Seeing that I wrote about my
cheetah encounters, I figured I might as well mention my elephant encounter as well. But then I realised I might as well say something about my entire Knysna trip, where it all happened. My friend and I went to Knysna for a weekend to see what the town has to offer besides oysters.
First stop was a restaurant called
The Firefly Eating House. I won't go into too much detail but if you're ever in Knysna, give it a visit (you can read my review if you click on the link). Then off to check into our accommodation.
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| The hot chocolate - sugar, cream, chocolate lolly and hot milk. Mix it up! |
We stayed at Under Milkwood, a self-catering lodge near the Knysna Heads. We had a four-sleeper wooden cabin, fully equipped and very cosy.
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| We chose to share the twin room instead of each having a bedroom |
The next morning we had to be up early for breakfast at Ile de Pain on Thesen Island - about 10 minutes from where we were staying.
Breakfast was mmmmm! We ordered a cream cheese, salmon, capers and egg croissant and coffee. Heavenly.
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| Nisha and I at Ile de Pain |
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| Check out all the breads and pastries..mmm |
After breakfast it was off to Tenikwa Wildcat and Wildlife Sanctuary in Plett where we had some time the wild ones, and you can read about that and see pics
here and
here.
When we were done it was too early for lunch so we stopped on the way back to Knysna at a roadside rendezvous called The Heath. It's a farmstall, cafe, eagle sanctuary, play area, furniture store and nursery all on one site. Our 15-minute stop turned into an hour of browsing all the handmade soaps, jewellery, decorated pebbles, bags and endless amounts of other fun stuff.
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| I bought some message pebbles. |
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| This fudge is goooood |
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| I wonder who lives there. He probably never 'leaves'. GET IT? Hahaha |
For lunch we went to a place called 34 Degrees South (but the name just says 34 South) at the Waterfront. This place has everything you can possibly think of ordering. Ok, not everything, but pretty close. As all their banners say, they're 'Not exactly a restaurant, not exactly a deli, not exactly a bar....' I'm not sure what exactly they are but either way, they filled the gap in my tummy. My friend had fish and chips and I ordered sushi with a side order of fries and extra mayo.
The rest of the day we relaxed and waited for our lagoon cruise for dinner. It was supposed to be a drinks and oysters cruise but we don't drink or eat oysters so we just chilled and waited for the dinner part. It's weird that we didn't do that much but both of us were super tired. We tried to take a nap before the cruise but it wasn't long before we had to rise and shine and head to the waterfront again.
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| I think it's called a paddle cruiser |
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| That's Knysna Heads in the background...and me in the middle |
Next day.. yes...breakfast again. This time at East Head Cafe. I love this place. It's right at the tip of the Eastern Head (duh) which is opposite the other Knysna Head. I took lots of pics of this cafe because I think it's an awesome spot for breakfast and lunch and the decor is simple but fantastic!
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| Outside seating |
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| Simple, elegant interior - ok, ignore the bottles in corner |
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| My omelette |
After breakfast we headed for the Knysna Elephant Park. You can read about my experience
here or just have a look at these pics. They pretty much tell you what we did.
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| He's so cute! |
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| Feeding the ellies before our ride |
That was the last of our activities before we had to make our way back home. But first we stopped at the Garden of Eden for a stroll in the forest and then further on we took a bit of a detour to Noetzie. We were told there are all sorts of castles there. We got there, after walking down millions of stairs (which we had to climb again on the way back). It wasn't quite what I expected. They weren't really castles, they were just houses and some B&Bs that are made to look like castles. The beach was beautiful though.
It was a good trip. I've been to Knysna before but really didn't do much while I was there (the weather wasn't great). But next time I'm there I'll definitely visit the restaurants again and maybe go back to Tenikwa for a 'walk with cheetahs while they go for their morning/evening stroll'. It's 400 bucks - a bit steep, but when will I ever get to take a cheetah for a walk?
