Our first stop was to see elephants at the Knysna Elephant Park. It was a bit more expensive than we had expected. And yes, we did go through
that moment of uncertainty, 'Do we want to do this ‘captive animal’ visit'? But,
these were not captive elephants. They were roaming around freely in the open green
fields behind the building that housed their reception and the shed. The park
leaves the shed open, with a lot of warm hay on the floor so that the elephants
can walk in whenever they want, and sleep there. They even have an option of
renting a room on the first floor, for the night, and you can sit out and have a cup of tea and
watch the elephants resting in the shed.
From the shed, they took us into the park which was
essentially the side of a beautiful green hill, in a safari van. We went to a
spot where visitors were feeding some fresh fruits and vegetables to a small
herd of elephants. It was lovely to see them getting excited seeing the colorful
snack buckets knowing they are going to be fed. We were asked to stick to one
ranger who would help us stay with one elephant and take pictures. These were
rescued animals and we saw that the park really took good care of them.
From here, we drove down to Plettenberg for our 3 day stay atBeacon Island Resort on the beach. We rested the whole day and
stepped out for dinner and drove up the hill. Since it was the weekend, The Table Restaurant & Bar place
was packed and service slow, but the food was outstanding. Their chocolate banana spring roll was really good.
The next morning we left to do some horse riding with Hog Hollow Horse Trails around the hills that stretched out till the sea. It was a breathtaking view, layers of green in different shades, and cattle, ducks, steenboks grazing. The morning was spent well.
We then drove to Monkeyland, a place where rescued monkeys
are allowed to roam freely within a large area. They are not fenced in, but
monkeys stay within the area since there is constant supply of food. There were
many that were rescued from pet owners and kept in cages so that they can learn
to survive in the presence of other monkeys. Over time, they get familiar with
the others and are allowed to slowly step out and mingle. The kids loved to see and learn about the different monkeys, and enjoyed the walk on the small suspension bridge.
We wanted an easy afternoon, so we headed back to the hotel and enjoyed the view of the ocean from the window, and also caught a rainbow in the distance. It was beautiful.
The next morning after another round of sea-sickness medication and some biscuits in our tummies, we went out on our speed boat ride with Ocean Blue to see some humpback whales. It was an amazing ride, and we saw about 4 whales, unfortunately we did not get to see them breaching, but they came up to breathe a few times. We did not get to click any pictures of these, thanks to their quick intake of breath, and the bobbing boat..... but I think the memory is quite strongly etched. (Click on Ocean Blue link for some good pictures of the whales). We ended the ride by sighting hordes of seals, which the kids were very happy about.
We drove out for an hour and reached the most 'dramatic' coastline at the Garden Route's Tsitsikama National Park. We checked into Storms River Mouth Restcamp, and our camping lodge facing the ocean, was right at the spot where the waves broke on a rock, and they went up to almost 6 metres. It was spectacular, just sitting there and watching them come so close and suddenly go up that high. We did a 2 hour hike on the mountainside and over the Suspension bridge that is built over the mouth of the river (the spot that joins the sea), and got back in time to have a light dinner and go to bed.
It was really cold, but a glass of some lovely South African wine, a warm bed, and the most calming sound of the ocean, helped us drift off to sleep. Something we badly needed after a long but lovely day.....
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