Our final stop on the Baz Bus was the Mother CIty – Cape Town! Why is it the Mother City? Here’s why: https://www.capetownetc.com/cape-town/cape-town-called-mother-city/. This was our goodbye to the trusty Baz Bus. It was sad to say goodbye to this service as it had done us proud across the entire width and breadth of SOuth Africa. While there may Be slightly cheaper means of transport, the Baz Bus was great for us. WE met some nice folks on the Bus and it took all the hassles out of arriving in a town and walking/getting transport to accomodation. Sure it limits …

The last Baz Bus stop before the Mother City of Cape Town is the famous university and wine region town of Stellenbosch. You leave Hermanus at about 7 in the evening to meet the shuttle at the cool bar – again everything was on time so no drink at the cool bar! Stellenbosch also has a shuttle from the Baz Bus stop so we arrive at the Stumble Inn Backpackers around 9. Everyone was hungry so we went just across the road to a lovely place called Ginos! Pasta and pizza for all! That made for a late night before …

Wow! To get to Hermanus, the Baz Bus had to drop us off at a roadside bar and we were to take a shuttle from there. The bar was super cool! We wished we had time to have a drink there. The people At the bar were super welcomikng and the bar itself was very cool! With some saddles for barstools and old wooden floors the place looked like the old west! We hopped into our shuttle and were in Hermanus in 30 minutes. Not 2 minutes after walking into Hermanus Backpackers the girls were on the floor playing with …

We left Swellendam early evening and drove the beautiful Garden Route to Hermanus as the sun was slowly setting. The scenery was amazing….these were taken out of the window of the Baz Bus….

Africa is all about the animals, the fauna and not the flora. As we were there in spring time, we saw amazing flowers so we thought we would share some.

The Garden Route was now 1-1, in that Plett was amazing and Mossel bay was not – so it was on to Swellendam! From here to Cape Town we were going to get off at every stop offered by the Baz Bus! After Mossel Bay being such a disappointment we were a bit worried about this town. I was worried my thoughts about the Garden Route being over-rated were indeed true! We left Mossel Bay around 4 in the afternoon and arrived in the Republic of Swellendam around 6. ‘Republic of Swellendam”?? Although the area was only broke away into …

I have said many times that I thought the Garden Route was over-rated and Mossel Bay certainly upheld this opinion. After the great times we had in Plettenberg Bay, Mossel Bay was a massive disappointment! Our hostel- The Park House Lodge, was great – a grand old house where we got a pretty big room to ourselves. The staff there was also great! The town just had a weird vibe. It lacked the South African friendliness and the ready ‘Howzit’ at every encounter. The only folks who were awesome (outside of the hostel staff) was the crew at the dive …

Plett had several awesome activities. We chose to do the Afri-Canyon and swimming with seals. Afri-Canyon was a place where taking a camera was plain stupid – you were jumping off cliffs (kloofing) into water, and zip-lining into water. Not a place for a camera. Hopefully in time the video from these events will be posted. I did not go swimming with the seals in an effort to stay on budget and because I had some something similar before…. Afri- Canyon was amazing – it pushed us all beyond out comfort zone and that is always a good thing! Skye …

We left Port Elizabeth early and headed down the Garden Route to Plettenberg Bay – a super upscale beach town in the Western Cape province, with a a fair bit to do! The drive was 4-5 hours on our amazing Baz Bus and we had decided to stay at the Albergó Hostel in Plett. Baz Bus is a bunch of 20-30 year old backpackers and our kids just put their heads down and pass the time. Until now The kids lives have had a pretty strict ‘no-screen’ policy. We have read alot about the damage that social media and the …

The penguins in Port Elizabeth was the highlight of our time there! It was another sunny day when we headed just out of town to the Penguin Sanctuary. As we were off-season and a weekday, we virtually had the place to ourselves. This is a rehab centre and they told us they get at least one call a day to go collect a wayward penguin! These are the African Penguin – they are laso known as the Jack-ass Penguin (i had a lot of jokes lined up here) because of the braying sound they make to communicate…much like our children! …