There are two places in the area where paragliders take off, Sedgefield and Map of Africa in Wilderness, so as I hadn't been there a visit was called for. Why Map of Africa?
That's the view from one side of the launch site and this is the other, unfortunate about the haze but also a stunning place to fly from and 20 k's of beach to land if you miss.
This is Copper who decided the shelf above the headboard was an ideal spot for a snooze and used to drop in occasionally, but fled to the safety of the office as soon as the Christmas crush started getting serious - we share a mutual dislike of mini humans.
Next on the to do list was Featherbed Nature Reserve which is managed by National Parks but a private company runs the tours, which includes a cruise on a launch, a road train to the top of the Western Head, a trail back down and lunch. During the boat trip, our guide took great delight in revealing the sad lives that the male Knysna seahorses lead. Only found in this estuary (not actually a lagoon at all) and the one at Sedgefield, they would be in dire trouble but for captive breeding programmes. The males have a pouch that their loving spouses fill with eggs every 31 days, so no sooner has he birthed one lot the next lot move in and he's basically "pregnant" until he croaks - and you know what we call that our hostess crowed - REVENGE.
The reason that Featherbed exists and is not covered in concrete is because the area was bought by JLB Smith, the man who identified the coelacanth. When he died it was left to National Parks and the reason for the name may be because when sailors pulled into it's tranquil bay it was like sleeping on a ........ The "train" consisted of a Unimog tractor and three trailers, carrying around 100 people. Low range, first gear and four-wheel drive were required to haul up the first part of the hill from the restuarant to the Smiths house.
From the top it's a 2 k stroll, mostly through indigenous forest back to the restaurant and the views.....
..........are rather spectacular.
There is an option of visiting a couple of sea caves and after walking over this land bridge it's 120 stairs down to get to........
................what looks like a giant throat complete with uvular.
Some rather interesting rock patterns revealed by erosion........
.......and what is rapidly beoming one of my favourites, a Black Oystercatcher. These guys have made a stupendous recovery since beach driving was banned, the biggest group I've encountered consisted of 11 individuals.
Lunch was an eclectic mix of hot and cold which was consumed under the milkwoods as the weather was glorious. It never ceases to amaze me a) how much some people eat and b) how much some people waste - gluttony of the first order.
So far I have visited four "big" trees in the massive area that is the Knysna and Tsitsikamma forest and again it is testament to mans greed that there are so few left. Up in the Diepwalle Forest near Knysna is King George V11 tree, at about 800 years old it's one of the youngest, one wonders if man will still be around when some of it's younger relatives reach the same age.
At the height of the timber frenzy a narrow gauge railway hauled the stuff to the harbour at Knysna pulled by a little locomotive called the "Coffee Pot". The driver regularly stopped to pick up anyone who needed a lift but one day asked a washer-woman who was carrying a load if she'd like to hop on and her reply was "No thanks I'm in a hurry". This loco ended up in the Transnet Museum in George which became a "must do" but had to be put on hold until after the surgery. All of which went fine though I was about as ambulatory as a nonagerian for a few days and an overnight in the hospital required a sleeping pill to replace the booze. Ten days later I was a sprightly 80 year old and decided to do the old road from Sedgefield to George, where I was to have the stitches out. Not such a great idea as I had to keep clutching myself when I hit potholes, some of the views were very impressive though.
Given the all clear by the surgeon, I decided to treat myself to a bit of steam nostalgia. Located in what must have once been maintenance sheds was a monumental array of loco's, rolling stock and just about everything else you could imagine from the era. It's enormous but after two hours my decrepit body began to give up, really need to get back when I'm over this. I would guess there must be at least 30 loco's down the ages......
..........to the all time monster, the Class 16E Garrett, designed specifically for our narrow gauge rail system and one of the biggest and most powerful of all steam locomotives.
There's also a huge selection of old cars, buses and trucks which I still need to get to and two of the original White Train coaches, specially designed and built for the Queens' visit in 1948 ot thereabouts. The local coaches were considered inferior because they weren't air-conditioned.
I took things very easy for another week, then moved out of the caravan park, put the Beast in storage and headed for Knysna to overnight in the rather swish Lagoon Lodge.
The plan was to have a few nights in Cape Town before flying to Dubai on the 25th, but that fell through so I found a place in Montagu for two nights - another of those superb Karoo gems accessed though a narrow winding poort with a hole punched through solid rock at one point. If you look closely at the ridge above and to the right of the tunnel, you may make out the walls of an old British fort. Needless to say that the sign announcing it's presence had been altered with the "o" being given a tail to convert it to "a".
As with a lot of other Karoo towns, land owners are entitled to lei water which is delivered via covered channels to irrigate fruit trees or crops. The water is drained from the Lei Dam situated near the town centre and hundreds of Cattle Egrets and Sacred Ibis have turned the trees around the dam into a massive nursery.
Many of the houses have been lovingly restored and are recognised as National monuments.
The last two nights were spent in this "Eco-cottage on the outskirts of Grabouw and though it was brill iantly designed and finished it was planted right behind the factory that builds them and obvoiusly used as a show house. The factory was closed for Christmas though, so it was quiet, but almost totally devoid of birds - as was the whole pentad around the town (or should I rather say dump). This is probably explained by the fact that it is one of the biggest fruit producing regions in the country.
Thereafter it was off to the airport, drop the bakkie with a valet service and onto a 777 for the nine hour flight to Dubai, where Sally has a lovely duplex in the massive Springs complex and what do you know, on the first morning here - it rained.
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