South Africa – the Garden Route
Continuing our adventures in South Africa on our gap year…
3rd to 11th March 2026
The Garden Route officially starts in Mossel Bay, and is a well documented and oft travelled part of South Africa, stretching from the west across to Port Elizabeth on the eastern side of the Cape.
We gave ourselves 8 days to explore and decided what we wanted to include and roughly how long to stay in each place. On leaving Cape Town this route has an absolutely stunning backdrop.
The road follows the coastline all the way, and is spectacular with its mountain ranges and wild blue sea.
Breathtakingly beautiful – we found ourselves stopping every 10 minutes just to take it all in.
1st stop, 2.5 hours in, was Stoney Point Nature Reserve at Betty’s Bay.
We wanted to see the Penguins of course!
These slightly comical birds are so endearing.
Only 1.5 ft high, they’re an endangered species.
They make a noise not dissimilar to the braying of a donkey – though not quite as loud!
Each penguin has a unique black-and-white chest pattern.
There was lots of information provided.
These are Dassies – or Rock Hyrax. Very cute looking, but also very bitey apparently.
On the windier side of this bay we found the cormorants nesting.
After a quick lunch we set off for the 2.5 hour journey to L’Agulhas, the southernmost point of Africa.
L’Agulhas also marks the dividing line between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.
Known as “The Ship’s Graveyard,” this treacherous coast has seen over 130 shipwrecks due to severe storms and high waves
We saw the sun set in the Atlantic ocean and moon rise in the Indian ocean. We stayed in an air bnb not far from the point, and got chatting to locals, including the air bnb owner, in the pub that evening.
The next morning we drove to Mossel Bay and booked onto the Game safari
A stuffed lion in the window of the gift shop.
Wildebeest
Antelope
More Zebra
3 Cheetah cubs sleeping under the shade of a tree. Though we were only a few feet away they didnt seem bothered by us. Apparenly they had caught and eaten an impala the previous day.
Buffalo in the water – does this make them water buffalo..😄
We went mainly to see the elephants.
The majority of the elephants here were rescued from circuses and culling operations.
The elepant family have been part of the reserve for 20 plus years with the birth of the 1st calf, Tshima, in 2007. There have been subsequent births since.
Cute looking Waterbuck
We were drivn along steep and winding tracks sometimes very close to the edge.
White Rhinos
It was amazing to see these Rhino
We suddenly came upon this mother and baby deer
The startled deer ran for cover.
Later that day on 4th March, we booked into our air bnb at Mossel Bay. There were issues with getting in AND getting out of this particular rental..!! Luckily we were only there for one night.
Next morning we checked out this cave that was situated beneath the lighthouse at Mossel Bay
“Someone’s watching you… ” Paul said as I took a surreptitious pee. Luckily it was just a curious Dassie.
Canoing and hiking the Kingfisher Trail at Wilderness around midday on the 5th March.
We stashed the canoe by the riverside and continued the trail on foot.
A Duiker is a small brown antelope – this was approx 2 foot high.
On the road again – with a quick photo opp of hills resembling a map of Africa – imagination and opportunity combined!
We just had time to fit in a quick stop at Knysna heights before the sun set.
very high, sheer cliffs!
don’t look down! Vertigo inducing for me!
Plettenberg Bay was the final destination for our air bnb on 5th March
Next morning- Canyoning in the Plettenberg hills first thing
It was just us and 2 guides
who lookd after us very well
Brunch on Plett beach
I think the sharks prefer to eat seals…
but we went swimming with seals anyway
It was brilliant – only about 30 minutes with them
The guides made sure that we were only near to young seals in their first year as these are most curious and friendly – a bit like puppies. They endeavoured to keep the adult seals away from us.
The next day, 7th March, we had planned to do the 6 mile Roberg Point hike.
and we were lucky to have the perfect weather – not too hot
looking down on a huge cape fur seal colony …
the same place that we’d snorkeled the day before!
This rugged peninsula on the Robberg Nature Reserve offers dramatic cliffs, amazing beaches and ocean views.
I’m always amazed when beautiful flowers exist in such harsh terrain
Arriving at the windier side of the point the cliff path winds down to a dramatic sea
The area is marked by sheer, rocky cliffs that drop into the Indian Ocean.
