What a wonderful night at Forever Resorts.  We both wished we could stay a bit longer as this place really had an amazing atmosphere.  While we were eating breakfast there was a Tour Boat traveling up the river telling people about what was visible.  I was thinking they could have said “And on the left side of the river you can see an establishment of mobile and tented homes.  This is a space where these species travel with their dwelling vehicles.  If you look carefully you can see some of them eating the daily food.”  This is rather warped but it was fun thinking about the commentary.

We headed out to Cape St Francis for the next light house.  Stunning weather.

Our accommodation for St Francis has not yet been finalised but we will work on that while we were driving.

Driving we came across a farm that grew Wind Turbines.  The farm was called Kouga Wind Turbine farm.  These types of animals we have never seen before, but they are really increasing in number throughout the Eastern Cape.  Who knows where they will grow to.

We turned onto a dirt road because we knew of a caravan park down this road.  We had looked at our caravan book, and the phone numbers published were no-longer working.  We felt that there should be a number on their sign. 

First Caravan Park said sorry, they have taken the weekend off and there was no camping allowed this weekend.

Not a problem we will head to the next one.  Second Caravan Park said that they had no interest for this weekend, so he gave his staff off for the weekend and no camping allowed.

Stress starting to creep in, third site said they charge over R500 for one night.  We said out of our budget but can they give us pensioner rates of around R200.  He said at that rate he cant be bothered to have any one.

Drove into St Francis and saw a back packers.  Both mom and I were very unsettled about this place and we passed on by.

Now we are getting worried.  We head down to the light house in hope of finding something closer there.  At this point heavy mist and fog has set in and there was no other available accommodation.  We found a Back packers lodge sign on a pole with a phone number.  We called and we got accommodation for the night.  Double story house, ex SA Navy man … how bad can this be.  Well we arrived.

Too very short words … Oh dear … !!!.

We believed that we had been led there and we walked in.  Interesting !!!

Dirty clothes lying everywhere, 3 couched hiding under stuff.  Smell well….  Dirty, unclean, damp.  What are we in for? !! 

Kitchen highly questionable.  The guys rushed into the kitchen to clean so we could make some coffee and cook some dinner, mom cooked some pasta for us for dinner and we scuttled up to our room, where we stayed the rest of the night.

We prayed for protection for the night and we crashed.  Strangely enough we felt very safe and the guys were really sweet. 

Sleep well and trust we are going to be okay.

We left our friends after a great evening and comfy beds.  We are back on the road again.  Today our plan is to photograph light house at Plettenberg.  But first we need to go and see the Knysna heads.  Such a pretty place.  Managed to get to the top and look down.  Mom and I spent quite some time there.  A tourist bus arrived and we headed out because of the crowds. 

Got to a nature reserve where the light house was.  Shock and horror we had about a 4km hike to the light house and a 4 km hike back to the car.  We were totally unprepared for this.  No shoes and no water.  We decided that we will come back to do this.  I will chat to TransNet to see what they do when they have to service this light house.

Time to head for our next place to sleep.  There was no accommodation in Plett that we could afford.   Found a back packers but we decided not to use them.

We landed up at Forever Resorts on the Keurboom River.  A beautiful place.  Wish we could stay longer.

Met a sacred Ibis and we called him Budge…. He had a broken leg that has healed skew.  Very friendly bird who was quite happy to eat out of your hand.

Not much happened to day and we crashed for the night.

Tomorrow we head for Cape St Francis. 

Sleep tight world see you in the morning.

We packed up again feeling ready to face to work again.  Feeling positive about our adventure and the likely hood of good weather and the possibility of photographing the rest of the light houses.

We made some arrangements to pick up the van carpet later on today as it was still wet.  I really did not want to take a wet carpet with us.   We headed out with the desire to get the next batch of light houses.

Had breakfast with friends and they invited us to stay with them for the night.  Wonderful. A dry comfy bed and a free night.  We will have to share a bed, but I think we can survive that.

Headed out to Mossel bay for the day.  Need to photograph Cape St Blaize. 

Drove over the Keimans river bridge.  Stopped to photograph the bridge and the brown lagoon.  So very pretty and very steep.

