December 5th

Today was totally socked-in, meaning the clouds were the sky! It was clouds from horizon to horizon. We got around, mora- mora, meaning “slowly, slowly”, in the hope that it would change. We had breakfast of yogurt and hearty bread. When we did start out it was spitting/drizzly. Opted to go to the Jeffreys Bay Shell Museum, but it was scheduled load shedding time, so we altered plans – will come back when lights are on. So instead, we went to Ferreira Post Distillery (a rum maker) at 1030 in the morning!  :0   (This wasn't supposed to be the order of events today!)

The owner was very passionate about his producing of rum. First he showed us his process. It is a small assembly area, but he was enjoying the whole show still. Next was the tasting, and tasting… we had to stop and change to A tasting halfway through! He started us with his immature and his standard rums. He diluted these with water (this was different and something I was not familiar with). They both were smooth and nice. Next he poured us two dark rums – one was 'oaky', next was smokey and darker, like used motor oil. We liked the really dark one. It was very smokey, and flavorful. Now we shared the tasting,he poured us two golden rums – first was not aged, next was aged with caramel coloring enhancers. The second one we really liked (we bought a bottle of this). Last we had fruited rums – one watermelon, actually enjoyed, unexpectedly, the other was berry, but this was too close to cough syrup. Well, we finished and Jeff could not drive anywhere, because well…

We went couple blocks back to the seashell museum. I enjoyed myself thoroughly, because, well it's shells!!! There was basically 1/3 of the room containing local shells of South Africa, especially here, Jeffreys Bay. The rest were examples from around the world! The whole exhibit room had so many colors and shapes, from itty-bitty to quite large, around a foot long. The museum also had a room of pictures of other marine life in South Africa. We left by 1230ish.

Next we decided to go to a Game Reserve. But when we arrived, about 20 minutes later, it was raining , so…   We changed and went to do a honey tasting. It was around 115ish. The place was Pabala Private Nature Reserve. But they could not do a honey tasting today, maybe tomorrow. So striking out we just decided get a little to eat here. There is a restaurant. We ordered two starters (as most of the menu was fried foods, and not ready for full meal). One was onion rings (which were well seasoned and herbed) and the other 'crumbed' mushrooms (which were breaded and fried, but with also a nice seasoning and small textured breading) with a garlic cheese sauce. I had a red wine, Jeff a water.

As we were leaving we were deciding about the honey tasting for tomorrow, when we were WhatsApped if 0900 tomorrow was okay. I went and told them to just remove us as we will be starting back to the Cape area. The lady understood and was okay with the cancellation. We left feeling good after our lunch, and decided to go back to the African Dawn Reserve. This place is a game reserve and a bird sanctuary. Again, it was spitting a bit, but the view is a driveable  option with the aviary area being the walkable part. The person helping us said we could come back tomorrow to do the sanctuary. So we paid for entrance, and did it! It is a self driven 8 kms (5 miles) pathway through a gated preserve. It took us about an hour driving!!. We thoroughly had a ball! We saw much more than we expected. First we saw Vervet Monkeys – scampering away from us! Now I'll just list what we know we saw: Impala, Black Impala, Blesbok, White Blesbok, Common Duiker, Golden Wildebeest, Zebra, and a Giraffe. It was so great – felt like a mini-safari!

Our little car was almost a problem. We should have had a 4×4 vehicle, and felt we should have been told this. But it was an adventure. When we finished it was around 345 pm and had stopped spitting rain, so we went through the sanctuary. These are birds that can not be rehabilitated to the wild. There were large fenced pens, to smaller groups, to some being solo pens of one kind of bird. South Africa's National Bird is the Blue Crane, and they're majestic and photograph well. We also enjoyed the aviary, and had a couple of chickens shadowing us, as well a peacock for a bit (they are all used to being fed by tourist).

We finished around 440 pm. We noticed, we had the game drive of the preserve and walkabout of the sanctuary all to ourselves! We left feeling awed by God's wonders! Now we drove back to Jeffreys Bay; went to the store for bread and cheese for dinner; and back to our place. We had a very blessed day and reminisced our adventure over supper with a nice Pinotage.