Western Cape. January - March 2022.
4. Bontebok National Park and the Garden Route (Wilderness, Knysna and the Brakrivers).
Our Route.
Blue: Onrus to Bontebok National Park via mostly gravel roads.
Magenta: Bontebok to Wilderness where we stayed for a week, then we stopped in Knysna for a week and finally in Klein Brakriver.
Onrus to Bontebok
I think the following photo says it all about taking the back roads.
A couple of blue cranes - lovely to be able to stop by the roadside to watch them and get a photo.
Despite the cloudy skies we had some lovely views.
Bontebok National Park.
We spent a few days here doing a bit of driving around the park and also going in to Swellendam on a couple of occassions where we had a look at a few houses for sale. We enjoyed spending some quiet time at the camspite where I managed to get a few photos of the birds and animals.
We chose a nice quiet, private site with a bit of shade.
Sunset over the river at the bottom of the campsite.
The bontebok at the campsite are quite used to people!
A striped mouse scavanging for food.
A cape robin-chat which was always around our site.
One of a family of swallow with a nest at the ablutions block.
Onrus to Wilderness.
Rather than use the N2 highway we opted for a longer but much more interesting route through the Tradhouws Pass and then along the Scenic Cape 62 route between Barrydale and Oudtshoorn before decending via the Outiniqua Pass via George to Wilderness.
Wilderness
We based ourselves at the Ebb and Flow campsite for a week and had a look at some properties in George as we thought they might be in our price range. We were surprised to discover that properties were on a par with those in Knysna, Plettenberg Bay and Mossel Bay which are all on the coast. We also found that the whole area is hugely popular and that houses get snapped up very quickly.
Our campsite was next to the river with some shade from nearby trees.
A knysna touraco - often heard but not often seen so I was lucky to get this photo.
Knysna
We spent a week at the Woodbourne Resort which is to the south of Knysna and looked at properties in Knysna, Sedgefield, Plettenburg Bay and Mossel Bay as well as exploring the area.
Our campsite at Woodbourne which overlooked a tidal river.
The view from our site when there was very high tide one evening.
One afternoon we drove around Leisure Island which is in the Knysna Lagoon where we had lovely views. We stopped for a walk through the Steenbok Nature Reserve on the northern shore of the Island.
From the Island we had a great view of The Heads, which is a narrow channel where the lagoon enters the sea.
Walking through the Steenbok nature Reserve.
We then drove to the bottom of the Eastern Heads and explored that area.
The view of the Western Heads from the base of the Eastern Heads.
An archway created by the sea - nice and calm today.
Later we drove up to the lookout point at the top of the Eastern Heads with lovely views over the lagoon.
Kranshoek Nature Reserve.
On our way to Plettenburg Bay we stopped at the Kranshoek Reserve for a short while. We drove to the lookout point and then had a walk through the nearby forest.
Sedgefield
We had a look around Sedgefield which had good shops and a lovely beach but, sadly, very little parking at the beach. We saw several mosaics around the town.
Buffels Bay
On our way back to Knysna we stopped at Buffels Bay which has a beautiful sheltered bay so I went for a swim.
Reebok, Groot Brakrivier and Klein Brakrivier.
On our way back from looking at a house in Mossel Bay we called in at Groot Brakrivier (Great Brakriver) and went to see a house at Rheebok Village Estate which we really liked as it backed onto a small nature reserve and had views over the sea towards Mossel Bay and the inland mountains as well as being in a secure complex. We moved our van to Riverside Caravan Park in Klein Brakrivier (Little Brakriver) where we stayed for 10 days while we explored the area and ended up making an offer for the house, which was accepted.
The site was nice and quiet during the week but got busier over the weekends with families coming to enjoy the area. The campsite was next to the Little Brak River.
Our campsite at Riverside Park.
Sunset over the Little Brak River from our site.
An aerial view of our house. We knew that the plots either side of us had been sold.
The view of the nature reseve from the veranda.
Within a short drive of our house are several beaches which all had good parking.
As well as visiting some of the local beaches we did a couple of drives inland. There is a wide coastal plain and we were amazed at the number of dairy cows that we saw.
Last updated: November 2022