#GardenRoute

All too soon, it was time to leave the park.

I thought it could be the day to see the lions as we had to drive miles through the park to exit the other side. The entire park is the same size as Belgian so we were bound to see a good selection of animals.

After an hour we were still out of luck. Hardly any animals showed their faces and we were giving up hope of seeing any of the big 5. To make the journey slightly more exciting I decided to have a competition with my dad.
"Choose an animal, whoever sees the most of their animals is the winner."
"Obviously I'm going to choose kudu!" my dad said with confidence.
"Okay, I'll go warthog." I replied feeling slightly nervous of the game I just started.
From then on, all we saw were warthog. Every few moments I called out in excitement about another podgy chap trotting past the car.
"There's another one!" I would call in joy!

My dad's face (ever the competitive) grimaced each time only changing occasionally to point at the rare kudu walking by.
My numbers grew. Then his. Then I hit the jackpot. Plucking out bugs from behind a log was an entire warthog family. Mummy and Daddy warthog with a litter of about 5 or 6 babies! HA!
#Winning!

I was sad to leave the park behind us, it had been such an amazing experience that I would never forget! Now, I was looking forward to the next part of our journey. A road trip to Cape Town.
First stop, a place called Tsitsikamma. We stopped at the crystal blue ocean, the light reflecting off it formed sparkles of glitter and surrounding the coast stood huge, cliff walls covered in dry bush.

Trailing off the ocean is a gorge of wild crashing water. To cross it hangs an enormous suspension bridge that my dad feels is not designed to be jumped on. Apparently my jumping was not appreciated by the engineer. My argument is that they let fat people on it so it can't be that fragile! The bridge police also commented his annoyance of people leaving love lockets attached to it's cables as these two do not complement the engineering of the bridge.

We survived my bridge trampolining and continued our journey to Knysna where we spent the night. It is a fishing village famous for its sea food (VOM!) I ordered lasagne. Unfortunately it was a little bit too dark to see much of it and we had an early start in the morning to get to Cape Town.

Still in animal spotting mode, I kept my eyes peeled open trying to spot animals on route. It wasn't entirely pointless, I did spot some giraffes and lots of baboons. I asked to stop on the highway to take a photo of a row of them sitting menacingly on the crash barrier- highways aren't designed for people to pull over and take photos!

The scenery as we went was stunning, for miles and miles we were out in the sticks of Africa, winding mountains and fields of browning grass with grazing animals stretched as far as the eye could see. All was peaceful until.
"Dad look out!"
POP! My dad hit a flock of pigeons popping one to smithereens! Another one was hit, it ambled to the side of the road with a limp.

Our moods lifted as we arrived into Cape Town. The sun was just beginning to set when we were given our room key. My dad had booked us a room with a garden view at a hotel in Cape Town situated on the coast.
"Enjoy the view." Exclaimed the man at the check in.
We looked at each other and shrugged. Must be a nice garden.
My dad checked the key.
'Table mountain suite.' This isn't our room.
"You've been upgraded sir."
We made our way to our room. The door opened out onto an enormous living area, outside a balcony hugged the wall. We stepped out to see the sinking sun. "WOW!" I shouted like a small child on Christmas.

It was incredible. In the distance, we could see Table mountain leading into Lion Head completely surrounded by ocean. The orange sunset glowed brightly, highlighting the silhouette of the famous mountain range. The ocean was calm, gently churning waves onto the soft sand. We didn't move away until complete darkness hid the setting. Wine in one hand, chocolate in the other, we chatted for hours and hours. My dad told me stories I had never heard before of his early adulthood in South Africa. It was one of those moments in life when you feel time has stood still and you could stay in that moment forever.