- secret hidden gem
- indigenous forests
- otter trail
- most stunning stretches of coastline in the world
- nature-lovers paradise
- adventures to suit the not so fit and the fittest
- breathless views
- rugged coastline
- walking trails
- discounts for seniors over 60
- birding utopia
- game watching
- ostrich capital of the world
- magnificent caves to explore
- whale watching
- dolphin and seal experiences
- endangered Brenton blue butterfly
- spectacular free flight bird sanctuary
Why go to the Garden Route
“Recollection is the only paradise from which we cannot be turned out”- Jean Paul
I get so excited even thinking about the Garden Route! So many tourists journey to the gorgeous city of Cape Town, but never venture up the coastline of the Garden Route. To me this is the most picturesque, stunning and scenic voyage you will experience in the world! If you never go, you would have missed out on a recollection of paradise.
From a rugged coastline, to stunning beaches. Rivers of fury to tranquil springs. Forests preserved and trees of magnificence! Whales and dolphins that flout their good looks and abundance. Ostriches, wild birds, caves, hikes, game drives and gorgeous accommodation! What more could one want on a vacation. Seniors this is a serious must!
How to get to the Garden Route
Flying
I would suggest flying directly from Cape Town to George. The flying distance from Cape Town International Airport to George airport is 217.06 miles or 349.33 km. When I go from Cape Town to the Garden Route, I prefer to fly from airport to airport. It is not a long flight and Airlink is a fabulous airline to travel on. You can hire a car at George or get picked up by a tour operator at the airport ready to begin your adventure.
By car
Or if you have a bit of extra time, hire a car and drive up. The scenery is spectacular. It is 432.17 km driving time and will take approximately 3 hrs and 52 min depending on the speed you are traveling.
Train
Another incredible trip to take from Cape Town to George, is going by train. Either on the Blue Train or Rovos Rail! This is a specialty in itself. The expedition is exceptional and picturesque with all the luxury treatment you could ask for and even more. The trip is only 24 hours, but the regimen you will receive on either one of these trains is never forgotten.
Group travel
If you are traveling with a group the benefits can be immense. The group organizers get great flight and accommodation deals. They tailor make your requirements at affordable prices.
Tour Operators
Having a Tour Operator organize everything for you is often the best way to go. They do know all these fabulous places and their qualified guides are expertly clued up and relate everything to you with passion. They will make up your tailor-made tour and there buses eliminate the need for you to hire a car or look for the perfect hotel. Wimberger SA Tours are ideal for seniors. They do not have too many people on their tours, and all three women know the area backwards. These private organised tours are personal and not overwhelming.
Tips on where to go on the Garden Route
Let us start with George and continue outwards in both directions
What a stunning small airport, inside and out! Your tour operator or tour guide would pick you up outside this quaint airport. Or collect your rental car and begin your paradise adventure!
Recommended Places you visit
Redberry Farm
Redberry Farm‘s name tells you what the main attraction is. Pick your own variety of delicious strawberries while still fresh and juicy! Lovely to nibble on while you are traveling. Your shoes must be comfortable and choose your own selection. Fill your container to the brim!
After your picking experience, either have a Framboos Handcrafted Ice Cream or a delicious Noshery Pizza. After a scrumptious meal, go for a walk in the Hedge Maze, which is the largest permanent maze in South Africa. It is a maze with a difference. You need to find the 7 strawberry stations inside.
Even though I am a senior, my appeal to little bunnies is always within me, so I do go see the Redberry Rabbits! I cannot resist this.
The bumper and paddle boats we also enjoyed and don’t tell anyone, I had to go on the mini train. What a lovely venture!
Chandelier Game Lodge & Ostrich Farm Show
Feel like an ostrich ride? I wouldn’t either, but I do enjoy feeding them.
Some facts about the ostrich not everyone knows:
- ostriches swallow pebbles to grind their food as they have no teeth
- the male ostrich has black feathers and the female grey brown
- they are the fasters running birds in the world
- the eye of an ostrich is the largest of any land animal so they can see there predator from far off
- ostrich eggs are huge and the biggest of all living birds. The empty, unfertilised shells are decorated and sold throughout the world. Gala Star been the leader in this industry.
- ostriches can go without drinking water for a couple of days, but do enjoy a bath when they get an opportunity
On your trip to the game lodge you will experience the verdant green of the Garden Route, then it will start to change to open spaces of the Klein Karoo.
