nothing was on the agenda until 1830 when we were giong to eat at a local restaurant. We therefore decided to hang out in a bar until the restaurant opened. After spending some time in the bar I got bored and decided to go outside and take a walk down the main street. This was around 1715 and it was quickly starting to get darker outside. Now I noticed something quite interesting. During the day the streets had been full of people, but now that the shops were closing, the people had started to disappear and the streets were emptying.

If I walk down the main street in Oslo in the evening it will still be quite crowded, but this was definitely not the case here in Knysna. After walking up and down the main street, I didn't really feel that comfortable with the situation, probably because of all the stories we'd heard about muggings and crime in South Africa, so I went to rejoin the others inside the bar.

At 1830 the whole group walked down to a restaurant called The Anchorage, which was just a few hundred meters away. Now it was completely dark, and the streets were almost completely deserted.

Unfortunately, dinner at The Anchorage would turn out to be a huge disappointment. I had Chicken Fillet as a main course and Chocolate mousse for dessert, which although good was nothing special. However, service at this restaurant was appalling. It was about the slowest I've ever seen anywhere in the world, and in total it took us more than three hours to get out of there. I don't think anybody left any tip.

We drove back to the Knysna Inn and went to bed almost immediately.

Day 18 - July 14

We got up at 0730 and had the usual breakfast. Now the tour was near the end as today we were leaving Knysna and heading towards out final destination, Cape Town. After we had eaten, Kurt announced that our group should make a draft for a tour t-shirt. Our draft would then be faxed to Drifters in Cape Town, who would produce our t-shirts professionally, based on our design. If we were happy with the end result, we would be able to purchase the t-shirts at 70R each.

After finishing the design and packing all our stuff into the car, we were ready to leave at 0830. We would not drive all the way to Cape Town, as the first part of our trip would be by train. Arriving at the train station in Knysna, we boarded the Outeniqua Choo-Tjoe steam train that would take us to a town called George. Drifters had reserved one compartment for us and since the other Drifters group was also joining us it was very crowded.

At 0930 the train started moving. It moved very slowly at first, so we were waiting for it to accelerate and pick up some speed. After having waited for twenty minutes, it however became clear to us that the train was actually already moving at maximum speed, which was..ehm..not very fast! In fact, the horseriding in Lesotho seemed quite rapid compared to this :-)

However, even though the train was slow, the scenery outside was very beautiful. About halfway to George we stopped at a station called Wilderness (though there wasn't that much difference between moving and standing still) for a break. Between Wilderness and George came the most spectacular part of the train journey as we went partly along the coast of the Indian Ocean.

On arriving in George at 1230 we passed by the usual shacks outside the town before stopping at the train station. In the mean time Kurt had driven the car over here and was waiting for us with lunch. This was one of the best lunches so far, as in addition to the sandwiches, Kurt had brought something new which was called Samosa and was very good.

Then we started our drive towards Cape Town. In the beginning, while we were still on the Garden Route, the scenery around was green and beautiful, but after a while we were back to the apparently endless fields, except for a mountain range to the far right.

Just before Cape Town there was one place which was quite strange, as it had rocks scattered around everywhere. We then crossed a mountain range and suddenly we had a splendid view of a valley below us. The sight was made even more spectacular by a light phenomenon due to the weather conditions. The sky was almost completely covered in dark clouds, but there were a few light beams coming through, making it look like some kind of divine intervention. Was this a sign of things to come?

On the motorway into Cape Town the first thing we noticed was the apparently endless number of shacks right next to the road. As usual, lots of people were walking along the highway, but we had gotten quite used to this by now. Still quite far away, but getting closer by the minute was the famous mountain range, including the legendary Table Mountain.

The shacks seemed to go on forever, and it was not until we were almost beneath the mountains that conditions seemed to improve. The mountains were now rising majestically ahead of us, and there was no sign of the city center yet. We now drove around the mountain, and finally we could see the downtown area of Cape Town. It looked like a modern city with tall office buildings in the city center. The famous Table Mountain was now visible to our left. Being completely flat, it really stood out from the rest. All in all, my first impression was that Cape Town looked really beautiful. I had seen pictures of it before coming here and never thought it looked very special, but now my first impression was very good (except for the shacks, of course).

We just drove past the city center to arrive around 1800 at the Drifters Cape Town Inn, which was located in a part of the city called Sea point. The Inn itself was located in a street only a few blocks from the ocean.

Accomodation was in double rooms with private bathrooms, and was quite OK except for one strange thing. Instead of a normal door into the toilet, we had a sort of "saloon door" which swung back and forth making lots of noise every time someone passed through it. This also made the bathroom not very private. We couldn't figure out why they had put such a ridiculous thing in there, when a normal door would have been so much better.

We packed everything out of the car and had a some time to relax before going out to dinner. Around 1900 the whole group walked a few blocks to a restaurant called Europa. It turned out to be a much better restaurant than The Anchorage. Service was fast and efficient, and food was very good. I had some Ravioli as appetizer and a spanish omelette as a main course.

After finishing dinner, we walked back to the Drifters Inn. Some went straight to bed, while some of us decided to go down and have a look at the ocean. The beach was not very nice, though, and I don't think bathing was possible there. However, I was fascinated by the seaweed which was lying around. At first we couldn't figure out what it actually was. It looked just like huge rubber pipes, or maybe dead octopussy, but in the end we realised that it was seaweed.

Coming back to the Inn around 2200, I went to bed almost immediately afterwards.