South Africa - The Garden Route

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South Africa - The Garden Route (And A Bit More)

A lot of tours to South Africa just visit Cape Town and the Garden Route. You could easily spend a couple of weeks along the Garden Route- we have just a couple of days.

Tsitsikamma

Our starting point is Tsitsikamma National Park on the Indian Ocean.
We spend a couple of days camping at the campsite here within the park. This campsite has been voted South Africa’s top campsite for several years. It’s easy to understand why, with beautiful forested surroundings, good facilities and our tents pitched next to the Indian Ocean. The downside of it being voted the top campsite and it being a Bank Holiday weekend in South Africa is that the campsite is really busy. Fortunately {or unfortunately for the other campers} some of the Cape Town wind seems to have made it as far as Tsitsikamma and several campers have already been driven (or rather blown) away and we have more space than we expected.

I spend my time here relaxing and walking same of the tracks through the beautiful woodland areas. Considering how full the campsite is there seems to be very few people walking in the woods. On a morning walk I only meet two people and a baboon. I think that most people must be staying by their tents or are on the beach.
I’m also told by Justin and Anneka that they often see a large school of dolphins swim past here in the afternoons. Seems like a good enough reason for me to spend an afternoon sat with a couple of cans of beer, sitting in the sun {and wind} looking out to sea on the off-chance that they swim past!

Along the Garden Route

We spend a day driving along the Garden Route (and a bit further) briefly stopping at one or two places along the way.
First stop is Knysna, described by some newspapers as “a party town for South Africa's rich and famous and its swish bars, clubs, restaurants and beach life” when England were thinking of using it as their World Cup base. It’s probably OK for the rich and famous but there’s nothing really to keep us here. The harbour area seems like many other redevelopments; we sit and drink a coffee and move on.
Wilderness seems a bit more interesting. We stop here briefly to photograph the view and the famous {Famous?? Quite well known} Kaaimans River Bridge.
From here we continue past Mossel Bay and onto Hermanus. I don’t know if there’s an “official” start and end to the Garden Route, but I think by most definitions we’ve gone well past the end of the Garden Route by the time we arrive at Hermanus. We’re almost back in Cape Town.

Hermanus - Not Having A Whale Of A Time

By the time we get to Hermanus we’re almost back in Cape Town. Indeed, Hermanus seems to be a place where a lot of people from Cape Town have second homes and come away for the weekend. The part we are staying in reminds me strangely of small British seaside towns - the really small ones, the ones that are barely big enough to have an amusement arcade. This is probably reinforced by the smell of stagnant water and the amount of litter as we take the “wrong” path in walking down to the beach. On the beach I immediately feel out of place as I’m the only person not walking a dog {perhaps I should have said second homes and retirement homes earlier}.

The other curious thing I notice about Hermanus is that I’m sure this is the first town in Southern Africa I’ve been to where very few of the houses have bars on the windows. This is particularly strange since so many of the houses are obviously empty and only used by Capetonians at weekends.

Hermanus is also famous as one of the best land-based locations for watching whales. The Southern Right Whale comes here in great numbers but, unfortunately, not at this time of year. The period between May and December is the best time to spot the whales - maybe that’s another reason why so many of the houses seem empty.

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Photos

Tsitsikamma
Camped out by the Indian Ocean

Tsitsikamma
The beach at Storms River

Tsitsikamma
Suspension bridges at Storms River mouth

Tsitsikamma
Walking the pathways through the park

Tsitsikamma
Sunset

Knysna
Waterfront properties

Comments

[Andy]

hi i really liked your photos and those places are really cool!!!!!

[WhereIsSteve]

Thanks, Andy!