On Wednesday while in Mossel Bay we made a plan for the rest of our time on the Garden Route. The weather reports were not promising, as a cold front was moving in. We had been very fortunate in our weather on this trip--some rain, some wind, but nothing that prevented us from doing anything important. But this was going to really gonna knock out any plans for a lazy, full on, sitting on the beach in the day on the Indian Ocean.
On Thursday we drove to Knysna, a highly regarded resort town in the heart of the Garden Route. Knysna is town with a large beautiful lagoon and the entry point to the Indian Ocean is a relatively small opening matched by high, rounded rock faces on ether side, called the Knysna Heads. There is a treacherous bar just outside the opening making navigation through challenging at best. The British Royal Navy once deemed it the most dangerous harbor entrance in the world.
We booked 3 nights in a high end hotel on the waterfront, the Protea Marriott. The plan was that if we were stuck in our room it would be a nice room. It was a good choice. Located right in the heart of the waterfront, it was walking distance to shops and restaurants, had a great breakfast, and was quite comfortable.
Sure enough, the clouds rolled in as we rolled into town, and the temperature dropped. We were hopeful we'd catch the last of the sun in a sunset cruise on the lagoon, since no sun was predicted for the rest of our time there. It was not to be. We took the tour boat out and we crept along to the harbor entrance, but no sun was seen. And it got cold. But we did manage to have some fun drinks and heard all about the history of the lagoon.
Loadshedding was happening all over the country this week due to problems with power generation. As I have noted, it didn't seem to slow anybody down. Our fancy hotel had a generator that kept everything going including TV and WiFi. But the lights were out all over, and when we ventured out to find dinner, I almost fell into the canal. But no worries. We had another tremendous dinner by candlelight.
On Friday we had another cool, dark damp day. We took it easy and walked into town and out to Thiessen Island, an local enclave for the rich. We shopped. We had another tremendous dinner. More loadshedding took place, but this was the last of it.
On Saturday, there was no change in the weather. We drove out to Knysna Heads and had lunch at the East End Cafe, which sits at the entrance to the harbor.
After lunch, we explored the area, and it was as rough there as advertised.
We saw plenty of tour boats go out through the harbor opening, only to look things over and turn around.
It wasn't what we expected from our Garden Route adventure, but it ended up being a nice finish to our time in Knysna. Later on, we had another great dinner on the waterfront, and called it a night.
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