Knysna

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Our next stop was Knysna, where we stayed for three nights at a backpackers called Island Vibe. The town is set on a lagoon, and the dominating landscape feature is the Knysna Heads - two giant cliff faces dividing the lagoon from the ocean. Our first adventure was canoeing down the Knysna River. Tracie and I shared a canoe, while everyone else rode in individual kayaks. For most of the way the water was really shallow, and there were several parts where we had to get out and carry or push the canoes because the current was so strong. We had a few mishaps (I was run over by my canoe, Jess flipped over while attempting unnecessary rapids as our guide just laughed at her, and Kerry’s kayak sunk in the only deep part of the river and was completely submerged for about 15 minutes with her camera and phone inside it) but it was a lot of fun.

The next day, we decided to go on a guided hike at the Featherbed Nature Reserve, located at one of the Heads. Someone at Island Vibe called to set up the hike for us, and she asked us if we minded going with high schoolers; a group of 16-18 year olds had also booked for the time we wanted. We didn’t mind, so we set off for the docks where the ferry was picking us up to go across the lagoon to the reserve. When we got there, we were a little confused because we were surrounded by senior citizens, not high school students. I’m pretty sure the woman on the phone told Island Vibe it was 60-80 year olds, not 16-18 haha. Needless to say, the hike was less strenuous than expected. We actually rode up the Head on a truck, and then walked back down to the bottom. But it was a gorgeous day and we had a great view of the town from the top, and on the way down we got to go through some cool little caves.

We got to do a bit of hiking elsewhere in Knysna as well, and we spent a morning in the Knysna Forest. At the start of one of the trails we did we got to see a giant yellowwood, which are often just known as “big trees.” There were some cool spiders and mushrooms in the forest, but I didn’t see any animals. We also got to visit some old mines, but unfortunately didn’t have much time to do the hike in that area.

The highlight of my time to Knysna was probably the trip to Knysna Elephant Park, where Dave and I got to ride an elephant. We rode together, and were pretty stoked to get Harry - the biggest one. He was one of the first elephants introduced to the park, along with his wife Sally haha. We had a guide on the elephant with us, Arnold, and he was really cool and spewed out interesting facts the entire time. The pace was slow for the majority of the ride, but towards the end Harry for some reason wanted to pass the elephant in front of us so we picked up speed. Arnold tried to slow him down but the elephant wasn’t having it haha. It was more exciting than scary though - I much preferred it to riding a fast horse. You don’t really feel like you could fall off an elephant because they’re so freaking big.

On my last night in town I got to meet up with my friend Lynn from Milner who lives in Knysna. We went down to a little restaurant at the waterfront, had milkshakes, and just chatted for awhile.


Knysna Pictures

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Comments

[Renee]

"cool spiders" !!!?!?!