Close to the Mossel Bay end of the Scenic Garden Route which starts at Cape town lies a quaint quiet little town of Knysna. A city with a slow rhythm lies surrounded by the Indian Ocean and its many estuaries with plentiful beaches and ocean fronts — -each more beautiful than the other.
If you can imagine clear blue skies, fluffy clouds (not always tho’) the ocean in its myriad shades of blue as the waves froth up white plumes constantly chasing each other up to the golden-brown stretches of clean sand. — we were blessed to have clear sunny days.
As a bonus one might see cavorting dolphins, or a whale or shark (all are natural visitors to these waters) we were lucky enough to see a whale or a shark in the far-off ocean while it dipped in and out for a few times while we were having lunch at the LookOut Deck at Plettenberg Bay. The cocktails were yummy as was the food, the ambiance fantastic but the service was slow — we were served the wrong dishes twice !! which we of course returned.
Each time the waves came up, many small spiral shaped shells are left on the beach- we have all seen these small conical shells- was the first time I saw the tiny organisms living inside them — either burrowing in the sand or scampering back to the safety of the sea.
Knysna was the white population area and till today the only coloured people we saw where the parking attendants, domestic helpers, restaurant serving staff, and other service people. There are dedicated buses and vans which bring in these people to the cities in the morning and take them back to their residential area in the evening.
The town is alive from 8:00 am till 5:30 pm. Shops close down shutters at 5:00 while it is still daylight hrs. Knysna hunkers down for the night and does not venture out after night fall. Restaurants see the dinner crowd from 6:00 pm till latest 9:30 pm at best.
The town is nevertheless very efficient. There was a serious road accident once — while we were returning home- head on collision of two vehicles (we saw the crumbled cars) within minutes two police cars, an ambulance and disaster vehicle came to the scene. The traffic halted for not more than 10 minutes. And within 20 minutes a chopper was seen to be reaching the accident site.
One night we saw the moon surrounded by a Halo
thought to be a good or a bad omen — depending on viewpoints, but in actually caused when the moonlight passes through thin clouds of ice crystals in the earth’s atmosphere (thankyou Google)
South African wines are famous and fine and how could we not visit a vineyard (so many to choose from) we chose the closest — not being wine aficionado and also it not being grape season.
We chose the Bramon Vineyard on the Garden Route. had a wine tasting of three whites and sumptuous snacks.
Knysna Elephant Reserve– a sanctuary for rescued elephants. At the time of our visit there were 5 elephants — we fed them, took pictures with them, learnt about them, walked a while with them –ok if you enjoy elephants or have young children but felt it was slightly overpriced for the brief limited experience.
Piza E Vino a nice place to have wood fired pizzas — at the Heads. Two mountains facing each other with a narrow strip of water between them and the vast ocean behind them
34 Degrees South of the waterfront — amazing oysters and sea food platters (if you like seafood)
Butterfly Blu at Brenton On sea- delicious food, sea food platter as well as mutton chops and ultra tempting desserts. Amazing view of the Ocean
We visited South Africa, Cape Town, Johannesburg and the Kruger National Park — a separate write up for each