And so we left the elephants behind, together with their other animal friends they can enjoy the warm sunbeams longer than us. Our next destination takes us to the ocean once more. And to total different weather with rain and wind… Oh we miss the sunshine already!
In Addo we had some great elephant fun but we couldn’t stay there forever. Our next destination, Knysna, was waiting for our arrival. We drove along one of South Africa’s most famous routes: the garden route. Not the longest, but definitely one of the prettiest ones. Unfortunately it started raining and everything turned grey, except the flowers. They were luckily still shining. We past some huge cliffs along the way and also the highest bungee jump in the world. But no, we did not jump due to budget restriction considerations…W
We did however made a stop at Tenikwa, a wildlife rehabilitation and information centre. It focuses mainly on indigenous wild cats but also many birds species and penguins are given a second chance. They have an information area where you can see the wild cats up close and a secluded rehabilitation centre where visitors are not allowed. Animals here will be released into the wild once they have recovered and so human contact is kept to a bare minimum.
Our guide showed us the different enclosures of the two lions, caracals, servals, leopard and cheetah. He explained the main characteristics of each animal and the dangers they are facing in today’s society. Because we are very sceptic about wildlife centre, we did quite a bit of research before our visit to make sure our money is going to a good cause and not to the exploitation of wild animals.
Once we arrived in Knysna, we checked in at Stannards Guesthouse, our home away from home for a few nights. We were greeted by Patrick and his lovely dog. I was immediately distracted and playing with her while Jens was arranging our stay. For dinner we headed to the waterfront and tried some of the delicious and freshly catched seafood.
After a good night’s rest, Patrick kindly informed us over breakfast about Knysna and what to do around here and made a whole day trip. We followed his guidelines and drove off to our first stop: the beach! Although it was raining, we had a lovely beach walk, spotted some sea birds and picked up some trash. Then we drove from the beach to the mountains, to Jubilee Creek Nature Reserve, were we had our picnic in the car, nice and dry. Luckily, it stopped raining and we could start our 9 km hike in dry weather. The trail took us through some dense forest with an abundance in flora. Name plates and information about the trees are found along the path, so we even learned a thing or two while hiking. Back at the car we decided to drive to the lookout point near the sea but the moment we got there, it started raining – actually rather pouring down - again. We couldn’t see a thing so we drove back to the guesthouse and took a nice warm shower before heading out for dinner. And what a dinner, I had a massive skewer and Jens some nice spicy curry. Happy tummies, once more.
The next morning we filled up on a delicious breakfast and headed to the dessert! On our way to Klein Karroo (“little piece of dry land”) a quick stop at the supermarket was necessary, since we were self catering the next days. With our groceries and culinary ideas, we drove towards our luxury tent at one of the Africamps. Because we’re never afraid to try something new, I made my first ostrich stew! It was delicious. Ask me the recipe(*) if you like to get creative in the kitchen!
Because we can’t just be sitting around chilling and relaxing, we booked a mountain bike trip on the Swartberg pass. Little note on the side: a downhill mountain bike trip. Those mountains are huge so you might prefer to go down. We did a little part going up and it wasn’t easy. Our guide, Roeland, (who was following us by car) was waiting at the top with coffee and cake. What a hero! After regaining some of our spent energy we biked our way down the pass, passing some gorgeous rock formations. They were created by earth plates sliding over each other and tilting each other up and bending backwards. You can see the different layers and where they tilted on numerous occasions but you have to keep an eye out while going down.
After two nights of glamping we went off to do exactly the same. Only on a different location: Stanford Hills. Located not far from the cozy little town of Hermanus, where we did this amazing boat trip with the most obnoxious people ever. Credits for the amazing part of the trip go out to the southern right whales we saw. We spotted quite a few and were then accompanied by a mother and her calf. It was just amazing to see these gentle giants breaching and tail flapping in the water. If you are wondering about the obnoxious part: tourists from not further mentioned countries that have totally no manners nor respect for others nor the ocean (for example dropping plastic bottles in the ocean, oh clumsy them). But hey, we saw whales and it was fantastic!
Because we were glamping for four nights, it was time for some change. We are heading into the winelands with all the vineyards and wine estates to do some serious tasting!
(*)note: there isn’t actually a real recipe that I followed, I just did what I thought would work and it did so I can tell you that.
Hello!
Ploef.
Bye bye!
