The Garden Route

Three Hundred Kilometres Of Coast Between Mountain And Sea Where The Dry Cape Turns Green: Indigenous Forest, The Knysna Lagoon And Its Heads, Plettenberg Bay'S Beaches And Whales, The Tsitsikamma Suspension Bridges And The Storms River Mouth, With The Outeniqua And Tsitsikamma Mountains Inland And Passes Over Them Into The Little Karoo · Knysna, Western Cape

East of Cape Town the dry Cape runs out and the coast turns green. For about three hundred kilometres between Mossel Bay and Storms River the N2 runs along a strip between high mountains and the Indian Ocean that gets rain all year, and the result is indigenous forest, lagoons, long empty beaches and a string of towns that live off all three. Knysna sits on a lagoon behind two sandstone cliffs called the Heads; Plettenberg Bay has the beaches and, in season, southern right whales close inshore; Tsitsikamma at the eastern end has the suspension bridges over the Storms River mouth and the best coastal forest walking in the country. Inland, passes climb over the Outeniqua mountains into the Little Karoo, which is a different world an hour away. It is the easiest self-drive in South Africa - a good road, short distances, no malaria and no game fences - and it is what most visitors do after Cape Town.

Along the southern Cape coast between Mossel Bay and Storms River, with Knysna and Plettenberg Bay at its centre, Knysna, Western Cape, South Africa

A route rather than a site, driven at any hour, though the N2 is not a road to do in the dark if you can help it. The individual attractions keep their own hours: Tsitsikamma and Wilderness are SANParks sections with conservation fees, the Knysna Heads viewpoints and most beaches are open ground, and the forest walks are daylight. WHALE SEASON RUNS ROUGHLY JUNE TO NOVEMBER with the peak in the middle, so whales are not a year-round promise. The Tsitsikamma activities - the bridges, the bungee at Bloukrans and the boat up the gorge - each book separately and some close for weather. Knysna had severe fires in 2017 and parts of the forest are still recovering. Accommodation is dense and books out over South African Christmas and Easter. George has the nearest airport; Cape Town is four to five hours west and Port Elizabeth two east.

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