Knysna time

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Knysna’s Seafood Platters and Shopping

Aaahh ... a nice slow morning today: gradually coming round when the kids piled into bed with us, wonderfully strong showers, brekkie (not as good as Hog Hollow though - we’re hoping we haven’t set the bar too high with that one), a bit of DVD watching and blogging.

When eventually we were ready to go out, we drove into Knysna to find food and have a general bimble about. We left the Verso under the watchful eye of a car guard and walked further into town, the need for food asserting itself a bit more in the form of muttering children. From the Lonely Planet guide we found one of the recommended restaurants - a seafood place called Ocean Basket. The platters we ordered were huge, and it took us a fair while to eat our way through mountains of prawns, calamari, linefish and Kingclip. Yummy. We had been looking for a good seafood meal whilst in SA and we certainly found it!

As intended, the bumbling continued as we walked through the mall and further down Gray Street to the Knysna Quays, which had a collection of wonderfully individual shops (a bit like a mini V&A Watefront of Cape Town) where we bought some gifts (albeit that they were mostly for ourselves!). As the sky was darkening we just beat the weather back to the car and drove back to Lake Pleasant. The relaxation process was resumed with more DVDs and a picnic tea.

Just a little time to put down a few observations here - the Garden Route is obviously named because of its verdant and physical beauty, and a many of the views have really wowed us. The contrast is the human element - everyone that we have encountered has been really, really friendly with service being top notch, but as you drive along you are reminded about past difficulties (and how they affect the present and future) by the townships scattered outside larger towns. It is painfully plain to see that the people living in these sheds and tin shacks still have a very long way to go, no matter how the political climate has changed, and the sight does evoke a wish to contribute in a more substantial fashion than the tourist Rand.

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