mlchad147
- May 31
- 6 min read

May 25, 2024–Mossel Bay, South Africa

There are shore excursions that can be categorized as true adventures, and yesterday’s was definitely one of those as we had close encounters with some of South Africa’s biggest animals on an amazing game drive. Then there are excursions that are laid back sightseeing trips, and today’s fit more into that category. That’s not to say it was bad, it was just different. Besides, you can’t go careening around the bush in a Land Rover every day looking for rhinos. It’s just as valuable to spend time taking in the scenery and culture, learning a country’s history, and meeting its people. Today was one of those days.

For a while it was doubtful that we’d get off the ship at all. Mossel Bay, today’s port of call in South Africa, is a tender port, meaning that the city does not have docking facilities that can accommodate a ship as large as the Serenade of the Seas. Instead, we had to drop anchor out in the harbor and use our lifeboats to shuttle passengers back and forth to the pier. The problem with tender ports is that tendering isn’t possible when the seas are rough, as it’s too difficult and dangerous to transfer passengers from the ship to small boats that are bobbing up and down with the waves.

Early this morning the captain came over the ship’s public address system and announced that the swells in the harbor were too high to safety tender on the port side of the ship, which is the side that was facing the waves. However, the starboard (right) side of the ship was protected from the worst of the swells by the ship itself, and the crew was going to try a test tender from that side to see if we could safely get passengers on the lifeboats and ferry them ashore without too much bouncing once the lifeboats were no longer protected by the ship. Long story short, the test was deemed a success, and our excursion was a go.

Our excursion wasn’t scheduled to begin until 1:00 pm, so we had an opportunity to go into Mossel Bay early in search of postcards, stamps, and a mail dropbox. Oddly enough, we got a postcard and stamps, but were unable to actually mail anything (long story, too long for this blog post), but we had a good time wandering around town with another couple from the ship.

Time for a few words about Mossel Bay, or Mosselbaii in Afrikaans, which was named for the plentiful mussels along its shoreline. Today it’s a town of 120,000 whose main industries are tourism and natural gas refining, and with nothing resembling a highrise in sight the area near the port has a relaxed, small town feel. While we did cover several blocks on our walk, we really didn’t have time to poke around in many of the shops, as we had to be mindful of the meeting time for our excursion down by the pier.

So, postcards and stamps in hand, we dutifully returned to the pier on time and climbed aboard the waiting bus for what promised to be an afternoon of sightseeing. Unlike yesterday’s game drive excursion, which never took us that far from the coast, today we headed inland, up and over the Outeniqua Mountains that separate the drier interior from the greener coastal plain. Climbing upward over the twisting highway to Robinson Pass provided some fantastic views, though regrettably there was no scenic overlook where we could pull over and take photos. Happily, we made up for that later.

Once over Robinson Pass we descended into high desert, not barren by any means, but covered with low scrub and bushes. Some farming is done here, particularly where the Grobbelaars River provides enough water to sustain crops in a region that gets little rain, but much of the terrain is better suited to ostrich farming, as the ostriches do quite well roaming around and eating whatever greenery they find.

After a time we came to Oudtshoorn, a town of 61,000 best known as the center of the world’s largest ostrich farming region and the start of South Africa’s Wine Route. However, our destination was a particular building that is locally famous for an entirely different reason. Queen’s Hotel is a modestly sized hotel dating back to the 18th century, which hosted Queen Elizabeth of England in 1947 when she was only 21 years old and five years before she took the throne. It’s a nice establishment, and we spent the better part of an hour there enjoying snacks, tea and coffee, while also strolling up and down the street a bit.

Unfortunately it was Saturday, and most of the shops in town were closed for the afternoon, but I was lured into an open shop by a sign out front advertising “crazy biltong,” whatever that is. Better yet, the nice young lady at the counter offered me a free sample of what turned out to be a spicy beef jerky. I liked it, but buying any to take back on the ship would be a no-no, so I settled for purchasing a Coke before heading back to the hotel and bus.

We returned to Mossel Bay by a different route, this time climbing up and over the mountains well to the east of the road that took us through Robinson Pass, allowing us to see a lot more of those ostrich farms that Oudtshoorn is known for. Even better, we crossed the Outeniqua Mountains via a different pass, this one with an overlook where we could pull over and marvel at the scenery.

Outeniqua Pass was built between 1943 and 1951, with a lot of the work being done by Italian prisoners of war. It’s every bit as scenic as Robinson Pass, and the views from the overlook were breathtaking. We lingered for several minutes taking photos, but mostly just taking it all in. Hopefully my photos will do it justice.

The rest of the drive back to Mossel Bay was uneventful, though our guide kept up a running commentary on the state of affairs in South Africa today. Much of it isn’t good, as unemployment is at forty percent, crime rates and drug abuse are high, corruption at all levels of government is rampant, and the social mores, particularly regarding marriage, are dreadful. There’s a national election on Wednesday, the 29th, and polls indicate that the African National Congress, the party of Nelson Mandela which has ruled since the end of apartheid in 1994, may be in trouble. We’ll be in Namibia by then, but I’ll definitely be watching to see how the election turns out.

We’re off to Cape Town now, where we’ll be on Sunday and Monday, and I’m looking forward to two big days in South Africa’s “Mother City.” I’ll be back with a full report, so stay tuned. Oh, and by the way, we crossed from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean overnight, another milestone on our epic journey. Pretty cool.

Leaving Mossel Bay, a city of 120,000 with a small town feel, on our way to Oudtshoorn.

Michele checking out the scenery in the port as we left on our excursion.

As we left Mossel Bay we passed an unfortunate scene that is repeated all too often in South Africa, the lingering result of apartheid. These are typical of the homes in the former black townships.

Heading up into the Outeniqua Mountains on our way to Oudtshoorn.

Another view on our way up to Robinson Pass. Unfortunately there was no place to pull over when we got to the top, where the view was amazing.

Once we dropped down on the far side of Robinson Pass we entered a region of much drier high desert.

Another scene from the high desert.

The high desert near Oudtshoorn is perfect for ostrich farming. In fact, the region leads the world in that particular form of agriculture.

Oudtshoorn seems very nice, at least the parts we saw. Indeed, it looks like a typical town that could be almost anywhere.

Our destination was the Queen’s Hotel, locally famous because Queen Elizabeth stayed there in 1947, five years before she took the throne of England.

Another view of the hotel.

Attractive and clever inner courtyard at the Queen’s Hotel.

I took this photo from the hotel terrace. That’s a school in the background.

A photo in the lobby showing the future queen arriving in Oudtshoorn.

I had a chance to walk down the street a bit before we left. This is the local police station. The slogan on the statue is in English and Afrikaans.

My more interesting stop was at a small shop advertising “crazy biltong,” which turned out to be a spicy beef jerky. I bought a Coke. 😂

One more photo of Oudtshoorn on our way out of town.

On the road again, this time taking a different route back to Mossel Bay, so we could experience a different pass over the mountains. Note the high desert terrain.