Coastal Route

The Garden Route - the Coastal Route

The Western Cape coastal terrace running from Storms River and the Tsitsikamma area in the east to Mossel Bay, and inland Heidelberg in the west, is known as the Garden Route. It is an enchanting shoreline of lovely bays, high cliffs and wide estuaries (called the Coastal Route) with a hinterland of mountains, spectacular passes, rivers, waterfalls and wooded ravines, while the lagoons and lakes around Knysna and Wilderness are magical. Here you’ll find good hotels and eating places; pleasant villages, resorts and marinas; and a warm ocean that beckons bather, yachtsman and angler. Further inland is Oudtshoorn and the Little Karoo, a region that has its own special fascination.

Coastal Route

MOSSEL BAY
Since the discovery and exploitation of offshore oil deposits, Mossel Bay has grown considerably. Steeped in history, it is a popular holiday destination. In long bygone times the area was home to the Khoikhoi people, labelled ‘Strandlopers’ (beach walkers), by early Dutch seafarers and settlers; their staple diet of mussels gave the bay its name. It was also known to Portuguese who preceeded the Dutch in their exploration of the southern African coast. Admiral João da Nova built a small stone chapel on the shores (nothing remains of this); Bartolomeu Dias, Vasco da Gama and others filled their ships’ casks from the perennial spring and ‘posted’ letters and documents in the trunk of a large milkwood tree (which is known as The Post Office Tree today) for collection by the next passing fleet. Something of this rather intriguing past can be seen in the town’s Bartolomeu Dias Museum. Also of interest is Seal Island, home to around 2000 of these marine mammals (cruises start from the harbour), and The Point, from which you have a spectacular seascape view (whales and dolphins can sometimes be seen).

GEORGE
George is the aerial gateway to the region. Fishing, bathing and sun worshipping are all good at Herolds Bay and at secluded Victoria Bay. Residents at the Fancourt Hotel can play golf at the exclusive Fancourt Country Club estate's 27-hole golf course, designed by veteran golfer Gary Player and home to the million Dollar golf challenge.

WILDERNESS LAKES AREA
Wilderness is an enchanting little seaside resort to the west of Knysna, set around a lagoon which is the first in a chain of ‘lakes’ that lie between the two towns. The wider Wilderness area, administered by the National Parks of South Africa, embraces five rivers, 28km (17 miles) of coastline and six large bodies of water: the Wilderness Lagoon, the Serpentine, Island Lake, Langvlei, Rondevlei and Swartvlei. The many aquatic plants, as well as the sedge and reed beds provide food and shelter for fish and for about 200 species of bird, including 80 different species of waterfowl. The Wilderness area is very popular among holidaymakers; Swartvlei and Island Lake are favoured by water sportsmen, and the whole region by ramblers, hikers, bird-watchers and anglers. Rondevlei and Langvlei – where you can see fish eagles, ospreys, herons and kingfishers – both have bird hides.

KNYSNA
Knysna, also a popular resort centre, is celebrated for its fresh oysters and fine hardwood furniture. The biggest drawcards are the Knysna Lagoon guarded by two cliffs known as The Heads and the new Waterfront complex. The lagoon, popular among boating enthusiasts, water-skiers and fishermen, harbours a variety of fish and waterbirds, crabs, prawns, ‘pansy shells’ and the very rare sea horse (Hippocampus capensis). Cabin cruisers and houseboats can be hired; the John Benn, a 20-ton pleasure boat, offers sightseeing, live entertainment, wining and dining); booking essential. The eastern Head has a fine view of Knysna, its lagoon and Leisure Island (an attractive residential complex); on the western Head is the Featherbed Nature Reserve. There are guided excursions along Bushbuck Walk. Knysna Forest, together with the Tsitsikamma Forest woodlands to the east, form South Africa’s largest expanse of indigenous high forest: a 36,400ha (89,940 acres) home to giant yellowwood, stinkwood and other indigenous trees. The Diepwalle Forest Station, off the R339, is the starting point for the Elephant Walk, some 20km (12 miles) in total (there are shorter routes) through this impressive forest.

