Things I Love About South Africa, Post 1- Knysna

Look, I know my last post painted a rather unflattering image of South Africa. A fair number of people were offended that I dared to point out that corruption and incompetence were commonplace here. Obviously, I know not EVERYBODY here is inept or corrupt, but I do appreciate the reminders. However, these kinds of things certainly are more prevalent in South Africa than other countries I’ve experienced. There’s no denying it.

That being said, for the next ten posts, I’m going to focus on the things I love about South Africa. You know, for balance and all that crap. After all, there is a LOT to love about this country, and because it’s still fresh in my mind, I’m going to start with Knysna.

Fresh off the heels of our Botswana/Namibia trip being blown to smithereens, we decided we needed to plan another trip. This time, we’d avoid borders and any other potential hiccups. We thought, hey, it’s a super good idea to load our 4 and 7-year-old kids in our car and drive for 12.5 hours! With that in mind, we asked the magic Google to take us to Knysna and pointed our vehicle at the beach.

Everything went without a hitch- the kids were great, and we only stopped a couple of times for fuel. And then we noticed something. Knysna was only 70km away, but the Google told us we still had almost 2 hours to go. And there was no traffic. This couldn’t be right.

It was right.

OK, so I guess in hindsight there may have been a COUPLE clues we were in for a wild ride…

See, here’s the thing about Google Maps. I had it set for “fastest route,” not “please avoid taking us on 150-year-old goat trails through a mountain pass route.” But by the time we realised what was going on, it was too late.

Anybody who’s familiar with the area has probably already pieced together that we ended up taking Prince Alfred’s Pass. Prince Alfred was some guy who came to the area in the 1800’s to shoot the crap out of some elephants. So naturally, they named an engineering marvel after him, because the criteria for recognition was much more murdery and awful back in those days.

While the scenery is magnificent, the prospect of making a slight mistake and plummeting to our fiery deaths hundreds of metres down any number of the cliffs the dirt road winds around wasn’t as alluring. Oh, and we hit the pass JUST as the sun started going down, so we did a big chunk of it in pitch black.

What could possibly go wrong? There were other sections that were much more precarious, but I was too focused on not dying to take pictures.

But because nobody has ever accused me of making good decisions, on we went. After white-knuckling down the mountain, we emerged into Knysna and collapsed into our beds, too tired even to go shoot a few elephants and get stuff named after us.

One thing we’ve discovered in South Africa is that using Airbnb rentals is very often the best way to go. And we were rewarded again when we woke up to a gorgeous sunrise over the canal on Thesen Island. We were within walking distance to some great shopping, restaurants, and views, but walking is for suckers and hippies, so we took a drive around the area.

Waking up to this is almost as nice as waking up to me. Or so I’m told, anyway.

And what an area it is! Knysna is situated around the Knysna Lagoon, and the Knysna Lagoon drains and fills each day through a narrow gap called the Knysna Heads. So much water gushes through this opening that you can’t get boat insurance if you attempt to go through it (though tour operators do take the willing through several times a day).

I mean, the scenery is OK…

After our not-so-great experience just a couple of weeks before, this is just what we needed.

We spent a couple of days doing nothing extraordinary, and then our friends Mark and Gail showed up. They own a vacation house on Thesen Island and took us and the kids out into the lagoon to look for pansy shells, which are kinda like more delicate versions of the sand dollars we have in North America. We were successful (thanks Mark and Gail!), but I missed a golden opportunity to take a close up picture of a pansy shell framed by the Knysna Heads in the background and post it on Instagram because I’m not a basic white girl, and the thought didn’t occur to me until afterwards. But just imagine how beautiful that would have been. It’s the thought that counts.

We had an amazing vacation watching the ocean, the birds, the random guy walking down the beach with a bow and quiver full of arrows (wtf, South Africa???), and the sunsets. I won’t bore you with all the details, but I WILL bore you with some more pictures.

One side of the Heads

The Knysna Heads

The beaches were empty and easily accessible

Like so.

There were no safety railings on this bridge. Appalling.

We finally found some sort of decent mountains in South Africa!

He’s definitely stronger than the ocean.

We told him there were no sharks in the lagoon. We’re not entirely sure we told the truth.

A perfect end to a perfect vacation. We’ll be seeing you again, Knysna.

So anyway, here’s my point: I love Knysna. And Knysna is part of South Africa. So by extension, I love this country. And my next nine posts will talk about other reasons I’m enamoured with this place. Even if it is totally batnuts crazy at times.

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