Day 18

Day eighteen  Monday 3rd February 2020
Current position
The Black Horse Accommodation
15 Market St
Stellenbosch Central
Stellenbosch
7600
South Africa
S 33°56.34384'
E 18°51.27594'

We had our farewell breakfast at our lovely hotel and set off in the car with the Franschhoek Motor Museum firmly programmed into the Satnav.
Although we'd walked round the Centre of Hermanus we had not been to the suburbs but as we drove out we were surprised to find exactly how large the town is. The road settled down to mirror the ones we used last week straight well paved and traffic free. The scenery was much the same too but a lot greener with vineyards lying eitherside of the road. It seemed to be more like the Garden Route we expected than the actual Garden Route.
We arrived at the Motor Museum around lunchtime. It was part of a vineyard and had a very swish visitor centre. We paid our money and walked outside into the searing humidity. The air over the weekend by the seaside was as one would expect a lot cooler but now some 100 kilometres in land things are hotting up.
Outside we were confronted by a large courtyard with four large white brick built halls in front of us two to the right and two to the left. We chose the first on the left and entered to a pleasant woosh of cold air from the aircon. To our surprise the first car greeting us was a spotlessly clean 1928 4.5 litre Bentley in dark burgundy. It looked magnificent and far too good to use as did all the other cars. I have never seen so many highly polished cars. They were cleaner than cars you'd find in a new car showroom.
We discovered that the collection belongs to the son of a tobacco magnate. There are 320 in his collection and each of the four halls hold 20 vehicles. Every six months the vehicles are rotated and another 80 put on display.  Despite their spotless condition the cars are all driven at least once a month to keep them roadworthy. A team of ladies keep them gleaming and of course there are the resident mechanics to keep them running.
My favourite car apart from the Bentley of course was a beautiful 1936 American Cord 810 Convertible in pillarbox red. Oh and  the Rolls Royce Silver Ghost the Bugattis the Austin Seven the several Ferraris . The list goes on and on.
We spent a good couple of hours admiring the cars before grabbing a bite to eat in the cool of the car before setting the satnav for tonight's accommodation. We arrived mid afternoon and checked in. The room was not a patch on what we have been used to over the last four nights but it's clean and comfortable. It's a good job that we are adaptable and accept that a room is only for sleeping.
We made good use of the time left of the afternoon by booking five nights in a hostel ready for our stay in Cape Town on Wednesday. We then had a leisurely glass of wine before heading out to eat.
The electricity in the town was off again owing to the Shedding arrangements. The power being off has not really affected us too much as we only use it to charge our phones and most businesses seem to have generators to give basic lighting etc but if we lived here I think it would drive us mad. I know it annoyed me so much in the seventies when I had to study by candlelight.