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Wilderness
Miranda in the wildernessAfter the pleasant temperatures of Oudtshoorn and the Karoo, winter has set in on the Garden Route. Gardens need water and this one has had plenty in the last few days. Wilderness was effectively a long stretch of unspoiled beach, flanked by multi million rand homes overlooking the ocean. The place was deserted and at one point the population of the hostel totalled 4, including ourselves and Scooter the Jack Russell. Dolphins cruised up and down the beach and our whale sightings are increasing steadily.
Knysna, apparently voted SA's fave town, was to be frank a major disappointment and was a wake up call to the world of security (if one was needed). The local cat burgalars had paid a visit to the hostel in the dead of night, outflanked some mean looking spikes and barred windows, before making off with two stereo systems and a TV. (plus two bottles of our Savannah cider from the fridge). The town was situated on a lagoon, had a nice marina ad waterfront area, but seemed a victim of it's own marketing machine.
It was off to Plettenberg Bay - Plett as it is referred to - Joburg by the Sea in
December and January by all accounts. In May, it could run under the title Plett is Wet and as we are the only occupants of the hostel, accomodation pressures are not evident. We are now in Jeffreys Bay - or J Bay!! South Africans seem to have a passion for abbreviating just about everything. J Bay is Surf Town SA, home of the allegedly famous supertubes waves and a Billabong World Championship round. If Plett was your bucket and spade holdiday, this is Skeg for surfers. Factory shops abound - Billabong, Quiksilver etc. - and scanning the ocean for the perfect wave already clad in your wetsuit from the safety of your VW seems to be a popular pastime. We too can scan the ocean from the safety of our balcony in our beachfront residence, which is surrounded by an electric fence that Ken would only have dreamed about putting up in front of the Shed.
After 3 weeks of seemingly busy activities, the last few days have been filled with long walks on deserted beaches in between what South Africans refer to as cloudbursts. We are slowly coming to terms with a whole new vocabulary and the requirements
of life here - traffic lights as robots, flipflops as slops, boardshorts as baggies, never remembering to take our carrier bags to the supermarket and having to pay 0.2 of a rand for another one everytime and the safety first policy of being back behind your electric fence before dark!!
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alex waring
Alexander Waring
Garden Route
I also visited Knysna, Wilderness and J Bay - I guess that's what you do when you do the Garden Route, lol! The security situation hasn't changed much, and I also aimed to ensure I was behind an electric fence by the time darkness fell. How unnerving to have had a break in in your hostel... Great photos - windswept and rugged!