Day 40
Today I'm in: Plettenberg Bay, South Africa
Another amazing day weather-wise but we woke up to some chilly weather... four seasons in a day seems to be the norm in coastal South Africa. Today I was going from Knysna to Plettenberg Bay, a distance of only about 20 miles, so there was no rush to get from one place to the other and there was plenty to see along the way. First up was a drive out to Knysna Heads, the rocky harbor mouth where the ocean flows into Knysna Lagoon. A number of *very* expensive-looking houses are perched on the cliffs overlooking the heads, but there's a nice paved pathway that runs around the length of the promontory so that everyone can enjoy the views.
Plettenberg Bay is written as Plettenbergbaai in Afrikaans and appears interchangeably on road signs, which is a little weird, but everyone who lives there just refers to it as "Plett" to avoid showing deference to one language over the other. It's a really nice town, and unlike Knysna it's set right on the beach. Apart from one large high-rise hotel built by Sun International in a moment of 1980s insanity, the rest of the town is made up of guesthouses, inns and condos. It's also known as one of the safest parts of the country - we drove in past block after block of houses without electric fences, without burglar bars, even without the stone walls and wrought-iron fences that surround homes everywhere else in the country.
After a stroll on the beach and lunch at the Lookout, a bar and restaurant built on the rocks overlooking the bay, we checked into Milkwood Manor, our digs for the night. It's a former pizza restaurant that was rebuilt into a two-level country-manor-style inn about ten years ago. Back in 2006, thanks to a really fierce winter storm, the land in front of the inn was washed away and the hotel became oceanfront property (the owners told us they were delighted). Our room opened right up onto the (new) beach and had ocean views from two sides - pretty nice.
From there we drove over to the Robberg Peninsula to do a hike out to the point. Robberg is a two-mile-long promontory jutting into the ocean south of Plett that forms the southern boundary of Plettenberg Bay. We wanted to do a hike out to the point at the tip, which is about nine kilometers and takes about three hours. The weather was outstanding and the first few kilometers were a nice and easy stroll along a sandy but mostly level trail running along the bay side of the cliffs. We got to the point in about 45 minutes, admired the view of town and the Outeniqua Mountains in the distance, and endured the stink from the huge colony of Cape fur seals who live on the rocks along the peninsula.
Then we rounded the point and tackled the ocean side of the trail, and things got a lot harder. The "trail" frequently degenerated into little more than a series of directional signs bolted to enormous boulders. It was a real workout and I found myself crawling up and down rocks a lot more than I anticipated, which was a challenge in the spray from the waves. A lot of the rocks were damp (we were on the side of the peninsula that is in shadow most of the day) and a few times we thought we'd lost the trail. We got back to the car park pretty tired, but I was happy to get some real exercise after spending so much of the last week sitting in cars and vans being driven on safaris and guided tours.
For dinner, at the advice of the hotel manager, we headed for the town's Friday night market, where six or seven food vendors set up stalls and, in the manager's words, "everyone in town goes to eat and gossip." It did seem like everyone in Plett was there. June and July are the extreme low tourist season, although in summer the town in swamped with visitors from the Johannesburg area (whom the locals refer to as "Vaalies" since they come from the other side of the Vaal River). We shared a table with a retired British couple who moved to Plett about 20 years ago from Suffolk and had a tasty but cheap dinner of fried noodles. The end to a great day in a really nice little town.
Tomorrow it's off to Jeffrey's Bay, the last stop on the Garden Route, by way of Tsitsikamma National Park and another strenuous hike. More to come.
Today I'm in: Plettenberg Bay, South Africa
Plettenberg Bay is written as Plettenbergbaai in Afrikaans and appears interchangeably on road signs, which is a little weird, but everyone who lives there just refers to it as "Plett" to avoid showing deference to one language over the other. It's a really nice town, and unlike Knysna it's set right on the beach. Apart from one large high-rise hotel built by Sun International in a moment of 1980s insanity, the rest of the town is made up of guesthouses, inns and condos. It's also known as one of the safest parts of the country - we drove in past block after block of houses without electric fences, without burglar bars, even without the stone walls and wrought-iron fences that surround homes everywhere else in the country. 
After a stroll on the beach and lunch at the Lookout, a bar and restaurant built on the rocks overlooking the bay, we checked into Milkwood Manor, our digs for the night. It's a former pizza restaurant that was rebuilt into a two-level country-manor-style inn about ten years ago. Back in 2006, thanks to a really fierce winter storm, the land in front of the inn was washed away and the hotel became oceanfront property (the owners told us they were delighted). Our room opened right up onto the (new) beach and had ocean views from two sides - pretty nice. 
From there we drove over to the Robberg Peninsula to do a hike out to the point. Robberg is a two-mile-long promontory jutting into the ocean south of Plett that forms the southern boundary of Plettenberg Bay. We wanted to do a hike out to the point at the tip, which is about nine kilometers and takes about three hours. The weather was outstanding and the first few kilometers were a nice and easy stroll along a sandy but mostly level trail running along the bay side of the cliffs. We got to the point in about 45 minutes, admired the view of town and the Outeniqua Mountains in the distance, and endured the stink from the huge colony of Cape fur seals who live on the rocks along the peninsula.
Then we rounded the point and tackled the ocean side of the trail, and things got a lot harder. The "trail" frequently degenerated into little more than a series of directional signs bolted to enormous boulders. It was a real workout and I found myself crawling up and down rocks a lot more than I anticipated, which was a challenge in the spray from the waves. A lot of the rocks were damp (we were on the side of the peninsula that is in shadow most of the day) and a few times we thought we'd lost the trail. We got back to the car park pretty tired, but I was happy to get some real exercise after spending so much of the last week sitting in cars and vans being driven on safaris and guided tours. 
For dinner, at the advice of the hotel manager, we headed for the town's Friday night market, where six or seven food vendors set up stalls and, in the manager's words, "everyone in town goes to eat and gossip." It did seem like everyone in Plett was there. June and July are the extreme low tourist season, although in summer the town in swamped with visitors from the Johannesburg area (whom the locals refer to as "Vaalies" since they come from the other side of the Vaal River). We shared a table with a retired British couple who moved to Plett about 20 years ago from Suffolk and had a tasty but cheap dinner of fried noodles. The end to a great day in a really nice little town. Tomorrow it's off to Jeffrey's Bay, the last stop on the Garden Route, by way of Tsitsikamma National Park and another strenuous hike. More to come.
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