Garden Route

Today is the first day of the Garden Route which is on the southwest coast of South Africa and runs about 190 miles. When I read about it, it reminded me of the Pacific Coast Highway in California. Apparently the name comes from the fact that it’s very lush and ecologically diverse. Here’s a map that I saw:



We had a lovely breakfast at our hotel in Stormsrivier. At the Woods was simple, but exactly what we needed to kick off our road trip. We did a swing through town and headed to Tsitsikamma which is a national park. According to a local tour guide, Tsitsikamma means “sparkling water running through the woods” as the local villagers thought the water made a “tsi tsi” sound:





We came here to see the Big Tree which is a massive yellowwood and did a short forest walk to get there:







Here I am admiring a millipede:



The Big Tree!







And of course, a Tsitsikamma selfie:



The area is popular for hikes, outdoor activities, and thrill-seeking adventures like the world’s highest bridge for bungee jumping. On the N2 highway that runs along the coast, we drove across ravines and it was indeed lush. Here we saw beautiful bright flowers lining the road:



There are multiple animal sanctuaries in the area - monkey, elephant, and tiger, but from reviews, I thought the bird sanctuary called Birds of Eden was more our speed and had excellent reviews including from our Zambian friends at Devil’s Pool. It’s the world’s largest free flight aviary and bird sanctuary with over 3,500 birds and 200 species with a focus on African birds and a home for ex-pets. We put our bird lessons from Will to good use as we walked through this biodome. It was amazing how close we could see these beautiful birds:







A galah, a type of cockatoo, thought the plastic from Amanda’s shoe lace was a seed:



Not sure it’s the same one, but we saw one again later:



Here are some multi-bird shots:







Look at these scarlet ibis alongside different types of flamingos and a Canadian goose:



And a few collages:









We then drove to Whaletail Viewing Point which had a nice view in Plettenberg Bay:







For lunch, we found the Fat Fish where we enjoyed seafood and checked in to our nearby hotel, The Bungalow by the Raw Africa Boutique Collection. Plettenberg Bay has lots of resorts, but I wanted to have a beach day with out being too developed or entailed a hike to the beach. So when I found this 10 room hotel in front of the beach, and an outpost for a larger hotel in town, it seemed to meet our speed. I booked this a long time ago considering the limited availability. Look how cute it is and the bathroom has a towel warmer!:











After figuring out the parking, I changed and headed down to the beach. Not super sunny or hot, but exactly the low key Plettenberg Bay experience I was looking for. The water was too cold to take a dip, but I put in my yellow toe nails:

The hotel had booked us reservations at their restaurant that were cancellable, but the convenience and sounds of the ocean worked for us. We had a relatively light dinner and continued to enjoy the waves through the night!