Beach, Wind & Sea - Relaxing in and around Knysna

Sunday 10.1.2016

At Da Mario on the other side of the little water arm, we sit in the sun for breakfast and enjoy delicious coffee, toast with cheese, and yogurt with honey and muesli.

Armed with bathing suits, we drive around the lagoon of Knysna and on the east side over the hill to Brenton-on-Sea. You can't really make out a real place, but above the magnificent bay there is a parking lot, even two restaurants, and halfway down the footpath to the endless beach there is a toilet. A warning sign on the beach tells us that swimming is prohibited here (again), even in German!

Actually, the beach is completely empty and besides a few people standing near the beach in the water, there is really no one swimming. The water temperatures, combined with currents and sharks, are not really inviting either. There is no shade here, but our beach chairs come in handy. The thermometer shows 25 degrees, a light breeze, dry heat - a great Sunday!

Finally, some reading! After 3.5 hours and several retreats from the incoming water, we are on our way back to Knysna to exchange the boat tour tickets that we bought for 18:00. Meanwhile, the weather is not so nice anymore, so we prefer to do the boat tour tomorrow instead of now with wind and low-hanging clouds. Fortunately, we succeed in exchanging the tickets and we drive with the car to the end of Knysna Lagoon to the Knysna Heads.

Knysna Lagoon

Knysna Heads with a view of the open sea

These are practically two opposing rocks that mark the exit of the lagoon. Noble mansions are located up here and there is a beautiful lookout. We look out over the lagoon with Leisure and Thesen's Island and in the other direction towards the Indian Ocean. Wild waves, quite a bit of wind, and very small coves far below where a few people sit in the sun. This is not intended for swimming either.

The sun graciously comes out again and we drive to Leisure Isle. The path leads across flat marshland to the 'mainland'. 

There are really very noble mansions here, some old, some brand new. A quiet spot, driving at a snail's pace along narrow streets - the world seems to be in order here. But almost all houses are equipped with security companies - as the signs at the entrances show. So maybe not everything is in order?

Leisure Isle

Back in Knysna, we turn onto Long Street towards Thesen's Island. Again, everything is quiet. No shops are open anymore, although we can identify some kind of shopping/tourist center here. Only 2 places are still open. It's 17:00 and too early for dinner. So we drive around the island and look at the fancy houses before returning to Knysna.

Actually, we wanted to go to "34° South", which is practically mentioned in every travel guide as "the" fish restaurant in Knysna. You can sit outside here, if not - like tonight - the plastic awnings are rolled down because of a strong breeze. So even when "sitting outside", you are now sitting inside. On top of that, it is now 7:00 p.m. and it's packed - even the interior, which is very large. The noise level is awful and you can't make a reservation - so we won't eat here. It's not worth waiting, so we continue along the Waterfront. Our breakfast pizzeria is also full. At the end of the upper floor on the Waterfront, we finally find the last restaurant, JJ's. Here we get the last table by the open window and enjoy a really delicious meal in the nice surroundings of a kind of fishing hut. I order Scallops and Hake with salad. Finally, there is Malva Pudding - the famous South African dessert. When a huge cockroach runs across the wall behind our table, I'm glad that we have already paid and we stumble back to the apartment, where we drink 1.5 bottles of wine from Stellenbosch - what a night!