Knysna to Wilderness, SA

Knysna, Plettenberg and Wilderness.

NOTE: There are a lot of photos in this blog entry, so it may take a few minutes to load. Relax. Get a glass of wine.

Before leaving Knysna, we took a drive to the mouth of the bay, known as Eastern Knysna Head. There's a short trail there with magnificent views of the bay and the ocean.

Many South Africans live in shacks on the outskirts of town. In the very foreground are some of those. But they are building upgraded versions of these shown above. The people are deeded the property.  

We stopped at one of a handful of wineries in the Plettenberg area. Bramon Winery had a very dry, but delicious bubbly, two Sauvignon Blancs and a very decent Pinotage.

 

Our B&B, the Whale of a View, offered a beautiful sunrise view from our room. There were only two rooms upstairs. The other room was empty. So we had the entire place to ourselves.

                                        The dining room and bar area.

                                          The deck sitting area.

Although the there are lots of things to do in "Plette", our main tour there was Monkeyland and Birds of Eden, both sanctuaries for those types of animals. Monkeyland is a free-roaming sanctuary that is home to over 500 previously captive primates. We walked around the sanctuary with a guide for over an hour spotting and observing monkeys, while he identified them and lectured us about their habits.

The Bird of Eden sanctuary is a single dome free-flight aviary that has several thousand birds and over 200 species. We spent several hours touring it on our own. With the birds, we got a book that enabled to identify them afterwards. 

                     A Golden Pheasant.

                                 This is a Mandarin duck. Almost looks fake.

                                                      A Scarlet Ibis.

                 A Crowned Crane.

After a long day at the parks, we ended up at Enrico's for dinner. It's an Italian restaurant right on a spectacular rocky beach. 

                We had a delicious fish dinner accompanied by a dry South African dry Rose.

             It tasted better than it looked.

From Plettenberg we drove to the small town of Wilderness, mainly because it was near the George Airport, where we would be leaving from in two days. It's right on the Indian Ocean.

      The view from our room was hypnotic. The sound of the constant surf was like music.

                   Breakfast was served upstairs, with grand views, of course.

 

We drove to Mossel Bay, one of the days we were in Wilderness. Nice beaches and a rugged coastline that has an old lighthouse and a beautiful 13km walk. The town is an old Portuguese whaling stop.

Near the car, the Rock Dassie's were hanging around, looking a handout. These guys were chunky - they're not going hungry.

I spotted this classic looking building in town and couldn't resist taking a snapshot of it. There were several second-hand stores in town with lots of interesting (but to-big-carry-back-home) items for sale.

On the morning of our departure to Durban, we got our last glimpse of a morning sunrise from our room before heading out.

Last view of the surrounding mountains at George Airport, as we board our flight to Durban.

Oudtshoorn to Knysna, SA

The scenery on our drive from Swellendberg to Oudtshoorn went from lush farm land to rugged mountain passes and then on to semi-desert land. But once near Oudtshoorn it became more hospitable again. 

                      Intriguing cloud formations hung in the valleys we drove through.

         Way down below, a river was busily sculpting its way through this mountain range. 

We were told that a must-stop place was "Ronnies Sex Shop". As the story goes, one day, Ronnie needed a few days off from his store called "Ronnies Shop" and asked his friends to watch the shop for him. It was during this time that his rowdy friends got drunk and had a "great" idea of adding the word "Sex" to the shop's name.

Needless to say, people started to stop by to see what the heck a sex shop was doing in the middle of the desert. From then on, it became world renowned. The bar has bunches of bras and panties hanging from its ceiling and the walls are inscribed with people's names.

The result is that the beer and the coffee now cost a lot more than it used to. Damn! But it was a fun visit.

In Oudtshoorn we had our own little cottage at De Opstal. It was a huge, lovely and all white-washed facility with a wonderful, caring staff. For dinner, they recommended the Black Swan because not only were they the best restaurant around, but they offered a shuttle to the restaurant. 

It turned out to be an exceptional meal where we had ostrich steak and pork neck, both really tasty. The ostrich didn't taste like chicken at all. It is a red meat that's cholesterol free and tastes like a good cut of beef. Delicious.

