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| The storm river-just before it meets the sea |
Storm river mouth
camp is perhaps the prettiest place I have ever stayed at. It is absolutely stunning.
While traveling by car from Port Elizabeth
on N2 highway, you could miss the turn into this forest reserve if you don’t
look for signs carefully. This camp is a part of the scenic Tsitsikamma
national Park in southern Cape . A narrow road of around
4 km length takes you from the N2 highway to this beautiful camp through the
woods. Once you reach it that you realise that this gem is hidden in the middle of nowhere.
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| Family huts at the camp |
I had identified this camp as a place to stay but had not
booked in advance as people in travel websites had written that if the weather
is not conducive, this camp would not be a good place to stay in winter.
They had Kayaking,
boating, bungee jumping, adventure sports water sports and even a beach.
The good part was that we had found the place; the weather
was great; and availability was not an issue during this off season. In the
complex they had oceanettes, family huts, huts, camp sites and places for day
travelers to picnic. Now that they had large oceanettes available, we jumped at
the opportunity and Kunal and I both managed a 2 bedroom oceanette each.
Oceanettes were located just where the waves crashed into the rocks.
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| Our Oceannette next to the sea |
Our oceanette had sea on 2 sides and mountains on the 3rd.
A location like this for us city dwellers is like a dream come true. To go to
the camp shop and the restaurant we had to drive around 2-3 km’s uphill. While
the kids played on the rocks near the sea, we bought loads of food from their
shop, which we could barbeque. Not only did each dwelling have a barbeque,
there were hundreds of barbeque all over the camp. These were mainly for day
visitors and for the camp sites (caravans). Packed coal and fire lighters are
available in the shop at the camp so burning the fire is not an issue.
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| View from the room |
Once the sun set, we sat next to the fire and enjoyed the
roar of the sea as it banged against the rocks. Otherwise there was complete
silence and darkness around the camp. It was nice and cold but not that cold
that we couldn’t sit outside with adequate protection. The kids had by now become expert in barbeque
cooking. In such environment you don’t need to drink too much alcohol to get a
high. Even the non drinkers were on a high.
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| Good place to have morning tea |
I got up pretty early the next morning so one could enjoy
the sunrise from the glazed windows of the bedroom. It seemed pretty unreal. Morning
tea was also special here as we wouldn’t get tired of sitting near the sea. The kids wanted to know why they couldn’t stay
here for at least a day more. They would run around, go for short hikes and
just played around. Then they went for a suspension bridge walk with Kunal and
me. I would have surely stayed here for a day more if we had not had
confirmed bookings at the lovely town of Knysna
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| Suspension bridge |
We had landed at Port Elizabeth
in the afternoon of 15th June after a 100 minute flight from Johannesburg
and had hired cars from the airport.
Tip : Most car hire Companies give you 200 km’s free mileage per day
and then charge you heavy price per km after this limit. Try to get unlimited
mileage if the price is right.
Most tourists do
a drive from the Western Cape Cape Town Southern Cape ) and then they go back. We didn’t see too
many Indians doing a self drive on this route but we did see
several Indians at Port Elizabeth
From Port Elizabeth Storm River Tstsikamma National Park South Africa
Tip : Keep your car
always stocked with chips, cokes and biscuits. You never know when you will get
a place to buy food – even on national highway.
The family wild card I had purchased came in handy at this
national park as well. Even in Storm river mouth camp we would have had to pay
conservation fee but for the wild card.
Tip : Once you buy
wild card, keep it with you all the time. There are many places which accept
this card and you save on entrance fee. We used it in Cape Town
Garden route will have hundreds of places where you could
spend a considerable period of time. There are some places with great national
parks or lovely beaches. Depending on the season, you could choose where you
could stay. Around storm river camp were the popular tourist destinations of Natures Valley Plattenberg Bay Knysna
Tip : Whenever you go on a self driving trip like this, don't be destination bound. try to be a little flexible and for that keep a day or so buffer in between.
Once again I had chosen the hotel well. Rex hotel was just a
5 mins walk away from the waterfront on one side and 5 mins walk from the big
shops on the other side. Here also we had self catering apartment and at Rs 6500
a night, this 2 bedroom apartment was value for money. It had 2 large rooms
with a living room, a big terrace and a kitchenette. The hotel had the concept
of open bathrooms in the master bedroom. So much so that the bath tub was in
the bedroom itself.