PLETTENBERG BAY
‘Plett’, as it is known colloquially by South Africans, is one of the country’s most fashionable holiday resorts. The town’s amenities include country inns, holiday cottages, restaurants, shops, boutiques and bars, and Beacon Island, which supports a large and sophisticated hotel and time-share complex set on fine golden sand. There are facilities for golf, bowls, horse riding, angling, scuba diving, boating and sailing. The nearby Robberg and Keurbooms River nature reserves attract ramblers and bird-watchers. Recommended picnic excursions include those to the Kranshoek lookout point and picnic site, part of the Harkerville State Forest, and to the Garden of Eden, where many of the trees are labelled.

Garden Route Safaris

The Garden Route Safari area is a malaria free Big 5 safari area made up of a number of safari reserves, each with luxury lodges and special individual flavours for you to enjoy. The Addo Elephant National Park is destined for rapid expansion in both size and facilities. The process began with the incorporation of the Zuurberg Section, a major ecotourism venue that offers magnificent mountain scenery as well as an impressive wildlife complement. Nearby is Shamwari Game Reserve, a privately owned sanctuary on the Bushmans River and home to a variety of game animals, including the ‘big five’, in a malaria-free environment. Luxury accommodation is available in a converted Edwardian farmhouse, lodge and two houses. Just south is the Amakhala Game Reserve, which hosts giraffe, wildebeest and many kinds of antelope. Farther away, on the edge of the Winterberg range south-west of Queenstown, is the Tsolwana Game Reserve, home to white rhino, wildebeest, mountain reedbuck, ostrich and much else.

SHAMWARI GAME RESERVE
Its southern border cupped by the Bushmans River, this private game reserve prides itself on its rich contingent of wildlife whose daily movements are tracked and monitored by a phalanx of trained and highly skilled guides. Guests at the reserve’s impressive collection of lodges, each with its own character, are plied with care and personal attention as they’re ushered into open Land Rovers for long dawn and dusk drives, leaving the middle of the day for swimming, relaxation and utter tranquillity. This pampering and focusing on the finer details has garnered Shamwari a fistful of international awards, among them World's Leading Conservation Company and Private Game Reserve for five consecutive years. Not much to find fault with here …Those who prefer to get within pumping heartbeat range of Africa’s wildest creatures can embark on a bush walk, chaperoned by armed rangers who also educate them on the subtler aspects of the veld – spoor markings, characteristics of animal behaviour, disturbed plants and trees indicating the passing of an animal – the things generally missed in a vehicle. The rangers are also excellent at spotting birds and identifying their calls and flight patterns. Visitors who need to rest their eyes from peering into impenetrable vegetation and deciphering the difference between animal camouflage and the bush palette’s play on shadow and light can take a trip to the nearby African arts and culture village, Khaya Lendaba. Here, insight is gained into cultural traditions, indigenous healing methods, dance and traditional dishes of the Eastern Cape’s Xhosa people and other tribal groups.

Sleeptime … and spoilt for choice
Because accommodation in Shamwari (the word means ‘friend’) focuses on contrasts in architectural flavour and ambience, it’s worth dwelling on some of these different characteristics. Graceful Long Lee Manor, a restored Edwardian mansion built in 1910 by the descendants of an early settler from York, England, looks onto the plains fronting the Bushmans River; open-air meals can be relished here at the river lapa. Eagles Crag Lodge, venturing into avant-garde design, features separate glass-walled units of thatch and stone tucked into the valley under the protective canopy of tall trees; all have a private deck and plunge pool with uninterrupted vistas of the bushveld. A Wellness Spa is the cherry on the top for personal time out. Bushmans Lodge is a restored Victorian homestead, replete with high ceilings, wooden floors and checkered bathroom tiles in black and white. A thatched boma stands above the wooded valley, where the Bushmans River snakes through thick vegetation. Just five luxury rooms form part of Lobengula Lodge with its wooden-beamed, thatched architecture and dark-wood ethnic décor, while the larger Riverdene Lodge offers guests two elegant casual lounges, a sunroom and a jewel-blue rim-flow pool. The tented luxury of Bayethe Lodge seems hard to beat. Meaning ‘I salute you’, Bayethe’s thatched and tent-walled ensuite units each have a pool on a private deck suspended above the river; they are also heated or air conditioned, depending on ambient temperature. The deck is the perfect perch from which to glimpse a Crowned Eagle’s wing span up above or an antelope slaking its thirst down below.