The Outenique and Swartberg mountains will be your compass. It is 48km from the George airport.
There is just so much to do and learn at Chandelier Game Lodge & Ostrich Farm. Wise to spend a night. I have included this lodge in my Recommended section for Accommodation.
Among many other enchantments, you can have a “Giraffe Experience” with Shorty and Sheila who choose to stay close to the restaurant. Why because they get treats from the guests! Did you know a giraffes tongue is purple and approximately 45-50cm/ 18-20in long? Also a fact which I find amazing is that a giraffe does not have a larynx (voice box) so they never say a word!
This lodge comes highly recommended! Quite an experience!
The Cango Caves
A masterpiece of stalactites and stalagmites will make you gasp! A stalactite which is an icicle-shaped formation which hangs from the ceiling of the cave with pointed tips and the stalagmite grows from mineral deposits upwards from the ground. These have more rounded tips.
The Cango Caves are ancient and stretch for miles into the far-reaching limestone hills of the Swartberg mountains. This is a must for your bucket list!
As a senior I would advise the Heritage Tour, where you will venture into the phantastic, almighty halls. There are very few staircases, but the sights are splendid!
Wilderness River Safaris
I get sea sick on any water other than the large cruise ships and the Wilderness River Cruise which goes out for a beautiful 1.30 hour trip. The boat cruises up and down the Touw River. You will be exposed to a chorus of wild birds, bewitching forests, lagoon and wetland.
You can also go from one destination, the Wilderness Village to the Wilderness National Park which is a super way to include this park in your travels.
Wilderness National Park
If you are an adventurous senior, the Wilderness National Park is a hikers ecstasy. It stretches from the Touw River’s mouth to beyond the Swartvlei Estuary. If you do not relish hiking, you can stroll alongside the Touw River. You can experience the unblemished beach, wild natural forests, breath-taking Touw River and a frame of mountains. Three lakes, the Eilandvlei, Langvlei and Rondevlei are connected by the Touw river and have been proclaimed as a Ramsar site (wetlands of international importance). It is amazing what aquatic life can be found in and around these lakes.
For the extreme adventurous senior, you can go canoeing and abseiling. I personally love the bird life. Common to the area are the Egyptian Goose, Cape Shoveler, Red-knobbed Coot, Knysna Turaco (Knysna Loerie), Cape White-eye and many more. For birding enthusiasts there are 5 different species of Kingfisher. I have seen two. Other bird life are found in abundance, but you do need time to observe and wait.
A favorite for all visitors is the search for the Pansy Shell and Knysna Seahorse on the Wilderness Beach.
The wildlife found are the smaller unique species, although the warthog and vervet monkey are pronounced throughout. One of my favored is the Cape clawless otter. This little fellow has webbed feet for swimming and is found near shallow water bodies.
Knysna Lagoon Boat Cruise
Fabulous cruise to go encounter. It takes 75 minutes on the lagoon out to the Heads. The Knysna Heads are a pair of sandstone cliffs that separate the lagoon from the sea.
Have breakfast or lunch at Ile de pain restaurant on Thesen Islands. Bread made fresh and delicious!
Spoil yourself with a mouthwatering meal at 34 Degrees South at the Knysna waterfront, the Knysna Quay. Knysna Oysters are known for their taste and size and visitors flock to indulge their taste buds at this restaurant. Personally, I cannot have enough of their hake! The taste is gorgeous!
RPRX – Real People Real Xperience
The Cape is known for it’s wine making, but RPRX – Real People Real Xperience is a outing where you can distill your very own bottle of gin under a local distillers guidance! This is unique and exciting! They are at the Wilderness Hotel. Such fun!
Knysna Elephant Park
“Of all African animals, the elephant is the most difficult for man to live with, yet its passing – if this must come – seems the most tragic of all. I can watch elephants (and elephants alone) for hours at a time, for sooner or later the elephant will do something very strange such as mow grass with its toenails or draw the tusks from the rotted carcass of another elephant and carry them off into the bush. There is mystery behind that masked gray visage, and ancient life force, delicate and mighty, awesome and enchanted, commanding the silence ordinarily reserved for mountain peaks, great fires, and the sea.” – Peter Matthiessen
When coming to South Africa, you have to see elephants! What is so special about the Knysna Elephant Park, is that you can, with respect, have close encounters with these 10 herd giants. They roam around freely, with no fences restricting them in, but they are not the normal elephants found in the game reserves in South Africa. These splendid mammals have either been rescued from culls, a circus or are orphans. The Park houses and cares for them.
