South Africa Travels Blog

Situated as it is on the shores of one of the country’s largest permanent estuaries and close to the largest area of indigenous forest, Knysna has an atmosphere about it of sea and forest that is unique.

Part old world charm of the Cape, part bustling tourist town, it cannot be explored in a day, nor can the grandeur of its setting on the lagoon’s edge be appreciated without a drive up to the top of the horseshoe of green hills ;that surround it.

Perhaps the best introductory view is from the summit of the eastern Heads, a drive of ten fifteen minutes from the centre of town. Here the cliffs fall away sheer to the sea where it thunders white against red walls far below. This narrow rocky gorge is the famous Knysna Bar with all its evocative history of sailing ships seeking the calm waters of the lagoon beyond.

From this deep blue channel between the cliffs with its great flood of salt water that cleanses the whole lagoon basin with a refreshing tide each day, the colour of the estuarine water changes dramatically and in an unending combination of green and turquoise, denoting sand bars or mud flats or deep gullies.

Leisure Island with its newly built growth of holiday homes is the flat land mass immediately below as you stand looking towards the north. This newly popular residential area is bordered by a beach of white sand, creating unbeatable bathing and boating conditions stretching across to the Heads.

Across the channel, the Brenton Hills sweep majestically westwards to Belvidere with its historic Norman Church and on up along the Knysna River to where it emerges from its forested canyon, nearly ten Kilometres from the Heads.
The lagoon is Knysna’s playground and it is undoubtedly one of the finest sailing, swimming and fishing centres in South Africa.

It is accepted that through time the geographic positions, size and a number of continents on earth has changed as a result of a process known as continental drift.

Evidence that proves that South Africa and South America were once joined, indicated in that its fossils of the same Dinosaurs have been found in corresponding rock strata in both countries, but nowhere else in the world.

The Sandstone Mountains of the Eastern Free State were also formed by dust that blew from modern day Brazil. Two very important fossils that were found in Ladybrand are the ‘Diarthrognatus’ and the ‘Euskelosauras’. They are both complete skeletons that are to be seen in the National Museum in Bloemfontein.

Ladybrand lies in the fertile Caledon Valley that has been inhabited by man for thousands of years.

Many Heritage sites in South Africa are dedicated to “The Cradle of Humankind” the origin of our human ancestors, belonging to the genus Homo.