We arrived at Cape St Blaize .  Met John and he gave me so much information.  We headed up the light house and what a view.  Stunning.  There were 60 steps to the top with 3 levels.  Hectic climb but we did it.  Mom and I will be very fit by the end of this trip.  WE now just need to maintain this fitness.

Mom mentioned to me about the Post Box tree.  So we headed out for that.  Such an amazing tree at the Mossel Bay Museum. 

So to continue with the epics of my trips.  I followed a vehicle into the museum grounds. I did not realise that this was private grounds and that you can’t really park here.  But anyhow, we carried on like we were supposed to be there.  After we finished doing what we wanted to, I realised that the gate was closed.  Sheepishly I ambled over to a lady sitting outside and asked her if she worked there as I was in trouble.  I told her what I did and apologised profusely.  She laughed and said that lots of people do this.  I must just hoot when I get to the gate and she will open it for us.  Just another mishap to add to the rest.

We headed back to Sedgefield to pick up our carpet that was hopefully dry.  Rolled it up and put it into the back of van and we headed back to friends home for a comfy bed for the night.  Bought some chicken for dinner and headed to our friends home for the night. 

Fantastic evening of friendship and chatted for most of the night.  Headed off to bed to face a new day in the morning. 

We packed up in the rain again.  I’m feeling like a duck as I’m growing webs between my toes or maybe it is foot rot.  Chatted to the Reception of the Willows Caravan Park to see if they will allow us to come back next week as we have paid for 2 days accommodation.  They agreed and we left for Mossel Bay.

The plan now is to head for Mossel bay to out run the weather and then to work our way back up to Port Elizabeth to photograph these last 4 light houses.

We have a 4 hour drive ahead of us but anything to get out of this wet.

Stopped for some diesel and I promised mom a Wimpy Breakfast.  Looked for Wimpy and we were so disappointed that there was no Wimpy.  We landed up eating a chicken burger and chips for breakfast.  Delicious.   Never before have I eaten a chicken burger for breakfast.  But in these trips there are many first.

Headed off for Mossel bay, we can’t wait to get dry

We finally landed up in Sedgefield and we found a space to stay at Swartvlei Caravan Park.  As soon as we stopped we emptied the van ….  Totally … Everything was removed from car and we finally dried out.  Found I did not have webs between my toes.

Spent rest of afternoon chasing monkeys who stole bananas, apples and our avo from the inside of the car.  We were so miffed about this because we had protected that avo for days while it ripened and now these little beasties stole it.  But anyhow she did feed 2 babies, 1 teenager and a partner.  So nothing went to waste and they really enjoyed it.

Later on during the day Mom called some friends and they invited us to have breakfast with them in the following morning.

Had a wonderful quiet evening and no rain.  Took photos of a dead still lake and we crashed for the night.  Let’s hope weather continues to improve.

A very long night has come to an end.  We woke up to…..  Yes you guessed right …. More rain.

We decided to leave this very wet place and try to outrun the weather.  WE packed up in the rain and headed for Port Elizabeth.  We had to do something as I could not spend another day just sitting around hoping for some sunshine so that I can get out to photograph my light houses.  2 days of no photographs was just not what I had planned.

We drove along the R102 to a camp site called The Willows.  And yes it was still raining.  Found a semi dry spot to have some lunch, set up our little camp but the weather was not going to play along.

Hectic winds and still more rain.  This is not what we had planned, but not much we can do. 

Crawled into the van and decided that we will head out for Mossel Bay in the morning in hope for some better weather. 

Sleep well wet PE.  Tomorrow we will move ahead and hope for better weather to dry out.

Still no photos of what we have planned. Hold thumbs for some more photos

Well we woke up today in hope for some sunshine.  Funny ha ha …  Sunshine, what is that…. Something that we were not going to see.

So we stayed in bed all day, feeling very sorry for ourselves as it was rather damp outside.  And we had some more rain, with a little more and some more just to add to the rest.

And guess what, we had some more rain because the clouds felt that they had to release their load of water as they just could not hold it in any more.

And it rained again and again.

We stayed in the van hiding under the duvet wishing for some sun shine to dry out. 

