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Published: July 24th 2008
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July 19, 20, 2008
Garden Route, South Africa
“ The Garden Route “ is a favorite travel route in South Africa that basically follows the coast starting east of Cape Town at Mussel Bay and ending at Tsitsikamma National Park east of Plettenberg Bay. This is a beautiful part of the country and there are great camping, hotel and lodge facilities along the route. The countryside is mostly coastal with mountains to the north.
This day started with ride out into the bay on a great boat to maybe see Southern Right Whales, Humpback Whales and Dolphins that inhabit these waters this time of year. We were not disappointed. What a great day. We saw everything we were coming to see !! Our 1½ hours on the water included some very good viewing of the huge Right Whales, some very close encounters ( 5 - 6 meters from our boat ) with Humpback Whales and some great fun following some amazing Dolphins. These waters are an important breeding ground for these animals due to the very rich supply of food.
Many on the boat had been out before and had never had this kind of luck. The
morning was perfect with calm waters, lots of sun and lots of very cooperative animals, and some great photo ops.
Plettenberg Bay is a very important tourist, beach, area and home to some very large “Summer Homes” and cottages for the rich and famous of South Africa ( and others from around the world ). At this time of year it is quiet but we are told it is a very busy place in the summer. This is a very nice area and we would come back here someday to spend some more time.
We continued our day with a drive eastward along the coast to a national park, Tsitsikamma, and nature preserve that includes some land and sea area. This is a very nice park and we enjoyed a walk in the forest and coast and had lunch at the park. Some great seascapes here.
This afternoon we continued our trip back westward to “Monkey Land.” This is a sort of natural park that has many kinds of monkeys from various places around the world in a fairly natural setting. A little bit too “organized” but interesting just the same.
We returned back to the
hotel for some relaxing on our patio overlooking a very peaceful valley wetlands and stream on a beautiful late afternoon and evening, with a good glass of S.A wine. “L G”
On Sunday we continued west and back to Cape Town through some more very nice country and some coastal road with great views of the Indian Ocean. We stopped at a small museum for a short break and continued towards Cape Town. The museum has a lot of information about Bartholomew Diaz, a Portuguese sailor who is credited with “discovering” this coast on a failed trip to find a sea route to India. They have a replica of the ship they used on display. The replica was built in Europe and sailed by 17 sailors to South Africa in the 1980’s.
About 2 hours from Cape Town you pass the southern most point in Africa and this is officially where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Indian Ocean.
Nearly all of the bays all the way to Cape Town have some spectacular seascapes and some beautiful beaches. Whale viewing this time of year is a common in all the waters.
As we got closer to Cape Town there
are some resort areas that are the summer and weekend home to people wanting to get away from the city. The beaches and rocky coast are beautiful. This was a long day ( about 6 - 7 hours ) in the car and in hindsight we should have broken this long day in to 2 days as there are some very nice places to stay along the way.
All in all a very nice trip and we would recommend the “Garden Route” to anyone coming to the Western Cape area.
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