Knysna turned out to be sleepy little town. It is quite
picturesque with a lagoon, and hills cover it from all sides. I met and spoke
to many people who had shifted here post retirement. This was an off- season
for them and to top it all we had reached on a Saturday. Normally you associate
holiday towns with lively Saturday
evenings but this was different. Most shops shut down at 5 PM on Saturdays and last food order was at around 8.30 PM in a few restaurants which remained
opened. I noticed at least 5 shops/restaurants whose owners had shut shop for
around a fortnight and had gone off for their own holidays. I was later told
that many people were taking a break before the annual Oyster festival which
was to commence at the beginning of July. 65000 tourists were expected for this
festival and all hotels had already been booked. Oyster-related events include the annual
oyster-shucking (opening) competition, the ever-popular oyster eating
competition and the Pick n Pay Oyster & Wine Mardi Gras – a fabulous
evening of oysters and wine tasting. But this festival was not all about
Oysters. There were cycle races, marathons and around 100 exciting events which
were schedule in the 10 day festival. The South African Navy also makes
a grand entrance at that time through the Knysna Heads in their huge
minesweepers and their band entertains the public on waterfront. This festival
is held to give the economy of the town a bit of a fillip during the low winter
season.
In this sleepy town our bodies started relaxing after a week
of non stop action. This was our 7th hotel in 8th days.
With nothing much to do, it was time to utilize the bath tub
!
We were in Knysna for 2 days and there was a temptation to
go Golfing on the 2nd day. It had 3 or 4 golf courses of repute in close
vicinity. It also had a famous cruise to what is known as ‘Knysna Heads’ and
this included being taken up the’ head ‘or one of the cliffs on a special
vehicle and come down walking through a walking trail in what is known as
featherbed reserve on this mountain.
Tip : Given a choice, the featherbed cruise is better than
the normal cruise.
Knysna town is
primarily built on the northern shore of a large warm-water estuary, fed by
the Knysna River. The estuary opens
to the ocean after passing between two large headlands. These are popularly
known as "The Heads", and have become infamous due to the loss of
boats and fishermen passing through their treacherous and
unpredictable waters.
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| The Head |
We couldn’t play any Golf nor could we go up the ‘heads’ as
it rained most of the 2nd day. Just as well, as we could relax, have
lazy lunch with beer and could drive up to the base of the ‘heads’ for some
photographs and have coffee in one of
the cafes there. The views were brilliant and we only came back after the
sunset.
We could have carried on towards Cape
Town passing scenic towns like Swellendam, Hermanus,
Wilderness and Mossel Bay Garden
Route . Hermanus could not have been avoided if
this had been a whale season as Hermanus is the best place for whale watching.
But whales only start coming towards end July and we had already seen the
beauty of the sea last 4 days from close quarters. It was now time for
mountains. There is a diversion called ‘Route 62’ which takes you over the
mountain passes to a different kind of a beauty. This route is no longer a
hidden secret. Many rate it higher than even the Garden
Route . We followed the advise of those who know
the country and from the town of ‘George’ we turned right towards the town of Outdshoorn .
We were now on Route 62.
Route 62
What is so special about Route 62 ? Once you leave the national highway N2 and
turn right from the town of 'George'
you soon pass your first mountain pass. Once you are going through the pass you
realise that this route is special. The ever changing colours of the majestic
mountains, scenic passes, rivers, vineyards and orchards in addition to the
attractions will make you want to do this route more at leisure. There are
several delightful little towns on the way and we stayed in one of them for a
night. The town we stayed in was called ‘Robertson’ and we were fortunate to
find a nice hotel called the Ballenderry which is run by the Belgian couple Luc
and Hilde. They made us very comfortable and it was fun chatting with Luc over
drinks. Robertson falls in the wine country and this route 62 has perhaps the
longest wine route in the world.
Actually it’s the town of Outdshoorn in which we spent some
time as the Cango Caves are situated 31 km’s into the mountains after we take a
diversion from Outdshoorn. These natural caves have spectacular limestone Stalactites
and Stalagmites. Perfect for those who may have studied Geography.
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| The Cango Caves |
A guided
tour was very knowledgeable and for the adventurous they have an adventure tour
as well in which you have to squeeze through cave crevasses. Outdshoorn also
has the Ostrich farms where you can play with Ostriches and even ride them. Not
many will order an ‘Ostrich burger’ once you play with one.
Going up and down the several spectacular mountain passes and crossing farms and vineries, what
would actually take our breath away were the different types and colours of
mountains we would encounter with each turn. It was a delight driving up to Cape
Town through all these passes, little towns, and the
region known as little Karoo .
We started from Robertson at around 9.30 AM and it took us around 2 and a half hours to get
to our hotel in Cape Town passing through one of the longest tunnels that I have ever seen.We were spending full 4 days at Cape Town. We Port Elizabeth to Cape
Town . The distance would be around 1200 km’s. If I
were to do this again, I would do it in 10 days.
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