It was strange to hear Christmas music playing at breakfast on Christmas Day morning when the sun was shining brightly and there wasn’t a cloud in sight
My thoughts turned briefly to Christmas that morning, as I relaxed at breakfast and sent a few good wishes back home via my phone. When I thought about my usual Christmas morning of rushing around the kitchen expecting guests for turkey and trimmings, any negative thoughts about being away for the festive season soon diminished. It was nearly time to set off for our next destination – Knysna.
The morning was soon spent on the road, which took about two hours. Another scenic route terminated at the Knysna Waterfront, overlooking the beautiful Knysna lagoon. The Waterfront is fairly small, but vibrant and offers an array of restaurants and shops selling everything from souvenirs to high-end clothing. Knysna is famous for its oyster festival, as well as being a great place to relax. It was soon time to chill out by the pool for a while and have a well-earned Christmas Day drink!
Early evening, we ventured out for Christmas dinner via the hotel foyer which housed quite a large sparkly Christmas tree – the best we had seen since our arrival in South Africa. Our meal consisted of anything but turkey, and there was even crocodile and zebra on the menu! We had a very memorable meal in JJ’s restaurant, where we were even graced with some African singers.
There are a few places of interest within about an hour and a half’s drive away from Knysna, and these include Knysna Elephant Park, Monkeyland, Birds of Eden, Plettenburg bay and Mossel bay (the place to go shark cage diving). We would have loved to have had the time to visit all these places, but there simply wasn’t enough time to do everything. So, on Boxing Day we opted to go out to Featherbed Nature Reserve, which is a private nature reserve and only accessible by boat.
The boat took us across to the western head, where we had to climb onto a trailer driven by a 4x4 vehicle. This took us high up the headland and into the reserve. Views were spectacular and our return journey from the headline was performed on foot. It took about an hour to walk down, and some of the paths were steep. We eventually reached the water’s edge, where we ambled along by rocks and then went through an incredible tunnel in the side of the cliff. The salty scent of the ocean and the sound of the waves lapping over the rocks were soon all safely stored away in my memories of the day. We eventually reached the only café on the reserve, where we stopped for light refreshments before returning to our boat.
