RSA - Part IX

 

The drive down from Lalibela took a couple of hours followed by a quick left turn off the main North-South highway (N2) into the bay, this delivered us to our next destination for a couple of days. Plettenberg Bay is a small community built up around a long beach and steep escarpment as you can see (above) the houses are stacked up the hill! The views from some of these pads is stunning, a sprawling vista of beach, azure ocean and forested mountains, not too shabby!

The main beach is to die for, light coloured soft sand lapped by the warm Indian Ocean, you have to have your wits about you though as the water contains quite a few populations of man-eating sharks, there are signs everywhere and there's a permanent lookout on the peninsula above the beach. The best view however is from a rocky promontory called the "Robberg Peninsula" somewhere we'd get to know intimately during our stay at "Plett"! 

I snapped a picture from the top of the Robberg looking back along the Plett beach (see below)

Our hotel was very modern, luxurious and in a great location overlooking the far end of the beach (as you look at the picture above) The only negative I'd say was that each room, although swanky, had a clear glass shower cubicle in the actual bedroom itself (i.e. not in a separate room) I'm not sure which design genius thought this would be "cool" but for those of us who like a little privacy while washing our junk it was a little odd, anyway we found it amusing and enjoyed the relaxed vibe of the hotel, bar and restaurant, I think the staff here were the friendliest we encountered on the whole trip, unlike the common myth here in the UK, such nice people! The hotel had a lovely open veranda overlooking the beach below, just the spot for a G&T before dinner as the warm ocean breeze wafted across our sunburn..

The next day we awoke to bright sunshine and 30 degree temperatures, like mad dogs we decided it would be a good idea to have a hike along the Robberg, so off we went. What we hadn't realised is that the "hike" was more like a scramble up and down cliffs with 500m drop-offs! Whilst normally we're quite happy to walk miles, even up and down hills, this was a different order of difficulty, made more tricky by the stifling heat. Still, being English we kept calm and carried on, successfully navigating the 5km loop in around two hours, the scenery was spectacular and it was a real joy to look down on Cape Fur Seals frolicking in the surf hundreds of feet below! 

Here are a few pictures to sum up what it was like..

Secluded beaches, shear cliffs, sandy walkways and native South African fauna, and yes that's me in the cream coloured cap, surveying the wreck of a ship on the beach below (there are lots of ship wrecks around the Cape) in 1967 a Greek ship, the Athina, ran aground on the Robberg corner and couldn't free herself from the clutches of  the currents and swell around the peninsula, the ship was lost but the crew managed to scramble to safety, today the wreck is a popular dive site and a marine haven for all kinds of critters, you can still see the shadow of the wreck from where I'm standing in this picture! After our heady walk in the sun we retired to our hotel to immerse ourselves in after-sun, phew that was hard work! Anyway, we survived and had a nice meal in a restaurant just outside of town. 

The next day we decided to take a more leisurely approach, it was raining a little so we decided to visit a Monkey and Bird sanctuary just up the coast a little, so off to "Monkey World" we went..

The first thing we saw wasn't a monkey at all but a Ring Tailed Lemur (or "King Julien" as the kids called it), as we moved a little more into the forest some of the monkeys became apparent, in this case a little Capuchin (see below)

After getting our fill of Primates we walked next door to the bird sanctuary, even the drizzle couldn't dampen the amazing colours that some of the birds there showed off, here's a small sample of some of the Aves we spotted..

The next morning was our last and so we checked out and decided to take a walk along the beach before setting off, it was lush, sunny and warm with the waves crashing on the shore. The beach itself was quite interesting too, lot's of little white crabs scuttling into holes as you approached and quite a few little beached jellyfish (which we steered clear of!) Anyway, a great place, a great beach and some fond memories, although I didn't rate the surf rescue much!

Onwards and upwards (literally), our next destination was a place called Oudtshoorn a large town inland from the coast and a good three hour drive from Plett, we stocked up with water and provisions and set off for Ostrich central, more in the next part of the series!