Some interesting facts about the elephant
- they are huge. Weigh up to 6000kg
- two long curved tusks protrude out from either side of the trunk. all elephants are born with these large incisors, but after a year these baby tusks fall out. They then grow their permanent tusks throughout the rest of their lives.
- the trunk is adroit and the tip of the trunk has two fingers which are nimble and agile. They use their trunk for many different purposes, such as giving themselves a bath, drinking, loving their calves and lifting large objects.
- low “rumblings” is the main sound they make when communicating with each other, although they can make many other sounds. They are great social networkers.
- did you know the elephant can hear up to 10km’s away in good conditions? These large ears also help to cool themselves when it is hot, or show aggression or joy by flapping them.
- they have incredible compassion for others in their herd.
- you know the saying “an elephant never forgets”. They don’t
The guide at the Park will give you so much more information about these impressive creatures. You won’t forget them and I am sure they won’t forget you!
Birds of Eden Free Flight Sanctuary
The first time I was at the Birds of Eden Free Flight Sanctuary was at a bi-annual meeting of Skal International. (Skal is an international organization that connects all the sectors of the tourism industry. We promote global tourism and friendship.) The meeting took place in the forest of the Birds of Eden. I was blown away and felt totally breathless as I experienced this secret sanctuary!
This is why I love traveling! There are 220 different types of birds and over 3500 birds in this giant enclosed haven. Beautiful, magnificent exotic, African and previously caged birds everywhere! The environment of forests, bridges, water and flight, gave me a sensation of pure joy!
On your travels, include this on your journey! You will not be disappointed!
Monkeyland Primate Sanctuary
Monkeyland and Birds of Eden are so close to each other that both can be appreciated in one day. The multi-species primates roam free in the sanctuary. Your guide will educate you on the 10 variety of species. In total there are over 550 primates.
Free roaming in the forest, primates observe you as you observe them. A fabulous experience!
Woodville Big Tree & Wandelpad Forest Walk
The first time I saw the Outenique Yellowwood Big Tree, I must have been about 7years old. This tree of nearly 850 years old, made an immense impact on me. Then there were no regulations about climbing the tree, and my father did! Much to my mother’s horror and to the delight of us kids, he got stuck up the tree. We had to find a ranger to get him down. Today I cannot resist hugging a small portion of the tree’s trunk. To me I “feel” his wisdom!
This truly magnificent tree is only 16km from the N2. It is on the old Knysna George road. The parking area is 80m from the tree.
Walk further into the forest on the Ratel Nature Walk. Take the 2.6km or 4.2km walk. Both are fairly easy walks, but totally awesome! Many of the trees are named. The growth of forest existence is unspoiled and humbling in it’s magnificence. Streams pure and trickling! Bridges and moss carpets.
” Just touching that old tree was truly moving to me because when you touch these trees, you have such a sense of the passage of time, of history. It’s like you’re touching the essence, the very substance of life.”- Kim Novak
My favorite – Storms River
Flowing through the Tsitsikamma National Park ( Tsitsikamma being a Khoi word and translates to “place of abundant water”), the Storms River mouth is the perfect spot to view the dolphins and whales in the Indian Ocean.
The forest and gorges are verdant and abundant. This area is known for the Otter Trail, but for seniors who would like to go on this 5 day hike, which is 42km, you need to make sure you are very fit. Don’t be fooled by the distance. As this trail is internationally popular, you need to reserve your booking a year ahead. It is a magnificent trail and the saying goes, “this trail will change your life.” I went on it when I was a youngster and it made a huge impact on my life.
There is also the Dolphin Trail. At my current age of wisdom, I will be wise and rather do this trail. It is 4 days, without backpacks, luxury accommodation and in style. All the benefits of true beauty.
Often those who taste the water of the Storm’s River relate the taste to coca cola. Sweet and bubbly!
Storms River Mouth was named for a reason! The waves can be wild, but the sight to see this madness is grand and impressive! Lots to do! Canopy hikes, swinging bridges, waterfall zipline cruise, cruise up the Storms River, bungy jumping, snorkeling and swimming! All this happens in a place called “heaven”!
The accommodation along the Garden Route is also totally fabulous! See what I have recommended