The next day was a travel day so after breakfast and fond farewells, we hit the road bound for Mossel Bay. Along the way we stopped at the Garden of Eden walk. This is a short walk on a wooden boardwalk through the indigenous forest which identifies the various trees and plants for you. I love a walk in the forest, especially when the trees are unfamiliar. It was lush and jungle-like with many birds. We were very pleased to see a Knysna Lourie in the wild–one of the beautiful local birds we had seen at Birds of Eden the day before.

In the woods

Back on the road, it wasn't long before we got to Knysna and went out to The Heads for a look at the view. Knysna is located on a lagoon that gives out to the sea through a narrow channel with “heads” on either side.

Looking across the lagoon to Knysna

One of the Heads

After admiring the view we went into the town of Knysna and found a place to park. Then we did some shopping. There was an open air spot with some vendors as well as some artsy shops. One cool shop made wooden boats and other craft. We found a café for lunch and had something simple while watching the people.

The Woden boat shop

Afterwards we continued on our way to Mossel Bay, another hour or so down the coast. In Mossel Bay we found our accommodation quite easily. It turned out to be a lovely loft over our hosts' house with nice views, mostly obscured by clouds by then. Our hosts were Darryl and Nadja Monson with sons Kye (3 or 4 maybe?) and Finn (1-2?), and small dog Zinkie. Darryl surfs, so he and Michael discussed the possibility of surfing together in the morning. Darryl very kindly offered to lend Michael a board so we trotted down the street to the local surf shop to see if we could find him a wetsuit to rent. We were successful and then went back to the house again and enjoyed sundowners while chatting with Darryl. Nadja had taken the boys to go swimming.

Our loft

Our dinner that evening was at a restaurant called Route 57 which Darryl had recommended. The name made us think of Route 66 so we had subconscious expectations of a casual, diner-type place. This was not the case. It turned out the restaurant had been opened by a somewhat famous South African golfer who had once shot a 57 at a local course! The ambiance was decidedly not diner-like. The food was reasonable however, and we giggled a bit at the giant mural of said golfer holding a trophy that appeared across at least one entire wall of the restaurant.