Cape Town to Knysna and back again ......
Written: Mar 29 '09 (Updated Apr 16 '09)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Lots for tourists to do
Cons: nothing to report
The Bottom Line: Enjoyed our few days exploring the Garden Route
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| hollynz's Full Review: Garden Route |
Being the intrepid tourists that we are * grin * we decided to head up to Knysna on what is known as the Garden Route for a couple of nights. In my planning for this trip I had thought we would be visiting in whale watching season and had planned to meander our way along the coastal route watching the whales off shore but the best laid plans of mice and men ..... and a well priced 2 for 1 airfare sale ..... saw us here in the off season for whales. As a result we headed off along the inland N2 route bound for Knysna, a good 6 hour journey it turned out. Longer than we had thought but there were a few road works stops as at the moment South Africa is like a great big construction site as they prepare for the 2010 World Cup. Stadiums going up, resurfacing of roads and road gangs working everywhere. It was quite a long and tiring job leaving Cape Town behind as we kept getting caught up in traffic jams or catching the red traffic light. We couldn't get over the amount of hawkers at the traffic lights selling all manner of things ..... from phone car chargers to bundles of coat hangers. The phone chargers I could understand but not too sure how profitable the coat hanger trade was going to be.
Once out into the rural area the countryside opened up and the prairie type expanses spread before us. The roads truly are a delight to drive and we soon adapted to the local style of driving, sliding to the left as a car came up behind us to allow it to pass and passing others who had pulled over for us. It makes travelling the highways so safe, much much safer than the New Zealand roads where we have to shoot a gap in the oncoming traffics lane to overtake. Every now and then as we neared towns the pedestrian traffic would pick up, the locals are adept at running across these freeways with traffic flying at 120 - 150 kph .... it would give me the shivers to see people crossing but I guess its just day to day stuff to the locals.
We stopped for a bite to eat at a small town called Riviersonderend. We bought some very tasty meat pies and hot coffee and sat at a picnic table under some shade trees and took some time out. The sun was just so hot that the thought of walking around anywhere was just not appealing at all so after our break we headed off on our way.
Once we hit the coast at Mossel Bay it seemed to get a bit cooler and as we motored towards Knysna the terrain became more hilly with tree cover and in some places, quite thick with vegetation .... hence the Garden Route name I guess?
We finally pulled up to our guesthouse around 4ish. We were greeted by our host Cecil who bought us fresh brewed coffee and his wife Colleen joined us and went over some local restaurant tips and things of interest. Great place to stay if you want a bit of timeout www.hideaway.co.za . I found them online and they seemed quite thrilled as we were their first New Zealanders to stay.
We went off to look for a bit of dinner and drove into the town, Knysna is a very small town and we ended up being attracted to a bar as they had a live Super 14 rugby game on the big screen , a New Zealand team was playing a South African team, even though we were thoroughly out numbered by the South African supporters we enjoyed the good natured banter and the bar meal was very nice as well.
KNYSNA ELEPHANT PARK
www.knysnaelephantpark.co.za
This was the main reason I wanted to come to Knysna, I had read about this park and just thought it would be a wonderful experience .... which it was.
The park provides various tour options from hand feeding the elephants to riding them. If you don't want to ride them you have the elephant walk option as well. We opted for the feeding experience for our up close and personal encounter.
Rates were Adult 145 rand (nz$25/ us$15) and children 75 rand. A bucket of food was 25 rand (nz$4.50) so we splashed out and got a bucket each .......
The tours leave every 30 minutes so we had a bit of time to kill but there is a very interesting and informative display in the reception area so we had plenty of time to have a good look around. Most of the elephants here have been hand reared and were orphaned for one reason or another, some arrive as orphans from hunting farms (doesn't seem logical to let the hunters shoot the mothers of babies, and what hunter would want to shoot a mother with a small baby anyway... beats me) Some come after culling programs and some are orphaned by poachers.
Before you head off on the tour you have to watch a short film which, while watching it, you begin to wonder if you really do want to go and see the elephants after all .... talk about putting the frighteners up me. All the warnings and what not to do's .... sheesh. One of the most important things was not to crouch down at all, they stressed this point and the guides also made a point of reminding us not to crouch down or bend over. Of course hubby did bend over and someone else crouched down but nothing untoward happened to either .....thankfully.
As we headed out to the fields in the distance in our funky little tractor drawn trailers we spotted the elephants heading towards the feeding point. When we stopped and got off with our buckets the elephants headed over to a heavy metal rail which they all lined up behind and as we neared, we were greeted by a row of extended trunks. What a sight. I got positioned in front of the biggest ellie who promptly proceeded to try to get into my bucket, I was trying to feed the little guy who was beside him but the big guys trunk had a longer reach and for every 4 bits of food he got the little guy was lucky to get one. The feed was diced vegetables like pumpkin, potato, bunches of spinach, carrots and fruit. The elephants exhausted my bucket in like 30 seconds the brutes, the big guy was just too pushy for me. I stepped back and watched the few others feeding the better behaved elephants.