Climbed out of the van to make some dinner and said goodnight to a very wet campsite.

We woke up early hoping for a sunrise.  Grabbed a cup of coffee and a rusk and headed out.  Weather was cold, windy and overcast.  We got our sunrise.  Headed back to the campsite, had some breakfast and packed up as we were heading for Port Elizabeth.  We headed to the beach for some exploring further down the road.  Found the cannons and other bits and pieces of shop wrecks.  We decided to head for the Dias Cross near to Kenton on Sea.  The cross was on the out skirts of the Addo Elephant Park.  We headed up a dune not knowing what we were in for.  At the top the first dune we saw the Cross, and decided we will come back on another day because it was on the other side of the sea. 

We phoned for accommodation and found out that it was still in high season tariffs and drove back to Cannon rocks as the rain started to fall.  Spent rest of day at Campsite hoping for a better day tomorrow.  We climbing back into the van and that was where we stayed for rest of the day.

It was bitterly cold and extremely wet.  It rained, and rained, and rained and rained some more.

Hoping for a better day tomorrow.  Yuch !!!!

Wind came up during the night and we had to take off the gazebo roof.  But still a very quiet restful night.

We saw 2 Cape Clawless Otters today, what a magical way to start the day. 

Candice came to give us our ice bricks which she froze for the night with bad news that Glendower can’t be photographed as the Owner does not want media coverage and wants to keep people off his property.  Very sad, but I will respect his request.

We packed up and headed out.

We stopped at the Largest Pine Apple in the Southern Hemisphere.  A very interesting place.  They farm pine apples.  Took some photos and head out to Cannon Rocks.

What a pretty drive.  All the rivers in this area seem to have some sort of mooring for yachts.  We stopped at Kowie River to photograph the bridge.  What a sight.

All of a sudden I saw the Glendower Beacon.  I had to take a photo as we could only see it from the road. Fantastic, I managed to get a photo of it.

Arrived at Cannon Rocks.  A lovely caravan park.  We will stay here for 2 days to re-stock and sort out van, rest and relax before we head out again.

We woke up to another beautiful day.  All the rain was gone and we headed out for our next day of adventures.  We said out good byes headed into Gonubie Pick n Pay to buy some fresh produce for food.  We were living on tinned food and pasta.  Nothing is wrong with pasta but we need some vegies.  Bought everything and headed out to get to Bathurst.  We had a wonderful chilled and relaxed drive.  Nothing serious, no serious issues, just took our time.  Arrived at Fish River Light house.  This one is very similar to the Hood light house in shape and age.  Situated high above the sea.  WE had lunch looking out onto the ocean and saw where the Fish River entered the sea.

Time to head to Bathurst Caravan Park for our nightly stop.

A very small caravan park….  Only 5 stands, 2 hot showers and 2 toilets. Minute in size, but a really lovely space.  I will go back again.

Chatted to Candice “owner” about the Glendower Beacon to see if she can arrange for us to go to it.  Will see in the morning what she can do.  Im really hoping to get to it.

Full moon tonight but we can’t see it because of the clouds and the area we are in.

Had stir fry dinner with vegies and it was really nice. Today was one of our better days with very little stress.

Woke up to a stunning morning.  Lots of rain gathered in Gazebo roof.  We had a slight flood when I opened the back door of bakkie and it pushed up the roof.  All the gathered rain just poured over the edge.  Had breakfast and we headed out to photograph the Cape Morgan Lighthouse.  We drove right on the end of the rocks, beach and water.  Amazing sights.  Lots of mud puddles.  Got to the light house to find that there was no-one there.  Walked around and I had to put Camera through the razor wire to get a photo that looked rather decent because I could not get in.

We turned around and headed back.  Spent quite a bit of time walking around the rock pools and the Kei Mouth.  Lots of urchins, anemones, sea weed, shells, rocks and fish.  Beautiful rocks pools.

We left and head for East London.

