Our Great African Adventure - Garden Route Section days 10 to 15

Here's a montage of a few of the animals we saw at Botlieskop

The Garden Route: day 11

This is Pauline: And today was my birthday and not one I am likely to forget. Away before 8am (due to the lovely lady bringing breakfast early) and a pretty drive to Botlierskop a private game reserve for a game drive. We weren’t sure what was happening as we were stopped by the police leaving town, but with a lovely smile we were waved on after checks on the car and B’s driving license! We arrived early and were greeted with coffee and scones before setting up my binoculars (thank you Helen and Ian). We then set off on our drive, not sure what to expect, but during which we saw lions, impala, waterbuck, springbok, kudu, wildebeest,

Our guide in Botlieskop at one of his explanation stops

buffalo, rhino, zebra, elephant, ostrich and just when I had given up hope, giraffe (I have one in the back garden!). No doubt B has plenty of pictures. The drive alone was worth the money. It was quite exciting, we thought we might get stuck, or go over an edge on more than one occasion! Then they had booked a table for lunch, so we arrived at our next accommodation well content.

We pitched up at a quirky B&B high above the town of Wilderness with a good view of the sea. Landlords are a wonderful couple for whom nothing is too much trouble.

Our fabulous hosts Tom and Magda at Tops B&B in Wilderness

J and B brought in a picnic tea and we ended the day very happy.

The Garden Route: day 12

This is Jackie: Breakfast this morning was a crazy affair, if we thought our host was mad, our hostess was more so! Second down was our German neighbour, one of those that was throwing himself off the Map of Africa yesterday with a paragliding wing. 

Then the birds, including the rare Knysna touraco, that Peter on the Exodus trip had been desperate to see, all came in for some fruit.... 

Brian here: The Knysna touraco is a fabulous looking bird and we assumed it would have a similarly beautiful birdsong, but it proved not to be. Here's a youtube video of its call:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hP-HYHdxcak

Eventually we tore ourselves away and set off on our hike, up to a waterfall. Depending on what you read/who you listened to it was 6km round trip or 8km round trip and 3 hours or 4 hours!

Here's a montage of our waterfall walk. Just over half was on a boardwalk constructed through indigenous forest alongside the river. The views were fabulous, the birdlife in abundance, the pontoon crossing quite an experience and the waterfall at the end well worth the walk

It was a lovely walk, actually 9.19 km and took us 4 hours 13 minutes! Burned off some of the cooked breakfast anyway. It was really part of the Garden Route, through indigenous forest, the river crossing was on a pontoon, which turned out to be a little ferry we pulled ourselves over on and we watched the touracos flying overhead.

Here's our walk to the waterfall

We’d already decided on an early dinner, and not to bother with lunch so we went to Salinas, a

Some of the fabulous birds at Tops B&B, Wilderness

restaurant Brian had found before he even found our B&B. We shared a kilo of big prawns and a bottle of white wine while mum had fish and chips. Ours was a daytime only offer and for £14 couldn’t be beaten. I may have drunk more than my share of the wine, but I wasn’t driving..... All in all a fabulous day.

The Garden Route: day 13

We left The Tops in Wilderness, very sad, they were such a lovely couple it was a pleasure to be there. Strange how things happen but our next accommodation was the most impersonal, and hotel like, we’ve stayed in. They are still very friendly people and location wise it can’t be beaten. It’s called Plett Beachfront accommodation for a reason!

A montage of the views at The Heads, Knysna

We drove here through Knysna stopping at the harbour and at the heads to look at the view over the entrance to what the navy called one of the worlds most dangerous harbours. Location: 34°04'38.1"S 23°03'43.1"E

We strolled along the beach before being beaten in by the sun, venturing out to look at the market and have dinner in the angling club beach bar we watched the lifeguards practising while hatching a plan.

The Garden Route: day 14

The plan involved getting out of bed early and behaving like children in the waves before breakfast. We had a great time, being

Some of the rescued animals at Jukani Big Cat Sanctuary

knocked off our feet, getting sand everywhere (how do I remove it from between the outer and lining of my bikini?) and watching the fish in the breakers as they crashed over us. We then walked barefoot back to the hotel and dripped straight to our rooms, that’s how close we are.

Tourist attractions called then, Jukani big cat sanctuary and Birds of Eden walk through aviary. Although obviously I loved seeing the big cats, most of whom have been rescued from zoos etc all over the world it was jolly hot. 

Of all the animals to be playing hard to get, the only one we didn’t see was the leopard! It’s just not meant to be! Obviously we wouldn’t have counted it as our last big five spot, but it would still have been good to see one!

Some of the birds at the Birds of Eden

The aviary was fabulous, we have no idea how far we walked, the walkways just intertwined, through trees and by water, so it was cool. 

The birds were amazing, I didn’t know there was a red ibis, and there were touracos aplenty. Apart from being rare they are beautiful and have a cheekiness about them. Not as cheeky as the parrots obviously, one of which decided Brian’s shoe looked tasty while another wanted a little something from all of us!

I was most surprised to find a little cat curled up and on the flowerbed by the path as we returned to the car. What sort of cat tortures herself sleeping beside, but not able to

Little parrots like to get their beaks into anything and everything!

enter, such a huge aviary? She was very cute though.

The Garden Route: day 15

No playing in the waves today, quick breakfast before a kayaking trip from the beach. Chantel had recommended Dolphin Adventures without knowing that mum used to have a canoe and that we had all had a go in New Zealand, so it seemed like a must. We’d been promised mum in a kayak with the guide, but at the last moment PJ joined us, a mother from Cape Town is all we really know, she and a bunch of girlfriends have got their kids in school and have come away for a long weekend. Although she’s not done much sea kayaking she’s

And they don't mind who it is

done a lot on inland waterways and was happy to go with mum, calling her a “game old girl” while B&I went together leaving the guide in a single on his own in case we needed help.

We had a lovely couple of hours, though sadly we didn’t see dolphins, and we’d seen so many from the shore last night. Right at the last though I saw something fully leap out of the water. It did it again for Brian to see, and that was it, not normal dolphin behaviour, that’s because it was a shark! Quite a big one, though not a great white fortunately he still didn’t tell us till we got out of the water! We

This one was showing no preference

were thrilled to see it, but have no pictures to prove it.

A gentle potter for sunglasses, B lost a screw early in January, but has now cracked the frame so keeps losing a lens. Mission accomplished so chilling and blogging now!

We were all treated equally. Some of his bites were quite sharp though

Look at this purple crested touraco

After failing to post the Meerkats video on the last post I've finally found wifi good enough to do it here