Msafiri-2017-11

34 / TRAVEL / South Africa
Left (clockwise from top
left): Sailing boats at
St. Francis Bay; Jeffreys
Bay; Surfing dolphins
in the Indian Ocean at
Jeffreys Bay
Right page: Squid fishing
boat at St. Francis Bay
Knysna fires
In June 2017, devastating fires
ripped through Knysna, destroying
and damaging more than 600 homes
and much of the local landscape.
Despite this, it’s business as usual
in Knysna. While Featherbed Nature
Reserve suffered severe damage,
the iconic Knysna Waterfront and the
popular animal sanctuaries between
Knysna and Plettenberg Bay are
operating as usual.
➔
“The light is beautiful, crisp and, in the evening,
carrying promise of incredible night skies”
Plan your trip
Kenya Airways flies from Nairobi to
Cape Town via Livingstone, Zambia,
and Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.
their 20-million-year-old limestone formations.
“Although a tourist magnet, the caves should not be missed,”
advises Bristow. “They are spectacular.”
Just north of Oudtshoorn, the astounding Swartberg
Pass zigzags in a miraculous feat of 19th-century engineering,
taking you high into the Swartberg, with a magnificent view of
the Great Karoo desert. At the foot of the pass is Prince Albert,
a little town mottled with trees and tin-roof buildings. “Prince
Albert is an oasis in a noisy world,” says photojournalist Sam
Reinders, who swapped city life for a home base here. “The
silence and the night skies can’t be found in many other places.”
IT IS ROCKET SCIENCE
As with so many villages on Route 62, it’s the people who
make this place special. “They’re the most genuine, caring and
quirky bunch you’ll find,” says Reinders, whose Instagram
feed is peppered with evocative shots of the area. “There’s an
astrophysicist farming chickens, a doctor who supplies the
town with veggies, and at the local co-op you’ll as likely run
into a world-famous palaeontologist as a sheep farmer.
Long-bearded Buddhists mix with truck-driving farmers,
artists with cheese makers, and authors with award-winning
mohair farmers.”
According to Reinders, the days in Prince Albert are hot
– siestas are taken seriously here – and it’s best to wander
the streets around sunrise or sunset, when the town’s pulse
is strongest. “The colour of the dust on the gravel roads is
luminous,” he says. “The light is beautiful, crisp and, in the
evening, carrying promise of the incredible night skies.”
SURF’S UP
Once the road touches Uniondale east of Oudtshoorn,
the landscape starts to change. “The sea begins to influence
climate and vegetation here, and you reach a much wetter part
of the Klein Karoo,” says Bristow. Through Joubertina and
on to Jeffreys Bay, high peaks loom over the orchards of
South Africa’s prime fruit-growing region.
Just over the Tsitsikamma Mountains, south of Uniondale,
is Knysna – if the lure of the Garden Route proves too strong
to resist you can leave the Klein Karoo via the Prince Alfred
Pass. At Knysna you reach the N2, which will take you along
the coast to the holiday haven of Plettenberg Bay, the marina
and fishing cottages of St Francis Bay, and finally South
Africa’s surf mecca, Jeffreys Bay. By now Port Elizabeth is a
stone’s throw away, but you might be tempted to turn and
head for the Tsitsikamma Mountains instead – there are still
many irresistible back roads to explore.
Alamy, Getty Images