Yaron & Darly Hod
Eran & Gilit Pri-el

Omer and Oranit - Israel

14 October 2005

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I met this foursome at the Port Elizabeth airport at 18h40. My introduction to this foursome was via Darly's uncle and aunt viz. Modi and Miri Goldenfeld who toured with in  April 2005.  After becoming acquainted we moved on to our place of stay viz. Lemon Tree Lane. After unpacking at Lemon Tree Lane we visited Whickerwoods restaurant where we had an absolutely splendid meal to start off our tour of the Garden Route.

Yaron, Darly, Gilit and Eran enjoying our meal at Whickerwoods

Darly and Gilit enjoying their first Don Pedros

When we returned to Lemon Tree Lane we closed off the evening, as we did on every evening, in the traditional way of having a shot of mampoer (local moonshine)

Day 2

Addo and Schotia Game park

On this day the foursome went to Addo Elephant Park as well as to Schotia Game Farm in the company of Renier an Addo game Ranger and Scott the Schotia game ranger. I stayed behind in Port Elizabeth to have a repair done to the starter motor of my vehicle which gave me trouble while travelling down to Port Elizabeth.

Below are some of the animals that were seen on Addo

A male Kudu

Many elephants

The whole safari tourgroup

Scott the game ranger on Schotia next to an anthill on the farm.

Getting ready to go on safari

Yaron welcoming all to the bush toilet. JJ

Darly and Gilit at the halfway break while on safari

It rained slightly while on safari as can be seen by the rain protections that all are wearing

Wildebeest

Warthog

Impala

Giraffe

The king of the jungle as seen on the Schotia nightdrive

Day 3

Treetops and travel to Knysna

We started our day with an early morning breakfast at Lemon Tree Lane

Being briefed by Marius before the treetop safari

Kitting up with Lily the safety guide for the day

Raring to go!!

They're off to fly in the trees!!!

Darly - Ace treetop flyer. JJ

Gilit - The Treetop flying lover. JJ

Hang in there Eran  JJ

Yaron - Treetop flying attorney.  JJ

Gilit having fun. JJ

The Israeli treetop flying team.  JJ

On the treetop bridge

With the balance of the group on the treetop safari (ladies who came from George) 

With Marius and Lily the treetop guides for the day

At the river flanking Natures Valley.

Having fun on the Natures Valley Beach

Trying desperately to spell the letters Y D E and G on Natures Valley Beach  JJ

Whale watching in Plettenberg Bay

At the lookout beacon in Plettenberg Bay

Having coffee at the Plettenberg Hotel

In the evening we had an amazing meal at Firefly restaurant in Knysna where Dell, Firefly's wonderful  owner, joining the foursome for the above photo.

We ended the evening with a shot of strawberry mampoer on the balcony of Overmeer Guesthouse.

Day 4

Knysna

Enjoying breakfast and the wonderful view at Overmeer.
Please use your browser arrow keys to view this panoramic picture.

We started our day by visiting the Belvedere Estate.

The foursome with Knysna in the background

On Brenton on Sea's beach

The ladies on the beach

The foursome finish the 6 Km beach walk

Cleaning up

We visited the Scarab paper factory in Sedgefield

Enjoying Oysters at the Knysna Oyster factory

Darly displays amazing oyster concentration  JJ

What a fish platter!  JJ

Darly about to lose her Don Pedro.   JJ

At the Knysna Heads

Leaving the Knysna Heads

In the evening we had dinner at La Loerie

We ended the evening with a shot of Van der Hum mampoer on the balcony of Overmeer Guesthouse.

Day 5

 Botlierskop and Cape Vaccas

On this day we travelled to Botlierskop Game Farm near Mossel Bay for a quad bike game drive and thereafter travelled on to Cape Vaccas.

Getting ready to quad in the bush with Roddy who was the foursome's ranger for the day

Start your engines!  J J

Doing a practice run on the quads

Viewing game on the drive

Some of the many animal friends that were seen along the way.

Yaron could not hold out along the way - Look at the impala antelope in the background laughing at him. J J

Returning from the ride

The happy fivesome.

We had lunch at the game farm and took this picture in their lounge area

Relaxing after lunch.

Man that game drive was hard work!  J J J J

Dinner in the cottage at Cape Vaccas

Dinner pictures at Cape Vaccas

Day 6

 Travel to Hermanus and on to Cathbert (450km)

We stopped in at the Gouritz River bridge where after a bit of backward and forwarding Eran and Yaron decided to bungi jump off the bridge.

Eran prepares to jump

Click here to view a video of Eran jumping of the Gouritz River bridge
Note: Only watch this 5mb file video if you have a broadband connection

Yaron says his prayers before jumping off the bridge J J

Click here to view a video of Yaron jumping of the Gouritz River bridge
Note: Only watch this 5mb file video if you have a broadband connection

We stopped in at the Riviersonderend butchery along the way to Cathbert to buy biltong

We travelled via Hermanus where the above picture was taken so as to see the whales in Walker Bay

After numerous whale sitings we left the main viewing parking area

Eran really getting stuck into a sandwich while having a late lunch in Hermanus 

We gave Eran a surprise 40th birthday party at Cathbert as can be seen from the above and following pictures and video 

Click here to view a video of Eran enjoying his birthday party
Note: Only watch this 5mb file video if you have a broadband connection

Gilit and Darly enjoying rooibos tea after a wonderful meal at Cathbert

Eran savoring his birthday wine.  J J

Day 7

Winelands and Kayamandi

The foursome returning to their Cathbert rooms after breakfast

We left Cathbert to go to the Afrikaans language monument where we went through the history of South Africa

We stopped in for coffee and a taste of Aunt Tillies beetroot at Cotage Frromage

We stopped in at Kayamandi to visit the local creche as well as the Prochorus bead factory where I took the above picture of Darly

Yaron, Darly and Gilit looking at the bed jewelery at Prochorus

We stopped in at Middelvlei for a winetasting. In the above picture we se Darly showing us how to mouth-oxygenate wine 

Feeding the goats whop stand on tortoises at Middelvlei

In the Middelvlei cellars

We stopped in at the Olive Deli in Stellenbosch for a late lunch

We returned to Kayamandi and were entertained by the Masakane dancers in the Ikamva Lethu centre

We stopped in at Lily where we met her family inclusive of grand-daughter Zezo seen in the above picture

Sharing in a church service in Kayamandi

Eran having fun with some of the many kids we met in Kayamandi

We travelled back to Franschhoek where we had a wonderful final dinner together at Bon Vivant restaurant

Day 7

Drive to Cape Town

The next pictures taken at Cathbert before we left for Cape Town all speak for themselves. JJ

Our last photo taken at Cathbert before we left for Craigrownie guesthouse in Cape Town where we ended our fabulous tour.

Yaron, Darly, Eran and Gilit were an amazing foursome to travel with. They put their total trust in me and this resulted in us having a wonderful time as they just went with the flow day after day. We shared so many wonderful experiences together and overall I can only hope that the foursome enjoyed their journey as much as I did. At all times on this tour it felt as if we were one happy family travelling through the Garden Route together. This truly was an outstanding tour mainly because of the foursome being some easy going folk to tourguide through the Garden Route. All in all a really HOT tour even though we never ever found "Philip". (Private joke that only the foursome and I would understand. J J.  A huge huge thanks goes to Modi and Miri (whose names came up so many times on this tour)  for making the wonderful introduction to me of this great foursome.

TODAH RABAH
YARON, DARLY, ERAN & GILIT