July 1st (Happy Canada Day!), and another four-hour drive brought us to Crawford’s Beach in Chintsa, in the Eastern Cape and on what is called the “Wild Coast.”
The beach is long and pristine and is backed by large, vegetated sand dunes. Fishermen cast their bait from the shoreline, whales breached in the distance, dolphins splashed in the nearby waves, and the monkey thieves roamed from room to room looking for unprotected loot.
We spent our second day walking the beach, and today we’re working on the blog since a front moved in and unloaded some much-needed rain onto the area.
We departed Port Elizabeth on the 29th for a short, one-hour drive to Addo. There was nothing special in Port Elizabeth. The weather was cold and windy, and it was simply a stop to break up the long drive from Knysna to Addo.
The weather was beautiful on our arrival, so we figured we would take advantage and do an afternoon safari in Addo Elephant National Park. The park is the third-largest in South Africa after Kruger NP and Kgalagadi NP, which we would be visiting as well.
There are more than 600 elephants, 400 Cape buffaloes, over 48 endangered black rhinos and a variety of antelope species in the park. Transvaal lions and spotted hyenas have also been reintroduced into the area, although we didn’t see any lions or rhinos during our safari.
The park is also home to the largest remaining population of the flightless dung beetle.
We got lucky and encountered warthogs, zebras, kudu, jackals and hyenas, but the highlight was a very close encounter with a herd of elephants containing several youngsters and bulls.
Today, we drove a short distance out of Knysna to Plettenberg to visit the largest free-flight aviary and sanctuary in the world. It contains over 3,500 birds comprising 200 species and covers more than 2.3 hectares of indigenous forest and streams, all under a huge canopy of netting up to 180 feet above ground level.
This is a true sanctuary where all of the inhabitants have been rescued from some form of confinement and now live freely in this huge space.
The sanctuary was honoured with the Skal International Sustainable Tourism Award, as well as the Gold Award in the World Responsible Tourism Awards in the category of “Best Animal Welfare Initiative.”
We could have spent the whole day in this incredible setting—and almost did—but we had to move on to our next stop.
Jan, we thought about you, and you would have loved this.
Timneh Grey Parrot
Bearded Barbet
Knysna Lourie
Golden Pheasant
Mandarin Duck
Cattle Egret
Blue Crane
Lesser Jardine Parrot
Purple Glossy Starling
Next stop, and next door, was Monkeyland, the world’s first free-roaming, multi-species primate sanctuary.
The area encompasses over 12 hectares of indigenous forest and is home to 11 species that had previously been kept in cages or zoos, as pets or in laboratories, and have now been reacclimated to a larger, free-moving environment.
As with the bird sanctuary, Monkeyland has received several prestigious animal welfare awards.
We walked about 1.2 km of forest paths with a professional guide who helped to spot and identify the different species of monkeys.
Yesterday, the 26th, we drove 150 km to Cango Caves, the most surreal, awe-inspiring example of natural art at its finest.
Located in Precambrian limestone at the foothills of the Swartberg Range, the principal cave is one of the country’s finest, best-known and most popular tourist caves. Although the extensive system of tunnels and chambers goes on for more than 4 km, only about a quarter of it is open to visitors, and you can explore the caves only in groups supervised by a guide.
We had 12 people in our group, which was perfect.
The caves were used by the San/Bushmen, and cave paintings and artifacts indicate that they were in use throughout prehistory, during the Middle and Later Stone Ages.
Words can’t describe the interior of the caves. Hopefully, our photos will do it justice.
After four attempts to cage dive with the great whites, we headed out from Hermanus to Gansbaai at 5:00 a.m. in 0°C temperatures, anticipating the great adventure. Joyce was nervous but determined to face the rough seas and the “Jaws” of the sea.
After our briefing and a small snack (importance to be explained shortly), we headed out on giant rolling seas for a 15-minute ride aboard a 12-metre dive boat towards Dyer Island, which is very near Shark Alley—well known as the location where 90% of the world’s great white documentaries have been filmed.
We set anchor near three other boats, about 1 km offshore from the island, chummed the waters and waited in high anticipation.
And waited, and waited, while several of the younger crowd who happened to eat a big breakfast (told you we would get to this) proceeded to turn green and puke over the side of the boat.
Once the scrambled eggs and toast were wiped away, we lifted anchor. None of the nearby boats that had arrived earlier had seen anything yet, so the skipper figured we should try another spot.
We motored a little farther while watching a few more landlubbers retch over the side, and then re-anchored.
And we waited and waited, the smell of puke permeating the fresh salty air.
Our great adventure was not to be. Five swashbucklers were picked up by the “seasick rescue boat,” and about an hour later, we headed back to shore, heartened by the knowledge that we would receive a coupon good for two years to use when we made our return to South Africa.
Wow, what a deal! We’ll be back!
Knysna is a small town on the coast of the Western Cape and is well known for the huge variety of hiking trails in the region. Unfortunately, two weeks before our arrival, the area was hit by one of the largest forest fires in over 100 years, the result of a year-long drought.
Eight people died, and over 800 homes, lodges and businesses were destroyed. Amazingly, our lodge was spared, but all around it were the burnt-out remnants of homes and other lodges. Needless to say, the hiking in the area had been devastated.
The town has two main touristy areas—the Waterfront and Thesen Island—both dotted with nice restaurants, curio shops and bars.