Brunsvigia or Candelabra Lilly
They said it should take around 4 – 5 hours to complete
Strong currents mean swimming is not advised
We had been really looking forward to this walk and it didnt disappoint
Last trek across soft sand (which I hate walking on) before the final ascent back to the entrance.
Then a drive to Tsitsikama for a 2 night airbnb stay at ‘The Edge’.
The next morning on 8th March we drove to Bloukrans Bridge for Paul to fulfil a long held ambition to bungy jump from the worlds highest bridge jump.
We had planned to both do the Zipline, then Paul would Bungy while I did the Hang Out.
After getting kitted out we listened to a brief explanation of what the jump entailed. There was a brother and sister doing the bungy jump just before Paul.
I went first on the zipline
The ‘Hang Out’ was really scary, and i couldn’t bring myself to lean out without taking my hands off the straps. I did lean out to watch Paul jump off though.
Paul did the zipline then got ready for the big jump
I couldn’t believe that a) he was really going to do it, and b) that he was so calm!
He dived while holding his GoPro to film himself as well !!
Paul being hauled back up after his jump
Adrenalin rush to the max for Paul !!
All smiles afterwards – though he admitted the Hang Out was still a little scary.
Defo an immense achievement.
brunch at the cafe supervised by a couple of blackbirds.
We had planned to do the storms River Mouth Trail and suspension bridges at Tsitsikama later that day.
Two of the three bridges were being replaced, but this main one was open so we could do the trail.
Just fabulous views..
The path just kept going up, we didnt realise it was going to be so high…
Finally made it to the top…
South Africa is s beautiful country…
Then we were off on our way back towards the west to stay in Oudtshoorn for 2 nights.
We had originally thought about going further East to the Addo Elephant Reserve near Port Elizabeth, but decided it was just a bit too far to drive in the time we had allowed ourselves.
Situated in the Klein Karoo region these caves are millions of years old and formed from precambrian limestone – quite spectacular and enormous.
That evening our air bnb host recommended a local restaurant specialising in Ostrich steaks. Called “Nostalgie”, the placemats were poetry on paper, in africaans. Steaks were good 👍
Up early again the next morning to catch 1st light and a meerkat safari.
The guide was full of information – the meerkats were wild. Just a small family group of five.
A group of 6 Australian women were also in our jeep watching the morning rituals of the meerkats.
Irresistibly cute, they are wild and never touched by humans so far.
In the afternoon we went to the Ostrich farm, there are a lot of ostrichs in Oudtshoorn!
Paul experienced the delight of an ostrich neck massage.
The ostrich farm was due to be our last stop but this zoo was 5 minutes down the road so we thought we might as well pop in.
It was 36° on this day – too hot even for lions.
These little parrots were very cute
Some enclosures had water sprinklers going for cooling the animals down.
We went to dinner again at Nostalgie that evening before setting off for the long drive down route 62 back to Cape Town airport the next day.
We passed a sign for this and Paul pulled into the car park. Apparently it is famous for NOT being a sex shop. A friend jokingly added the word “sex” to his ‘Ronnies Shop’ sign selling farm produce to encourage customers in, without Ronnie’s knowledge.
It sparked intense popularity and interest and is now a legendary, quirky pub and tourist stop on Route 62, with a friendly bar, graffiti covered walls and a ceiling filled with visitors underwear…
Ronnie’s other half was there when we met and she was a bit of a character!!
Fabulous scenery again on the way back, though a stifling 37° – I was glad our car had good AC.
Altogether we absolutely loved South Africa. It has a perfect climate, great kiting spots, beautiful coastline, and amazing wildlife. We would go back in a heartbeat.
Unfortunately the unfinished business of apartheid means there is a canyon of inequality, not just a gap, with inequality largely operating along racial lines. The top 10% hold roughly 86% of all wealth, while the bottom 50% often have negative wealth.
The shanty towns are everywhere, Soweto is still huge. Unemployment is around 33%. We stuck to the tourist routes but there is a risk of violent social unrest and societal breakdown at some point in the future.
