We made it to the Garden Route!

Well, technically Port Elizabeth is along the Sunshine Coast, but as far as we were concerned this was the beginning of our Garden Route road trip to Cape Town. 

We flew into the coastal city and got into our new rental car. After driving a total P.O.S. Honda for the previous few weeks (from Johannesburg to Blyde River Canyon and all the way to Durban) the new Volkswagen polo felt as sexy as a Ferrari. Mike didn't even have to hold the gas pedal to the floor to get up small hills. #winning

Anyway, onto PE: 

I read that many budget travelers treat Port Elizabeth as an overnight stop and we nearly did the same thing. I'm so glad that we added an extra night there and got to get a feel for life in PE, because we loved it. The town definitely has a lot to offer if you take the time to look around. 

We stayed in the posh Richmond Hill neighborhood at a backpackers hostel (that was not so posh but very chill). Richmond Hill is a quiet part of town but includes a strip of some of the best restaurants in PE. Our favorites were Fushin (Grace finally gets some sushi after six weeks in Africa, hallelujah!), Moto Vono and Beeryard. 

We explored different neighborhoods on foot and by car. During one walk around the older part of the city, we climbed the lighthouse at the Donkin Reserve, where there's a memorial dedicated to Nelson Mandela as well as a Pyramid, dedicated to Sir Donkin's wife. After walking for a few miles, we got back in the car to check out PE's beaches. 

PE is a great town. The kind of town we could live in. And if the rest of the stops along our drive to Cape Town are this cool, that will become a very tempting possibility...