Have you ever seen an ostrich egg? They're huge and they are thick. We wondered how a tiny little chick would peck its way out of such a beefy shell. I spotted this ostrich on the grounds of De Opstal.

The following day we went to the Cango Caves just down the street from our guesthouse. The cave (actually a series of caves) were discovered in the early 1700's. They run over 5km long. The tour only covers around a kilometer. But it was well worth the time and effort.

   The stalagmites and the stalactites that we saw were ancient, some as old a million years. 

   The formations in the caves were very impressive.

After Oudtshoorn, we drove south to Knysna. The Parkes Manor, where we stayed, was right along the bay. Our room had a balcony with an expansive view of the bay. A perfect place to sip wine in the late afternoon.

Breakfast consisted of a feast of fruits, yogurts, cheeses, croissants, breads, dried fruits, nuts, cold cuts and juices. That was the beginning. After a course of that, it was a choice of eggs or omelettes. It was all I could eat until dinner.  

This is the Hadeda bird of South Africa. It's a very noisy bird but only in flight. Otherwise, it's a quiet bird that goes about its work of digging around lawns in search of prawn larvae, that it can pluck out with its long beak. 

On our second day in Knysna we went to the Knysna Elephant Park, a place where they began to rescue young orphaned elephants in the early 1990's. It's now developed into a reasonably impressive elephant rescue operation. 

We took a tour of their facility and got to walk around with elephants and feed them. Guides came along and told us the stories of each of the elephants we encountered. It was pretty special to be able to touch these gentle giants.

In the evening we went to a local fish restaurant that just happened to be serving a beautiful sunset to finish off a great stay in Knysna.

Franschhoek and Swellendam, SA

Franschhoek and Swellendam

Our stay in Stellenbosch was superb and certainly was enhanced by the owner of our B&B, Mathilda. She one of these rare people who makes you feel totally at home and looks after your every need.

Mathilda (above with Diane) was the quintessential hostess. Should you ever find yourself in Stellenbosch, there's nowhere else you should stay, but at the the Batavia Guesthouse

This memorable sign was posted at Uva Mira - I should have known Salvador Dali was into the grape!

These wooden statues of extra tall and lean dressed up Africans appear to be ubiquoteaus and extremely popular. 

                            The grounds of the very old Boschendal Winery in Franschhoek.

We visited an interesting church in Franschhoek of the Dutch Reformed Church - beautiful woodwork and a classic style pipe organ. 

The Protea wines as well as several other label were part of the Anthonij Rupert Winery in Franschhoek. These are recyclable bottles that can be cut and upcycled to be used as glasses or vases. The Protea label is easily pealed off. The Rupert Winery wines were very good.

      

After Franschhoek we drove to Swellendam, where we stayed at a comfortable B&B - the Marula Guesthouse. Run by a German couple, Marion was very helpful in telling us about the surrounding area. We stopped at the Wildebraam Berry Estate, where we sampled liqueurs made of a hybrid berry they had developed and at the nearby Marloth Nature Reserve. The reserve has a waterfall that can be hiked to in an hour's time. But with possible rain impending, we opted not to do it.

The berry farm also had some inquisitive horses on their property who we stopped to greet. 

In the downtown part of Swellendam, we stopped in to see the huge, white Dutch Reformed Church, originally built in 1802. The windows are Gothic, the gables are Baroque, the cupola Eastern and the steeple is supposed to be a copy of a famous steeple in Belgium. Impressive, but we never did get into the church since it was closed on both days we stopped by. 

Some tasting notes: My favorite winery of the areas we visited was Neethlinghof - excellent wines and reasonable prices. My second all around favorite winery was Uva Mira (with Ernie Els running closely behind). But of the whole bunch, there wasn't one I disliked. I went to Asara, Kleine Zalza, Lovane, Jordan, Anthonij Rupert (who had the only Sangiovese), Ernie Els (apparently a South African golfer, had the most spectacular tasting room and dining facility) and Boschendal, one of the oldest in the region.