At this point we realised that we needed the blue plug adapter for the caravan spots.  This is used so that we can use the campsite electricity.  I forgot our plug adapter in Pmb.  We were told we can buy one from any hardware shop.  Well this was an adventure on its own.  We arrived in East London.  Saw a hardware shop and headed in.  How difficult can this be.  I just was a blue plug adapter for caravan sites.  Well, I was told that they don’t have any as it did not sell and they sent theirs all back.  I was told to go to the next hard ware shop around the corner.  They should have one.

We headed there and I had to face a young lady who had no idea on what I was looking for.  The sales manager came to speak to me and told me they don’t have any but I can try the electrical light shop across the road.  They should have some.

I headed there only to be told that they don’t sell them, but I can try the generator shop down two blocks, turn left and then right.  Well I headed there and I had decided that this was going to be the last place.  I would rather beg a plug at every campsite from here.

Arrived at the generator place only to be asked do I want a male or female plug.  What amps do I need, 64 or 30 or 16 amp.  All I said was that I want a plug to use at a camp site where I can plug in my extension cord and turn on my kettle.  They just looked at me and said I should try the caravan building company down the road turn left and then left again.  Look up a drive way passed the gate to see the caravans being built and that will be the place

Well I decided that this would be a pretty good place to finish with and we headed there. 

Guess what…. He knew exactly what I wanted and sold me a blue plug for camp site.  Asked me what I was doing and we chatted and he sent me on my way. 

At long last we can have a cup of tea with our dinner.

We headed for our nights’ accommodation.  Don’t ever trust a cell phone gps.  I have heard that they can lead you over a cliff.  And that is what it did to me today.  It lead us straight along a road to a locked gate with concrete bollards in the road and no-where else to drive.  We were supposed to drive along this road to our safe space for the night.  What turned out to be the right road, turned out to be totally incorrect?  There was supposed to be a bridge built, but this has never happened.  WE called the campsite to be told that we were in the totally wrong place.  WE had to head back to the N2, and drive to Gonubie to find the campsite.

Well we finally arrived at our sleeping space.  A beautiful place.  No-one was there and we were treated to a central heated room.  This room was the Laundry room as the weather was really horrible and the owner said we can sleep there.  We were grateful for this and we settled in for the night.

No other campers were in and we had the place to ourselves.  What a lovely quiet night.

Fiery necked night jars filled the air with their cries as we headed for our dream land.

We got up early for sun rise.  Was great on the beach.  I got soaking wet playing in the sea with tripod and camera.  We spent a long time watching limpet snails making trails and tracks.  Watching them go down under the sand.  What fun way to spend time watching.

Headed back for breakfast which was divine.  Said our good byes to Pumla and Sylvia and headed out to head off to Morgan’s Bay and the Kei Mouth

Driving along the N2 we came across a farm with about 8 wind turbines.  These huge items are mind blowing.

We headed down through the Kei cuttings.  Over the Kei River bridge.  We parked at the RTII and walked back over the bridge.  This bridge bounced all the way.  Strange feelings.

We headed to our sleeping spot of the Kei River Mouth Caravan Park.  This place was horrific.  We did not stay there as there was no security, no one around and I don’t think there was ablutions or even electricity.  We drove around the site and drove out the other gate.  We headed to Morgans Bay for the night.  Lovely site.  Right on the Lagoon.  Lots of rain.  Will catch Light house tomorrow.  Sleep well world.

We woke up early and rushed out to get some sun rise photos.  Could not get to the beach, but still a stunning morning.  Felt like a new person.  Headed for breakfast.  Yummy yummy food.  We chatted at the reception desk how to get to light house and we headed out.  We had to walk and it was great just to be able to stroll along.  Walked right up to the Light house.  What a different light house.  Made of steel struts.  Met Felizewe and he explained how it was built.  Told us about the rail way line that had a rail skip which was used to transport the steel struts.  This was removed after the local children found it and started to race it down the tracks to the end.  This ended by hitting a 40 gallon drum of concrete.  The trick was to jump out before it stopped.  My mind shudders at this thought

We then headed back to the Haven via the beach for lunch. 

Head back to the beach in the afternoon, but the wind had come up and the beach was horrible.  Spent rest of day chilling at our room, Me working on photos and Blog and Mom sorting out postage stamps for Zumat. Dinner was great and the night ended watching the light house strobes as it told the world on the sea where they were