Saturday finally saw Chantelle at home on her first day off from work in absolute ages and as such we were determined to make the most of this opportunity – hence the decision to jump into the car and do something we had yet to do since moving here to Gordon’s Bay: take an afternoon drive along the coastal road!

Now I haven’t driven along the coastal road for years, not since the guys went to Rooi Els for a short holiday years ago, and so it was with much excitement that I took to this most picturesque of roads along the sea. The weather was playing along beautifully and Chantelle was held absolutely spellbound by the magnificent view of the mighty waves crashing against the rocks, so much so that we soon found ourselves stopped at the side of the road at one of the many viewpoints simply just to ‘admire the view’.

Our first port of call was to be the reclusive little Pringle Bay, a small little ‘village’ (?) nestled on the rocks just past Rooi Els that managed to surprise us both by the size to which it has grown since the last time either of us had been there. Naturally we made our way down to the rocks to watch a rather unsettled sea pound the crap out of the coastline and soak up the spray in the process, before heading back up and making our way to the center of the little ‘village’ where we browsed a couple of the shops that deemed it okay to be open during the quiet season. By that stage Chantelle was thoroughly in her element and we decided to grab a cup of coffee and cake while the going was still good, selecting the quaint little @365 (or something like that) restaurant where we got to sit down and enjoy some of the best gourmet coffee, nutty chocolate praline cake and lemon meringue that you will find anywhere else in this beautiful country of ours!

Back on the road, we drove on until we came to Betty’s Bay, where we took a sharp right and headed straight for Stony Point, the place where one of South African’s largest colonies of African penguins is in fact situated. This spot proved to be quite a popular hit with visitors, and we soon saw why with our own eyes when we finally stumbled upon the big penguin breeding ground that was housing literally hundreds of penguins and their young. And if these cute and comical sea birds weren’t enough, there was even a pretty big contingent of dassies putting on a show in the sun as well. :)

According to the guy manning the entrance point, the colony houses at least a thousand penguins and that the best time to in fact come have a look is just after 17:00 as that’s the time when the majority of the penguins return from the sea, back from their hunting trip to catch as much food for their young as they possibly can. Chantelle and I ambled around the boardwalk for quite some time, taking plenty of pictures before finally calling it enough of our feathered friends and returning to the road once more.

Considering the fact that we still had lots in store for the evening, we decided to turn back at that point and so we returned along the coastal road, with Chantelle cursing the fact that she had chosen to drive, meaning that I got to hang my head out of the window and look out over the sea. Our next stop on our big day out was Bertie’s Mooring back in Gordon’s Bay (the Tavern had proved to crowded), and after struggling to find parking made our way into the bustling restaurant/pub which was packed with patrons catching the Argentina versus SA rugby game.

We located a table outside along the harbour and sat down to enjoy a nice light lunch in the brilliant afternoon sun and plotted the rest of our big day out, the rest of which will pop up in the following blog posts I assure you! :)

So thanks Bokkie for an absolutely fabulous day out!

 

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