Adventures Along the Garden Route.

 In trying to be good tour-guides to our USA peeps, we had to take both groups for a trip down the Garden Route. Again, 2 great weekends and both so different! With the Boudreau family we stayed at a country estate called Bella Manga. We had 2 self-catering cabins out away from it all (but close to the cows) and it was very rustic and rural. Waiting for dinner:

Our Hosts, Ray and Fiona welcomed us into their home on our first night and cooked us an amazing dinner in their huge eat-in kitchen!

Who's hungry?

 YUM!!

 We had an amazing lamb shank with mashed potatoes and squash and the best malva pudding ever.
This is a very well-fed and happy crew:

 The farm had several ponds and the kids had a blast just exploring, fishing, and hanging out.

 Even the adults got into the action as we found all these cool reeds and decided to see how well we could weave them into mats and baskets. The verdict: no indigenous people are going to be soliciting orders from ANY of us in the near future...

We even got to go for a morning run on both days we were there and the cows only chased us a little....

On Saturday some of us headed into Plettenberg Bay for Lunch.

We had a gorgeous winter day (? like no winter I've ever seen!) and found a restaurant right on the beach. The kids of course ordered and then had to head toward the water to explore.

This was our table. Any closer and we would have been in the ocean!

That night we decided to fire up the braai AND the bonfire.

We cooked all kinds of wors and ostrich kabobs and veggies. 

And of course we had to "braai" s'mores as well...

 2 weeks later we headed back down the Garden Route with the Passmore Family. It was much colder but we still had an awesome trip. We stopped for dinner our first night at an Italian restaurant that was right on the beach. Jeff was in heaven because the food was so good and the kids loved these massive chairs that they had outside on their deck:

 We stayed at beautiful place called "Fairview" just 5 mins down the road from Bella Manga and we rented the main house.

And guess who got to come on this trip?

The first morning they did breakfast for us and it was amazing. Served right in this beautiful old dining room with the works: country breads and jams, eggs, bacon, yogerts, muesli, you name it. What a great way to start the day.

 Another shot of the house.

 We went to Teniqua Wildlife Awareness center where they have all of these different cats and with most of them you can go right into the enclosures with them. Heart-pounding stuff!

 Leopard: I had to take this one thru the fence. We were NOT allowed in with this guy!

 2 amazing Cheetah: We stood about 3 feet away from them with no fences and just got to watch them and learn about these amazing animals!

 Serval. I want one!

 Later that afternoon we went to the Plett Puzzle Park. They had a life-size maze that was shockingly challenging! It takes about 35-40 minutes to navigate!

 They start you with a blue wooden block and you have to get to the blue corner tower. When you get there you put it into a box and out pops a green block so then you have to find your way to the green tower. Then the yellow, then the red. It was like a survivor challenge. The girls are trying to get to the red tower:

 When you get to the last tower and put in your block you get a round rainbow disc and then you have to find your way OUT of the maze and give it to the guy. We did it!

 That night we went to a really cool restaurant called "Emily Moon" that was right on the river. It was 8+ only with no kids menu. These 3 were amazing little diners in a fancy, schmancy place and one of the owners even gave the 3 of them complementary ice cream at the end of it for being so well behaved!

The next day we had to start heading back to PE but the fun was not over yet. Sherri and Ryan bungee jumped off of the Bloukrans Bridge and then we all went Zip lining. Now that's a dangerous looking group:

Hope this tower can hold all of us!

 After that we stopped for lunch at a little famhouse style restaurant with a roaring fire. They let Roxy come right into their place! The food was so yum and so cheap! These are the places I will really miss when we leave Africa!