Knysna
Today was an early morning. We got up at 5:20 am to go for an elephant ride. We wanted to make sure we left early enough to make our 6:30 am reservations. The Knysna Elephant park was easy to find and we made it there with plenty of time to spare. The elephant ride was very cool. Troy and I rode on Sally together. Sally was one of the first Elephants to arrive at the park in 1994. She is 25 years old and won’t reach her full height until she is 35 years old. It was a very enjoyable experience. While on the ride they took several pictures and made a montage of us on Sally and with others from the group from several spots around the park.
After the ride we headed back to our place for breakfast which was served outside on the deck. After breakfast we headed out to tour The Heads, which is the entry point from the Indian Ocean into the estuary. We were moving around admiring the scenery when a lady told us there were whales in the opening of the estuary. Sure enough we turn around and you could see shadows of the whales just floating under the water.
More common and a bit more dense than humpbacks, the African Southern Right whales are quite large. We stood and watched them for a while and they started to become more active. We took several great pictures of the whales playing in ocean. We decided to return down the hillside from the scenic overview and head near the water to East Head Cafe that was recommended to us by our hostess at the B&B. We thought the whales had moved, but they didn’t and we ended up eating at the nearest table to the water right where the whales were still floating around which made for quite a lunch time show.
After a few hours touring Knysna we returned to Villa Afrikana and sat out by the pool until dinner. The service at Villa Afrikana is second to none and we enjoyed conversation with the owner Ross and took in the relaxing vibe. Later we went to JJ’s and had a wide assortment of entree’s (Kingclip, Crocodile and Gemsbok). Sad to leave Knysna and Villa Afrikana but our next adventure in Addo awaits.