ADDO ELEPHANT NATIONAL PARK
The oldest, and smallest, sector of Addo Elephant National Park – today making up only one-tenth of the entire reserve – was established in 1931 to promote the survival of only 11 African elephant which, from 1900 onwards, had evaded the guns of 19th- and early 20th-century hunters and merciless neighbouring farmers. In response to the persistent lobbying by farmowners, the government had actually commissioned one dubious Major Philip Pretorius to eradicate the freeroaming gentle giants – which he almost did, bringing down 114 elephant between 1919 and 1920. Only in 1954 did the park manager at the time, Graham Armstrong, succeed in conclusively safeguarding these threatened mammals when he devised an elephant-proof fence of tram rails and elevator cables, mapping out a 23km2 (9-sq-mile) protected area; the elephant count stood at 22 individuals. This fencing construction, now dubbed ‘Armstrong fence’, is still used by the park today. The gene pool of Addo’s elephants differs from any other in the country; this is believed to be the result of selective shooting during the 19th-century hunting excursions. The tusks brandished by the elephant population’s bulls are small, while most cows don’t display tusks at all. SANParks has plans for Addo to become, eventually, a megapark of 3600km2 (1390 sq miles); this will include the recently added (2005) marine protected area encompassing the rippled barrier of the Alexandria dunes – largest coastal dunefield in the southern hemisphere – and Bird and Seal islands (St Croix is a proposed future addition). Addo will in turn become South Africa’s fourth largest national park (after Kruger, Kgalagadi and St Lucia). The Addo Elephant National Park is in fact a disparate collection of pockets of land loosely cobbled together. Starting in the south are the offshore islands; then, along the shoreline, Woody Cape which spans the coast between two river mouths – Bushman's River to the east, Sundays River to the west – and the Alexandria dunefield; and next, two Colchester sections. From here the reserve spans the original park territory, before curving in a boomerang shape to the Nyathi, Zuurberg mountain and Kabouga sections, ending in the northwest with the Darlington dam area.

Biomes by the handful
Addo is justly proud of its five out of seven (generally accepted) biomes in South Africa. For the most part, the park features Subtropical Thicket, or valley bushveld, a biome that takes up 69% of the reserve – that is, in the original Addo section and the Colchester, Nyathi and Kabouga areas. It is dense, sometimes impenetrable low forest consisting of shrubs, vines, and evergreen or succulent trees – tall spiky aloes and euphorbias – and, in particular, the Spekboom. Known in English as Porkbush (Portulacaria afra), its trunk is a shiny red-brown to grey, and in October/November the densely leaved tree is covered in a profusion of pink flower sprays. African women reportedly chew the leaves if they’re struggling to produce milk for their babies. Look also for the Karoo Boer-bean (Schotia afra) with its fine feathery leaves – rows of tiny leaflets along a central stalk – and woody oblong flattened seed pods. In spring, the trees’ scarlet blooms splash the dry bushveld with fiery verve. The Forest biome occurs along parts of Alexandria’s dunescape where the giant slopes are thickly wooded, while beneath the rippling desert sands lining the shore lie valuable cultural repositories of archaeological interest – ancient middens that once belonged to the nomadic Strandlopers. Shells, animal bones, fragments of pottery and stone implements all provide evidence of a people that has since disappeared from these shores. The Zuurberg zone, straddling the folded sedimentary mountain foothills, falls under both Grassland and Fynbos biomes and Addo’s furthest extremity, around Darlington dam, displays Nama Karoo biome characteristics. Be on the lookout here for the smaller details – the fleshy pebble-like Stone Plant (Lithops ruschiorum), the dainty blue Karoo Daisy (Felicia australis) – and, back at eye-level again, tiny yellow-button acacias like sweet thorn.

