After the horrific experience of bungee jumping off Bloukrans Bridge, it was time to spend the rest of the day at a more mellow pace exploring towns and sights along the Garden Route.

The first stop took my mind off bungee jumping straight away, because from the moment I entered I was surrounded by my two favourite monkeys.

Monkeyland

Yes that’s right the first stop was called Monkeyland. It’s located in Plettenberg Bay along the Garden Route. According to their website it’s the world’s first free roaming multi-species primate sanctuary. They have made an effort in rehabilitating and freeing previously caged primates. Visitors are taken on a tour of the forest in the hopes of seeing the animals.

But don’t worry, because there are a lot of monkeys!

Most importantly, I found my favourite monkey the ring-tailed lemur (Note to self: I really need to go to Madagascar one day to see lemurs in their natural habitat)…

…and my second favourite monkey, the squirrel monkey. The squirrel monkeys are actually really easy to find because they are very cheeky and they hang around the restaurant to steal food from people.

There were many more monkeys of course, which I cannot name so easily.

And there’s also a rickety bridge which will give you that real jungle feeling.

Knysna

The next stop on the Garden Route was Knysna. The town is built on the shore of a large warm-water estuary, known as the Knysna Lagoon. The estuary opens to the ocean after passing between two large headlands. These are known as “The Heads”, and have become infamous due to the loss of boats and fishermen passing through their treacherous and unpredictable waters. I guess boatmen really had issues with the coasts in South Africa, since Cape of Good Hope also caused a lot of deaths.

I can recommend East Head Cafe as a place to go for lunch and to enjoy the view over “The Heads”, the lagoon and the ocean.

Since bungee jumping wasn’t enough excitement in one day… I also went Quad Biking near Knysna. This was my first time on a quad bike and if I would’ve been racing through the jungle like my friend and the owner, I would’ve been super scared. I didn’t feel like the bike would remain upright the whole time. The owner kept telling me it wouldn’t fall over and I kind of believed him until I got stuck in a ditch and almost toppled over and couldn’t get myself out of the ditch anymore. That’s when I completely stopped believing him. I jumped off the bike and left it to the owner to save me. I think quad biking is better learned on a more stable terrain than a jungle floor. It was exhilarating though at my own slow pace.

There’s no big story in the below photo, this cute little dog was the guard dog of the hostel I was staying in. This hostel has since been closed so no reason to mention it or describe it.

Swellendam

Swellendam was the last stop on the Garden Route before reaching Cape Agulhas. This town is special because it is the third oldest town in South Africa and therefore it contains a lot of provincial heritage sights built in the style of the Cape Dutch architecture. As a Dutchie, I felt right at home.

The Drostdy (which is now a museum) was built by the Dutch East India Company in 1747 to serve as residence and official headquarters for the Landdrost (Dutch stewards). Soon after a gaol, a house for the secretary, a mill and various outbuildings were erected. The museum mainly contains the old buildings to give you an idea how it used to look like.

The Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk in Swellendam.

Monument in Swellendam to the coronation of George V

Conclusion

There are so many things to see and do along the Garden Route, that you have to make choices. I only had 1.5 days to explore the area so I only managed four stops (the first stop was the bungee jump in Tsitsikamma National Park). It’s a great area to explore on your way back to Cape Town. In my next blog post I will describe Cape Agulhas, the geographically most southern tip of Africa and the place where the Indian Ocean and Atlantic Ocean meet.