After the feeding was over the elephants wandered off and started grazing, we followed along with them and mingled, having photo ops and touching and rubbing them. One little baby who was extremely cute, was enjoying pushing everyone around and getting up to mischief with a stick it had found. Spending time with the elephants like this was such a special experience and soooo worth the long drive from Cape Town.
We spent about an hour with the elephants and then the tractor arrived with the next group, we were free to stay as long as we wanted but we had had our full so headed back to catch the ride back.
MONKEYLAND
www.monkeyland.co.za
Monkeyland was our next stop, we decided to come here for lunch and take the guided tour through the forest. After paying our 115 rand per person ( nz$21/us$11 ) at the reception desk we discovered that entry to Monkeyland is free and what we had actually just paid for was the guided tour. We could have just come through to the viewing deck and restaurant free of charge but we enjoyed the guided walk through the forest.
As soon as we walked through to the deck we saw the cutest little guys, squirrel monkeys apparently, and they were trying to get onto the deck to see if they could get food from the diners. One guy with a water bottle was doing his best to keep the little raiding parties at bay but as he would head to one end to squirt one monkey, others would try their luck at the other end. It was hilarious and they really were the cutest little guys. Mind you, when it came time for us to have our lunch I was thankful for the guy with the water bottle, we left him a nice tip for keeping us monkey free.
The tour took about an hour of easy walking through the forest, most of the monkeys here are tame monkeys so have to go through a rehab programme to become monkeys again. Quite sad really the process they have to go through, two lemurs were being rehabbed while we were there and they go from being part of a human family to being totally ignored by humans. Once they have been desensitised they are released into the forest area with the other monkeys. There is quite a good variety of species in the park along with some of the wild Vervet monkeys who were already in residence when the fences went up. These vervets are the trouble makers apparently and if they are bold enough and see women on their own, will try and take there stuff .... handbags, glasses, anything they can get their hands on. In one section of the tour there is a swing bridge and you cross in groups of four. As long as there is a male in the lead the vervets will leave the group alone but a group of females crossing are considered fair game. I had my own experience with these monkeys in Kruger, I was going to eat my breakfast at the outside table one morning and just as I got to the table a monkey dropped down from the roof.It was approaching me and I was telling it to get awy but it wasn't paying any heed, as I backed into the bungalow with it still coming towards me hubby raised his voice from inside and the monkey immediately left ..... talk about sexist monkeys!
We enjoyed the tour and along with monkeys there was birdlife and big tortoises everywhere eating up the monkeys dropped fruit. The guide was a font of knowledge and we learned quite a few new facts and trivia to stash away for the pub quiz.
Next day we spent around Knysna, we did some shopping, went to the beach and had dinner at the Knysna waterfront. The waterfront is a smaller version of the V & A in Cape Town with cruises, restaurants and shopping. We had a nice evening meal and celebrated my 50th birthday.
ROUTE 62
We decided to take a different route back to Cape Town and left the N2 at George and headed Oudtshoorn. This road took us over a magnificent mountain pass over to the desert of the Klein Karoo on the other side. We decided to do a detour at Oudtshoorn and head to the Cango Caves.
CANGO CAVES
www.cango-caves.co.za
Heading here added a couple of hours to our trip , it was a 60km round trip from Oudtshoorn but we did enjoy the guided tour. We nearly didn't make the tour as they leave every hour and we arrived a few minutes late. Luckily they agreed to escort us into the cave to join the group which was great because I don't think we would have waited an hour for the next one.
It cost 55 rand per person for the tour (nz$10/ us$5) which lasted about an hour. It was easy walking with a well marked path. Once again the guide was full of information about the history of the caves as well as geological information. At one stage the cave was used to stage symphony orchestra concerts as the acoustics were exceptional but this was stopped after the patrons started snapping off stalagmites and stalactites as souvenirs. Considering it takes 100 years for these to grow a centimetre you can imagine the devastation to the cave. The guide then turned the lights out and she sang the stirring ' Nkosi Sikelel ' section of the SA national anthem, absolutely beautiful and it actually sent shivers down my spine.
After wandering around the cave we eventually made it back out into the daylight, had a quick bite to eat at the snack shop and then headed back on the road.
The drive back to Cape Town was through some spectacular desert country. Around Oudtshoorn there were quite a lot of ostrich farms but the further away we went, the more deserted it became. It was a lovely but long drive and we arrived back in Cape Town around 6pm. We headed straight to the airport as we had booked an airport hotel for the night as we had a morning flight.
It had been a long day on the road and very, very hot. We found out the temperature had reached 37 Celcius that day so no wonder we were feeling a bit exhausted and ready for a good nights sleep. We had entertained the idea of going out for a meal on our last night in Cape Town but tiredness won out in the end.
Recommended:
Yes
Best Time to Travel Here: Anytime
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Epinions.com ID:
hollynz
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Member: Christine
Location: New Zealand
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~ In memory of Barbara ~
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