Blogs from Knysna, Western Cape, South Africa, Africa - page 2

Today was our longest driving day – 400 km. Last night Chantelle, our local guide, convinced first us and then Duane that we should visit a big-cat breeding program to see leopards, which otherwise were “missing” from our “Big Five” list. Eventually, Duane came round, discovering that this route was 63 km shorter than his planned route. The drive was on secondary highways – patched asphalt and no hard shoulders. This country route allowed Duane to convey how the settler movement encountered this area. In the period of 1820 – 1827, shiploads of English men were brought to settle the area and establish the colony. (Later Irish “Colleens” were brought out to become wives – shows how desperate things were on all sides.) Most of the men quit the bush within a year, but those who ... read more

Well this last week we shared our 12 year anniversary with the 1 year anniversary of the death of Nelson Mandela. The newspapers were full of pictures and statements from senior officials to local people all voicing there positivity of the legacy of the great man. The church bells around the country all rang out and a three minute silence was held in rememberance. I don't think any party leader anywhere around the world has ever been held in such reverence and with such adoration and love than Madiba was and still is in this country. A family rememberance service was held and the sacrifice of a cow was made. We had a lovely little break away to a nice b&b with an award winning restaurant. The position was lovely overlooking the river and there was ... read more

We were told that Knysna is a boring town, but a little bit of window shopping, walking around the beautiful lagoon which changes with the low and high tie and going up to the heads of Knysna made this far from a boring stop. Knysna has multiple meanings, but the one mostly prefered is the forest going into the sea.... read more

Hello to all our readers. The proprietor, editor and chief reporter of this blog ,that's vicki if you had not guessed, has allowed her cub reporter, that's me, access to the techie stuff to provide an update on our travel adventures. We are experiencing somewhat of a hiatus at present in that the weather has taken a bit of a downward turn with grey skies, cool winds and some spectacular thunder storms. There is no such thing as bonfire night here in SA , in fact we have learnt that carrying, or using fireworks here is an arrestable offence, but the night skies have been illuminated by fork and sheet lightning giving us some terrific shows. It was also Halloween but it isn't a major thing over here. Perhaps understandable can you imagine knock knock, hi ... read more

Well another hectic week in paradise. We started the week off with lots of good intentions of doing lots of exercise and on Monday morning complete with a picnic of smashed up egg butties we set off to do a 20km walk in Knysna forest. It was called the elephant trail. Named this because there used to be 400 elephants in the forest but now there are only 3 remaining so our chances of bumping into one would have been very remote indeed! As you can tell we never quite made it and as many of you will know this is because Baz and I have absolutely no sense of direction or as I think happened somebody stole the road marker. Anyway we ended up driving through the mountains for three hours on dirt tracks, hairpin ... read more