ROAD TRIP ACROSS SOUTH AFRICA (3): Plettenberg Bay

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From Addo Elephant National Park we travelled to Plettenberg Bay (Plett). It’s a much shorter stretch than any of the other road journeys so we stopped at a few places along the way. We stopped at the Bloukrans Bridge. The bridge is the highest bridge in Africa and the Southern hemisphere (height 216m). It is also the highest commercial bungee jump in the world! Only one of us was brave enough to do it -and hell no, it wasn’t me.

Our next stop was Natures Valley at the mouth of the Groot River. It is beautiful! I was disappointed that we didn’t see more of Tsitsikamma forest though. I still want to go there.

We spent the next three nights at a backpackers just outside Plettenberg Bay. The backpackers is called Starling Village backpackers. The owners of Starling are very friendly. They even have a facebook group which they use to keep in contact with previous guests and put up pictures of their guests.
On the first night we went to Moby Dick’s my favourite restaurant in Plett. It is right on the beach so it has a great view and the seafood there is really good. I wasn’t expecting a view at night but that night a full moon was rising over the sea which was awesome to watch. We went clubbing after that which is why we got a lift from the owner of Starling. He owns gives guests lifts in his bakkie (pick up truck) and if he has to transport a large group of people he puts a couch in the back so travelling to Moby’s was a lot of fun.

The next day we went to the beach (Beacon Isle) and had a really good swim and that evening we found a cool place at Starling to watch the sunset. For supper we had our first braai (South African barbeque) of the trip then hung around Starling (they have a bar and games area).

We went to Knysna the next day and stopped at Eden along the way. Eden is a walk through some indigenous Knysna forest. Many of the trees in the forest are hundreds of years old. I even saw a Knysna Lourie a beautiful bird which is considered the symbol of Knysna.
In Knysna we went to look at the spectacular view from the Eastern Head then went to the waterfront for lunch. We had some Knysna oysters. The oysters are farmed in the Knysna lagoon. They even have an annual Oyster Festival.
After lunch we went to Leisure Isle (an island in the middle of the lagoon) had a swim.

The next day we continued our journey to Cape Town…

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Photos

Starling Village Backpackers
Starling Village Backpackers outside Plettenberg Bay

View of Plett and the distant mountains from the backpackers
View of Plett and the distant mountains from the backpackers

The beach (Beacon Isle)
The beach (Beacon Isle)

Natures Valley, river mouth
Natures Valley, near the river's mouth