South Africa – The Garden Route and Wild Coast
What we did
We flew into East London (the South African town, we aren’t in England all of a sudden!) where we picked up a hire car and drove an hour up the coast to Chinsta, where we spent 3 nights at Buccaneers backpackers. We were lucky enough to be upgraded to a room with incredible views of the ocean and surrounding hills, which we gazed upon through our open French doors – a past-time which became thoroughly less enjoyable when a hive of angry wasps was discovered under our balcony.
After our long journey to get here we felt very entitled to spend a couple of days doing very little, and this was the perfect place for it. We took a dip in the rather rough ocean, swam in the pool and visited a local brewery for a beer tasting. Every evening we enjoyed homecooked meals that the hostel prepared and served in a family style dining room, where we were surprisingly the youngest people by quite some years! We also made a visit to the Emerald Vale Brewery, where we enjoyed a very good value tasting board and some amazing burgers.
From Chinsta we had a long day of driving to reach Plettenberg Bay (‘Plet’) and the Garden Route. These several hours on the road were something of a trial by fire. Driving on South Africa’s highways and rural roads for a couple of city-slicking Canberrans was a touch traumatic.
We stopped off along the way in quaint little Grahmstown and the surfer’s paradise that is Jeffrey’s Bay, and admired the incredible views as we crossed suspension bridges above gorges and canyons. We spent 3 nights in Plet at Nothando Backpackers, and discovered on our first night that the backpackers had a French chef running a little restaurant out of the kitchen! We ate at ‘Chez Laurent’ the first night, and it was so good that we ended up eating there every night, including Valentine’s day where he treated us to beautifully cooked steaks and Crème brûlée at criminally cheap prices.
We spent our days in Plet swimming in the beautiful (albeit brisk) ocean and spent an amazing morning swimming with a colony of cape fur seals with Offshore Adventures! We also had our biggest struggles with South Africa’s current power situation here, where the power company uses rolling scheduled power outages as there is not enough supply to meet the countries demand. It was very hot in Plet, so having no power and hence no fan in our room for a few hours in the middle of the day or night while we were trying to sleep was a struggle!
Our next stop after Plet was Wilderness, which was only a short two hour drive along the coast. We stopped along the way in Knysna and took in the incredible views from the top of the Knysna heads, as well as having a delicious lunch at the idyllic East Head Café overlooking the heads.
We spent two nights in Wilderness, which we found to be a quaint little town. It was probably our least favourite stop along the coast, partly because the sea was very rough and full of bluebottles so we couldn’t swim, and partly because of our hostel which had, among other things, rather translucent shower screens in the communal bathrooms! That said, we managed to while away a pleasant two days here, enjoying a lazy day working on the blog at a little coffee shop (the Green Shed) and paying a visit to the Wilderness Hotel, where Kirsten’s maternal grandparents came on their honeymoon in 1946!
We also finally got back into our hiking boots for the magnificent Half Collared Kingfisher Trail through the nature reserve and up to a waterfall.
After the hike we hopped back in the car and turned away from the coast for the drive to our next destination – Oudtshoorn (have a crack at pronouncing that!) in the Karoo. Oudtshoorn is an Afrikaner stronghold and once made its fortunes in the Ostrich trade. It’s still known for its ostrich farms, although the business is not as lucrative as it used to be in the days when ostrich feather boas were the height of fashion for society ladies! We loved Oudtshoorn – it was such a cute little town with so much to do, and it was CHEAP to boot! We only had two nights and one day here, which we crammed full of activities. We started with a visit to an Ostrich farm where we got up close to pat and feed the darling Betsy. We were then treated to a “neck massage” from the ostriches, an experience which was more traumatizing than relaxing and resulted in a great deal of bird feed finding its way into our undergarments.
An Ostrich ‘neck massage’ 
Master craftsman pumping out Ostrich-Feather dusters every 30 seconds! 
Ostrich eggs are so strong you can stand on them!
We had a beautiful lunch and wine tasting at the Karusa winery. The wines were VERY reasonably priced (A$6 – 8 each) so we picked up a few of our favourites to take on to Cape Town with us!
Then we finished off the day with a visit to the Cango Wildlife Ranch, where we saw many rescued animals and got to pat some of the resident hand-reared cheetahs! Both nights we ate at Nostalgie – a local bistro serving delicious traditional Afrikaner dishes at very good prices!
From Oudtshoorn we had a long day of driving all the way back to Cape Town. It was very misty and we could barely see a few meters in front of us as we drove over the mountains at the start of the day, but the weather cleared miraculously and we were treated to magnificent views of the mountains as we drove through Paarl and into Cape Town, at long last catching sight of Table Mountain.
Favourite thing we did
After some intense debate, we decided that the Half Collared Kingfisher Trail in Wilderness was our favourite activity from our time on the Garden Route and Wild Coast. It is a stunning hike through a shady forest and along boardwalks amongst the trees. At one point we came upon a river where we could use a rope to pull ourselves across on a pontoon.
