Morgan's Year in Cape Town: Knysna

To celebrate National Women’s Day and take advantage of having Monday off, Byron, Wenli, Julia, and I headed off on a mini road trip to spend the weekend in a town called Knysna. Knysna is on the Garden Route, which consists of a series of quaint, touristy towns with lots of great beaches and forests stretching along the Southern coast. Saturday morning we got up extremely early and were on the road by 6:30 am. On the way over, we followed directions from Byron’s boss and took a more circuitous route to Knysna, which ended up being well worth it.

First we watched the sun rise over the mountains in the wine region as we headed out of town – it was stunning. Then we made our way into a cute little town called Barrydale in the Klein Karoo (literally translated it means something like small, dry/semi-desert area) for brunch. The first sign we saw advertised the Blue Cow Cafe, so off we went, following the signs through town and eventually ending up at a picturesque little cabin where we had brunch on the deck, looking out over the pond and town below. The owner was incredibly friendly to us because he said they don’t get many Americans passing through and his daughter is living with a family in the U.S. so he wanted to be sure and show all Americans great hospitality. Talk about nice – he even invited us to stay in their house next time we came back to Barrydale!

After breakfast, we were on the road again, making our next stop in a town called Oudtshoorn (and yes, Afrikaans is waaaay more prevalent as soon as you leave Cape Town get into the more rural areas). In Oudsthoorn we went on a tour at an ostrich farm, and it was actually pretty interesting. Did you know ostrich feathers used to be worth their weight in gold? Too bad they went out of style! We also learned how to distinguish between real and fake ostrich leather (real leather has small holes/actual edges where the feathers were plucked out; fake leather only has polka-dotty indents to make it look like it had feathers in it). And who knew about all the different varieties! They are such weird animals, especially when you see them up close. Staring at them, as Byron commented, you can really see the connection between dinosaurs and birds. With their legs that bend in funny places, their giant clawed toes, and their weird, rubbery necks, you really can’t help but think of something like a velociraptor, haha. Anyway, the main reason we went on the tour was so Wenli and Julia could ride ostriches afterwards, and I must say, it looked quite difficult. And definitely amusing!

Once we left Oudtshoorn we started dropping South and heading towards the coast. There was certainly some spectacular scenery to take in as we traversed a few mountain passes leading us down into the green coastal land. In Knysna, we rented a self-catering cabin located right on the lagoon waterfront, and it turned out to be as quaint and beautiful as we hoped. The cabin seemed fairly upscale, but since it was the off season we each only ended up paying about $60 total for the whole weekend. Saturday night we had dinner at one of the waterfront cafes in Knysna, getting our fill of fresh seafood. Knysna is famous for its oysters, though Julia was the only oyster-eater among us.

Sunday we had our hearts set on hiking (the forests around Knysna are very nice), so we asked the lodge hostess where to go...she responded with “I don’t know...do I look like a flipping walker?” but luckily we had also brought our own guidebooks. She at least directed us how to get through town and up to the forest access road, though her description included something like “turn left once you get to the black section of town,” and it always takes a second to remember where you are and translate what that means. The “black section” obviously meant the township area; it’s just so strange to hear phrases like that since we obviously have such different standards for racial dialogue in the U.S...and of course it is just yet another reminder how segregated things can still be in this country.

Anyway, we made our way up the gravel road and set out on the trail, excited and hopeful that we would see animals. The Knysna forest actually still has one remaining forest elephant, which is obviously very, very rarely seen, and Julia had read that if you were quiet you could often see monkeys in the trees, too. Well, we started off being quiet...until we were walking along and all of a sudden heard something rather large rustling around in the ferns. When it started grunting, Byron picked up a very large stick and we debated heavily about how to proceed. We ended up scurrying past that area and spent the rest of the hike talking loudly, deciding we would actually rather not see any animals than hear strange noises in the bushes. (Later when we got back to the trailhead and read the wildlife information signs we confirmed what we had suspected – we probably ran into a bushpig, and I must say, I’m really glad we never actually saw it!) Despite that, the hike was very enjoyable. The forest was really beautiful, and obviously extremely different from anything in the Rocky Mountain West. We all commented on how ancient the forest seemed, with all the ferns and old trees (one big one was marked as being over 600 years old!). I’m glad we took the opportunity to get outdoors.

Sunday night we made good use of our self-catering cabin, braaing (“braai” means BBQ in Afrikaans) away and roasting veggies. It was delicious. And perhaps the best part about the cabin was the electric blankets accompanying our beds!

Monday morning we hit the road again, this time driving back to Cape Town on the major highway that follows the coast. We stopped for lunch at another famous Garden Route town called Mossel Bay (I probably don’t need to explain this, but that means Mussel Bay in Afrikaans). We spent over an hour watching the surfers, exploring the tide pools, and collecting seashells on the beach before tearing ourselves away to eat and get back on the road. There is something so fascinating about hunting for sea urchins and starfish! We ended up eating lunch outdoors at a beachside cafe, and a very pleasant afternoon was made even better when we spotted a whale. I was pretty amazed that such large whales (I wouldn’t be surprised if we had seen a humpback whale – and I say that with years of Cape Cod whale watching experience!) were so close to the beach. The water must get deep very fast because the whale we saw really didn’t look that much farther out than the surfers.

Back on the road we enjoyed much more beautiful, green mountain scenery as we made our way back to Cape Town. Unfortunately about an hour outside of Cape Town the traffic became bumper to bumper as we caught up to everyone else heading home from weekend outings...but it’s hard to complain about such a successful weekend!

Sunrise in the winelands