Friday 18^th July, 2014…Mandela’s birthday date…..correction…his saying was “You think it’s impossible, until it’s done”… we had a couple of hours of wind and rain last night and going out to a restaurant for dinner we couldn’t see anything which was a pity….but this has been the case all the time as it is dark by 5 pm…..Knysna is a great spot with its lagoons…our accommodation has been on one island and each night we have gone to another island for our restaurants……and so we were up at 5 am again this morning for a 6 am start…..and then left yet again in the dark….first we drove through Sedgefield which is a great dairying area and is known for its lakes…we couldn’t see anything though and then onto Wilderness which is known for its bird watching and walking…..then George which is where President Botha was born (he was the president that had Mandela sent to prison)….then Mossel Bay which was settled by the Jews originally and they established a trading station there but now there is a big oil refinery at Mossel Bay……then it was farming and cropping…acres and acres of wheat and the canola oil plant as far as the eye could see….rolling green countryside with those mountains always on the horizon….then we stopped at Albertinia where they have a factory shop that makes all sorts of aloe products……one could have shopped and shopped there but we always have the road ahead in mind and carrying everything!!!!  Then we passed through Swellendam which is one of the oldest towns in SA….after Swellendam there was a turn off to Cape Agulhas where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet but we kept travelling on the N2 and then came of the N2 road and drove out to Hermanus on the Atlantic Ocean…what a great spot but unfortunately there is a howling wind here today so not very pleasant…lots of white caps on the ocean so no good for whale watching as this place is known for whale watching and where the whales give birth…Hermanus has developed as a resort town and whale watching and become very popular over the last 10 years…some lovely properties here too and a railway station with no tracks going into it as they found it too hard to lay tracks through all the granite mountains which we encountered on our drive from the N2 road to Hermanus which was about 70 kms….lots of grape vines along the way so  we are finally getting into the wine area of SA……we had lunch on our arrival at our accommodation which is lovely as we are just about on the beach and have a great view of the Atlantic Ocean from our room and then we went into Hermanus township and wandered the shops and talked to the locals…as Michael and I do…..there is a good path around the rocks but the wind too ferocious to attempt that today….and so back to our digs and then out to another restaurant tonight to try some more of the local seafood…had some oysters last night and probably not quite the flavour of our Bluff oysters but they were so meaty and delicious!!......M & F