Mossel Bay (December 29 & 30 2006)

Geza and I sped of to Mossel Bay (about a 3 hour drive eastbound) on the 29th of December, 2006, after our one-week sojourn in Cape Town. For the first half of the drive, we hugged the coast on a narrow and winding highway. Needless to say, the view was spectacular...

Arriving in Mossel Bay around 4 p.m., we checked in at the Santos Express Bed & Breakfast, which was an old train parked alongside the beach [see below]. Geza and I were given compartment number 37 (yes, a compartment), in train car no. 3. We obviously slept in separate beds, out of which I nearly fell out of each time I attempted to turn my body to the left or right when sleeping. In addition to this, only one person could stand up at a time in these compartments. I quickly remembered the long 18-hour train rides I used to suffer when travelling from Amsterdam to Nice to see my mother, and shivered.
And another view of our train hostel / bed & breakfast from the sea:

Geza and I settled to drink one of the bottles of wine that a colleague had given us after having breakfast at his abode, and suddenly heard a train whistle. I was astounded to see a train pass us within feet and continue past the train we were sleeping in [see below - our hostel is on the direct left of the passing train]. I suddenly remembered the waiver I was required to sign when I checked in – that in the event of any damage or death caused by passing trains, neither I nor my family or estate shall hold the Santos Express liable for such damage arising therefrom.
The following day, we booked a boat tour to see “Seal Island”. The boat fared us out to the island where a seal colony decided to call this rock home [see below]. The captain told us that if we were lucky, we would view a shark. No shark. However, we decided that we were also not going to swim in any water within several miles of Seal Island. When the boat began to fare back, with Seal Island at its tail, the stench of seal excrement hit all of us and was so pungent I could barely breath! It smelled like zoo cage, but a million times worse. Ack!


We decided to head out a day early, as we noticed that all the women sported the same haircut and wore pants that were too tight. It is a harbour city, and there is not much to do but eat seafood and go to seal island. So, off we sped in our rental car to the Tsitsikamma – land of mountains and dense forests!