From tree dassie to black rhino
This variance in vegetation also determines the type of animal that calls Addo home so, for example, bushpig, tree dassie and the brown hyena – which are generally restricted to arid, desert-like areas and sandy coastal strips – hide out in Alexandria’s coastal dune forest. Here the hyena scavenge for food, supplementing with insects and fruit. Meanwhile, Zuurberg’s mountain territory is the domain of dainty blue duiker and mountain reedbuck, sure-footed Cape mountain zebra, and aardwolf, distinguished by the vertical stripes on its flanks. This hyena-like animal roams the park at night, snuffling out termites. Gemsbok thrive in Darlington’s dry Karoo zone, but this is also the home range of the heavyweights – black rhino, buffalo and black wildebeest. Addo’s plan is to introduce cheetah and wild dog here once the park expansion is complete. Of interest is that Addo’s limited grassveld has influenced its buffalo population into modifying their eating habits; normally grazers in high-rainfall zones, these buffalo were driven by hunters to seek refuge in Addo’s bushveld, where they adapted to browsing among the trees mainly in the coolness of night. As a result, they generally have not been that visible during the day. Recently, though, the reintroduction of lion has forced them to change their habits once again – they now prefer the safety of daylight versus the anonymity their predators gain under the cloak of darkness. Of the reserve’s black rhino population, two different subspecies exist. The first, Diceros bicornis bicornis, naturally occurs in Southern Africa’s reserves, while the other, Diceros bicornis michaeli, was introduced to Addo from East Africa. Both share similar features, most notably the pointed upper lip, or hook-lip, of the black rhinoceros versus the wide, square muzzle of white rhinos. The two species are kept in different sections of the reserve so as not to mix the gene pool. Finally, the incorporation of the marine park has added another feather to Addo’s cap in the form of the world’s largest Cape Gannet breeding colony on Bird Island (reportedly some 120 000 birds), as well as Roseate Terns, and the second-largest breeding colony of African (Jackass) Penguins.

Hiking
A range of hiking trails (1–4 hours) penetrates the Zuurberg’s deep forested kloofs, promising exciting chittering bird life, and along the coastline, the two-day Alexandria hiking trail crests sharply defined slip faces of the undulating dunefields stretching for 50km (30 miles) northward of Algoa Bay. Here too are fossil dune ridges marking previous shorelines going back a few million years. Look out for whales and dolphins from the high tops of the dune cliffs. This 36km (22-mile) trail traverses the forested Woody Cape sector, with an overnight stay in a scenically sited wood hut, before setting out for the coastal dunefields.

When to visit
January daily max 32°C (90ºF); July 18°C (64ºF), although each park sector will experience climatic variations specific to habitat. Rainfall low but peaks Feb–Mar and Oct–Nov. Park entrance gate open from 07:00 to 19:00.

Route 62

LITTLE KAROO AND OUTDSHOORN
Contrasting sharply with the lush coast, this distinctive region with its own, harsher beauty, sprawls between the Outeniqua and Langeberg mountain ranges and the grand Swartberg. The flattish plain below these uplands is part of the Karoo system, but is very different from the Great Karoo wilderness that lies beyond the Swartberg. It is not a high rainfall area, but is watered by the many streams that flow down from the mountains, and the land yields rich harvests of wheat, emerald-green lucerne, tobacco, grapes and walnuts.

OUDTSHOORN
The Little Karoo’s main town, set on the banks of the Grobbelaars River, was (and still is) the focal point of the ostrich industry, which had its heyday during the fashion-led ostrich-feather boom in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Reminders of this time can still be seen in one or two ostentatious ‘feather palaces’, built by the wealthy farmers and traders of yesteryear. Visit the annex of the C.P. Nel Museum for its Ostrich Room and antique collection. Other surviving mansions include Dorphuis, Pinehurst and, outside town, Greystones and Welgeluk. Among the ostrich show-farms are the worthwhile Highgate and Safari. Both offer guided tours during which you are shown all facets of the ostrich business, and you are given the opportunity to watch the birds going through their paces on the racetrack (these are known as ‘ostrich derbys’). If you are adventurous enough, you can even choose to ride astride one yourself. For a quicker, more intensive tour, call in at the Cango Ostrich Farm. Visitors in more leisurely mode can take the Ostrich Express through the Little Karoo to Calitzdorp; you’re shown around a wine estate, treated to dinner and entertainment and then returned by rail the next morning.

CANGO CAVES
This labyrinthine complex of caverns, in the Swartberg range some 25km (16 miles) north of Oudtshoorn, is ranked among the most remarkable of Africa’s natural wonders. The 28 chambers of Cango One (the first of the sequences to be charted) are linked by over two kilometres (one mile) of passages, and contain a marvellous fantasia of weirdly sculpted, many-coloured stalagmites and stalactites. It takes about two hours to walk this route, but elderly people, or those who are a little less energetic, need not complete the full tour. Biggest of the caves is the Grand Hall, 16m (53ft) high and 107m (350ft) across. Among the more interesting dripstone formations are the ‘Organ Pipes’, ‘Cleopatra’s Needle’ and the ‘Frozen Waterfall’. The caves are open daily; there are conducted tours (every hour on the hour in peak season, every two hours at other times), a restaurant and a curio shop.