August 6th - Day 3

We left Mossel Bay at 8am hoping that the puncture problems of yesterday were behind us. Continuing fine weather makes the driving so much more fun. Empty roads and wonderful scenery make the miles fly by.
We headed north for about 100 kms to our first stop at an ostrich farm. A good short guided tour explained to us what strange birds they are. They weigh up to 125kgs and with a brain of only 60 grams they are not the brightest of animals.

Rosalie Gatsonides 'riding' an ostrich!

We then drove into the Little Karoo, the start of the dry areas away from the coast and then up the Swartzberg Pass, a gravel road that wound its way up to 1500 metres with magnificent views on each side of the pass.  Shortly afterwards we stopped for lunch in the delightful old town of Prince Albert.  Lunch was followed by the drive taking us east and then south to our resort hotel at Kynsna. The road took us through lovely gorges and mountain passes that were built in the 19th century for coaches.

 

Following Richard Smith in his Toyota through a gorge north of George

Lady luck was on our side for once as we drove the final few miles into Kynsna. There were terrible roadworks and we came up behind a huge stationary queue of cars and trucks. As luck would have it there was a turning into a small village and the car in front reversed back and turned off. I thought I'd follow and three or four miles later, through narrow lanes, across a railway bridge where we drove on the railway track and then through a small national park and we were back on the main road! We couldn't believe our luck! We arrived at the resort an hour later as the first to arrive. Such a great drive through fantastic country again made me wonder how John Brown finds these way-out places for us!