After our 3 nights stay in the AfriCamps Tents we went further up the coast, but only about 50km to be exact. As said before, we did not really plan that whole thing ahead, we just started the road trip and booked new accommodations whenever we had time. I don´t recommend this as I would do many things different afterwards.
Unfortunately, at least in our opinion, Knysna did not offer that much to explore. In general I was expecting way more from that whole Garden Route Nationalpark but i think that's because i'm very spoiled by australian national parks, which for me are still the most beautiful.
Don´t get me wrong, its still absolutely beautiful there I just had way higher expectations. But that one morning we´ve spent on the Sedgefield Lagoon Mouth was amazing. Crystal Clear water and beautiful sand, just a little bit to cold but still good enough for a refreshing dip.
Since the Knysna Section of the Garden Route does not offer that many Hiking trails, we spontaneously decided to do some animal stuff again. As I said many times, I do not like to pay for animal encounters and I still stand to it.
But the urge to be as close as possible to an elephant and to be able to touch it was greater, which I regret a little afterwards. Anyway, on the second day we decided to drive towards Plettenberg to the Knysna Elephant Park where we had booked the Meet our Herd experience. For around 27 Euro per Person you´re able to feed the Elephants as well as getting really close to them and touch them.
It was important for us that there is no elephant riding offered as this is something we really don´t support. The animals there get treated very good and some of them will get released into the wild again one day.
The number of participants is very limited and after feeding, the 4 elephants are assigned to small groups of a maximum of 4 people. Now everyone can get very close to the giants, pet them and take pictures with them. I was a bit nervous because I'm not that close to a 4 ton animal every day. But that old beautiful lady was very relaxed and it was an absolutely amazing experience.
One thing I did not expect and that really surprised me was the difference of temperature if you touch them under their big ears. Its easily 5 degree warmer and the skin is much softer than the rest.
As said, I´m not proud of that and would I have known how many wild elephants we´re about to see in the coming days I would have not done it. Anyway I guess its still better than a european Zoo.
After meeting these giants we went to a beach called Knoetzie Beach. The special thing about this beach is the castle-like building, which doesn't fit into the image of an ordinary beach at all. The buildings are all private and some of them are accommodations but when we were there it all looked a little bit abandoned.
The beach itself was pretty cool and due to the fog it had a little mysterious touch. I would not recommend to swim there was the ocean is pretty rough and I spotted some strong rips. Furthermore it looked a bit sharky and we also found a huge bone on the beach and later found out that it is from a whale.
The only downside of that beach was the way down and especially up again as we had to take many many stairs to get there. That was nothing compared to what awaited us the next day in the Tsitsikamma National Park. not only a breathtaking but also a very strenuous hike awaited us there.
After dinner we enjoyed the amazing sunset over the little harbour of Knysna before we headed further up the coast on the next morning into the Tsitsikamma National Park.
YOU WILL FIND THAT POST ON PINMAPPLE AS WELL
[//]:# (!pinmapple -34.040203 lat 23.048761 long Garden Route - Knysna Section d3scr)
Stunning @betterthanhome
To bad it wasn't as imagined... but you still enjoy it all and done it.
The scenery is lovely and meeting those giants.
From every experience we learn.
Enjoy!
thank you :)
it was still an amazing trip and made me want to see more of south africa. definitely not done with this country ;)
You are welcome @betterthanhome 😎
That’s good to hear.
Have a great day 👋🏻☀️
It must have been very nice to take a seat on that structure on the right of the photo.
I don´t know, I did not sit down there :). Bu true, it looks very nice
The place is so beautiful. And the animals were interesting.
Yes, true, very beautiful places.
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Good on your for exploring, but you missed all the amazing hikes between Sedgefield and Knysna! I did the 5 day Outeniqua hike last year which starts closer to Sedgefield and takes you through the Outeniqua Mountains parallel to Knysna and ends at Harkerville. I think the Elephant park is near there.
There’s also a very beautiful hike called the Half Collared Kingfisher hike from the Wilderness which follows a river. You canoe half way up the river then leave the canoes and hike the rest of the way on a beautiful path to the pools and waterfalls. Beautiful for swimming in hot days.
If you’re in SA again please give me a shout and I’ll take you hiking. We just finished a 5-day Karoo hike that I will be blogging over the next couple weeks.
I know, I think I mentioned this on a previous post that most walks are several day hikes. We´re both not really good hikers with no real hiking boots, plus my girlfriend has knee problems thats why we always stick to the shorter walks.
We started the Half Collared Kingfisher hike and almost made it to the top but had to give up cause I was feeling shit that day. :)
Oh that’s great (not that you felt bad, but that you got there). South Africa has a different kind of wild beauty to other places. More rugged and rough. Oh there’s also an awesome coastal cliff hike on the Harkerville coast. I’m still waiting to do that one but I think it’s pretty rough.
So beautiful!
Love these elephants...
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Thank you so much for the tip. If you love these you will love one of my next posts even more. Still getting goose bumps when thinking of it. :)
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I do as good as possible. But now sick in bed :(