Garden Route Trip part 2

Second half of our trip to the Garden Route in South Africa.



The drive from Mossel Bay to Plettensberg Bay was once again not disappointing.  For someone like me who does not enjoy car rides, I would drive the Garden Route willingly every day.  The farther east we went the hills turned into mountains, there were beautiful views of the ocean, and lush gardens all around.

On the 2 hour drive we stopped half way in the town of Knysna to see the Knysna Heads which are two mountains/cliffs that have spectacular views of the town and the ocean from the top.



 It was great to have viewpoints designated that
would show you both sides and it is astonishing that boats can even make it through the narrow waters between the heads.

After viewing the sights from the Knysna Heads we went down to the waterfront area for lunch.  Another lovely seaside town and great fish to eat but sadly that was the extent of our visit to Knysna.

  

 Only a 30 minute drive east and we arrived at the house we rented in town in Plettensberg Bay and it came complete with a playground.

Since the weather was still a bit overcast we could not enjoy any of the outside activities.  One thing I did not plan for but should have expected since we have lived in South Africa for over 2 years is that lots of the businesses and restaurants would not be open on Sunday afternoons.  We strolled down the main street of Plettensberg Bay, stopping into any open  store to brows as we could not find any indoor activity to take the kids too.  Thankfully the sun came out and we spent the rest of the afternoon at the beach.






Plettensberg Bay Central Beach actually has sand unlike all the other beaches we have been at with only shells.  Grant loved running his hands through it and making marks in the sand with his stick.  Adalyn loved playing in the waves, often time turning her back to them and then would be surprised when the waves would rush into her and drench her clothing.

She had the biggest smile on her face the entire time, I only wished we had brought her swimsuit to the beach but I figured the water would be too cold and she would not want to get in.

We took a break from the beach and had another great seafood dinner, then it was back to the beach for more play.













The next morning we checked out of our house and went to Birds of Eden to visit the largest free flight aviary in the world, who knew it would be in this tiny seaside town.

I was shocked by how well maintained the aviary was and the variety of birds.  The kids loved walking the paths to view the birds, though Grant was not happy he could not touch them.  Adalyn enjoyed taking pictures of the birds with my phone and did a great job.






 After 1.5 hours of viewing all the birds we headed to the airport in Port Elizabeth to catch our flight back to Johannesburg.  Thankfully this time South African Airlines allowed us to have the seats that we previously booked and paid for.

It was a great vacation, and Mark and I agree we actually prefer the Garden Route to a single visit to Cape Town as we felt there was more to see and do.  We were surprised by how safe we felt, hardly ever seeing any security fences in all the towns.  No one spoke to us in Afrikaans, people just naturally assumed we were tourists. We would have loved to spend more time in each of the towns but glad we got to see so many of them.