The turnaround point for the hike was at a beautiful waterfall, where we stopped for a picnic lunch and a quick dip in the rather chilly water which was also somewhat orange (from the tannins in the fallen leaves upstream).
It’s a fairly popular trail, but even at the waterfall site you won’t feel that it is too overcrowded. It’s also one of the safest walks along the coast, as the track has one entry point which is overseen by park rangers. This last detail was something we really appreciated, as there were quite a few spectacular hikes all along the coast that we considered doing. Unfortunately, quite a few of these have recently had some instances of people being robbed or assaulted. A charming walk, also in Wilderness, that follows the old disused train lines of the town, was where a European couple were robbed and stabbed just a few weeks before we arrived. So, when looking for great hikes along the Wild Coast or Garden Route, we recommend electing the no stabby-stabby option.
Biggest splurge
It is a pretty easy call to say that our morning of snorkelling alongside a colony of Cape Fur Seals with Offshore Adventures was a big splurge. But it was well worth it! The seals were extremely playful and curious, particularly the babies, coming up and swimming between our legs and nipping at our flippers! We had about a half hour with the seals in the bracing water. Wetsuits were included and were very much a necessity!
Least favourite thing we did
Driving around the N2 and the more minor roads along the coast is an unenviable experience and definitely our least favourite aspect abut travelling along the Garden Route and Wild Coast. South African highways have a speed limit of 120km/hr which is incidentally the top speed of local inhabitant, the Cheetah. We’ve surmised this must be the basis of the speed limit, because why in the hell does anyone need to be going anywhere at 120kph (and often faster). Overtaking on single lane roads, around blind corners, uphill, with no shoulder is fairly standard practice.
Paired with the often-mysterious signage and abstract road markings – all of which are quite open to interpretation it turns out – we found it a big relief to at last reach our destination town at the end of each long drive. Of course, that’s usually when we encountered a series of terrifying of four-way-stops.
A quick stop at the Storm River bridge, one of the many impressive coastline bridges on the road to Cape Town 
Favourite thing we ate
The three dinners we had at Chez Laurent, the little French restaurant attached to our backpackers in Plettenberg, were by far and away the best meals of this part of the trip. Chef Laurent is an exceptional cook who is generous in personality and plate portioning. The chicken schnitzel he served us (three times, it was that good) will forever set a benchmark that we don’t see being surpassed in our lifetime. On Valentines he prepared a magnificent beef fillet with peppercorn sauce and a crème brûlée that left us immensely satisfied.
Favourite thing we drank
At a fantastic little Asian-Fusion restaurant in Plettenberg Bay, the Golden Palm, Tim’s prayers were answered when he discovered that Bundaberg Ginger Beer was available for purchase. The food here was excellent too, we had the mouth-watering Teriyaki Bowls.
But Kirsten’s pick for favourite drink this time round was the many (many, many) glasses of exceptional South African wines we sampled between tastings and take-home bottles. Having stuck to beer and the occasional cocktail throughout most of East Africa, it was a refreshing change to sample some local vino.
Best deal
Rather than any one moment, activity, meal or location in this two-week period, we’re declaring our entire stay in Oudtshoorn as the best deal we found. This beautiful and charming town really went well beyond our expectations and was jam packed full of great-value experiences.
Our accommodation in Oudtshoorn was at the terrific Backpackers Paradise which while being similarly priced to most of our other backpackers locations on the coast (roughly $60AUD a night) it turned out to be a great deal as our hosts provided us with vouchers for just about every activity in Oudtshoorn as well as many helpful recommendations. Also, at breakfast there you have the option of having regular chicken eggs with your in-house baked bread or treating yourself to some cholesterol bombing Ostrich eggs, for no extra cost (except perhaps the cost to your health).
We finally ventured on our first Winery visit in South Africa at Karusa Vineyard, just outside the main town of Oudtshoorn. The white wine tasting was not only a great experience and fabulous selection of wines, but was also DIRT CHEAP! Our one tasting board – which was plenty for the two of us, thanks to the generous pours – was a measly 50 Rand ($5AUD). We paired it with a charcuterie board and pizza which again were exceptional value.
Cango Wildlife Ranch was also incredible value, as most of the entry packages include at least one up close encounter with one of the inhabitants of the zoo. We both had the chance to get up close with Cheetahs within the enclosures and the staff who guided us around were all fantastic. The milkshakes at the café there are a must!
On both nights here we dined at Nostalgie restaurant on the main road through Oudtshoorn. With many traditional Afrikaner dishes of the Karoo Cuisine variety on the menu, we were treated to some great dishes. The food was excellent, but the prices for everything were a very welcome surprise.
Dinky-Di Duo 