Garden Route, Tsisikamma, Information, Cape Garden Route

Garden Route, Tsitsikamma & Southern Cape

The Cape Garden Route is a mix of modern golf courses, ancient forests, secluded artist communities, retirement estates, modern malls, craft centres, mountain hideaways and beach holidays. A large number of interesting and creative people have come to live down here, drawn to this magnificent stretch of coastline.

The main arterial highway of the Garden Route in South Africa - a highlight on most visitors' itineraries - is the N2 stretch running from Heidelberg in the southern Cape to Storms River Village on the Eastern Cape border.

The travelling trick with the Garden Route is to find as much time for it as possible and to keep slipping off the N2 onto side-roads with promising destinations.

That's probably how Oudtshoorn - the ostrich capital of the world - has found its way onto the Garden Route. In reality, both early inhabitants and elephants have been crossing the Outeniqua Mountains from Oudtshoorn to the coast for many centuries.

Many interesting and creative people have come to live on the Garden Route, drawn to this magnificent and mountainous stretch of the South African coastline. Old woodcutter clans, fishermen, artists, businessmen and top chefs have all found their niches along the Garden Route in the Western Cape.

The Garden Route is famous for is hardy fynbos floral kingdom, its secluded little bays and its year-round holiday frame of mind. And it's conveniently accessible from Cape Town.

Don't forget to look seawards for the Southern Right whales, the humpback, bottlenose and common dolphins, and even killer whales that frolic close to shore, especially near Plettenberg Bay.

An exciting new development is the new Garden Route National Park, which weaves together the existing Tsitsikamma National Park's ancient forests and wild coastline with the Wilderness National Park via a chain of lakes and preserved sections of fynbos. It's a fascinating mix of ecosystems. And don't forget to listen for the raucous cry and vivid scarlet wings of the Knysna turaco.

Knysna

Knysna in South Africa’s Western Cape is located along the famed Garden Route. The town is famous for its oyster festival, warm people and the most magnificent views from Leisure Isle to the Heads. A visit to Knysna is a sublime mixture of adventure, relaxation and good times all round.

If you’re looking for South Africans’ most popular small town, go to the end of the Garden Route in the Western Cape to Knysna – the ‘elegant lagoon’. It’s easy to get the ‘Knysna Spirit’ as you drive in on the N2 Highway from Cape Town. The town is well developed these days, but you still feel you’re travelling in woodcutter country.

Knysna has, for many, become the pot of gold at the end of the Garden Route. It’s famed attraction is the Eastern and Western Heads, a cavenous expanse where many a ship has met its doom. Today the Featherbed Nature Reserve pays homage to the richness of fauna and flora that Knysna has to offer.

The Knysna Elephant Park is where you can interact with and feed the relocated jumbo families. It’s a favourite with the youngsters. If they’re still in the mood for a ‘creature feature’, then whip them down the N2 to Monkeyland for a visitation with some of the loveliest lemurs in southern Africa.

But the real wildlife activities in these parts is to go out to sea and find the dolphins and the southern right whales that seasonally visit the shores of the Paradise Coast. To find yourself in the middle of a 4 000-strong pod of common dolphins leaping through the waves is a unique experience you will carry with you for years. On the way back to land, visit the seals of the Robberg peninsula – an entertaining, if less graceful, sight.

Knysna is replete with all forms of accommodation to suit all pockets. You can stay on a houseboat on the lagoon, a forest lodge near the beach, a log cabin in the forest, a Cape Cod-style mansion, a bustling hotel on the main road or one of the many guest houses listed.

Garden Route, Cape Garden Route, Tsitsikamma, Information, Storms River, Southern Cape, Eastern Cape, Oudtshoorn, Knysna, George, Outeniqua, Elephant