Knysna Heads

One day we went to the Knysna Heads (remember that book report?). The Knysna Heads are two huge cliffs at the entrance to the lagoon. It's funny, the Indian Ocean didn't smell like the ocean we're used to. You can't smell the salt and all that. I noticed it right away. Anway, the ocean was an incredible blue.

The Knysna Heads is where the ridiculously wealthy live. It's like the Beverly Hills of Knysna. They were cool, so I had to take a pic.

The Old Coach House

After checking out the forest, we went to the Coach House. The Coach House acted as a hotel back in the olden days as it is situated right between Knysna and Plettenberg Bay and was built right next to the main road (back then-it's out in the sticks now). Travelers would stop here on their way to Knysna or Plett. Anyway, these two women that own the house use it as a place to run Eco-Ed, an educational platform for kids to learn about the environment and the natural history of the area. We went to observe some kids being taught-high school girls from Johannesburg on a 10 day science field trip (we never had those!). There are tons of trails and gullies and things that the kids have to go around to find different plants and stuff. Afterwards, they learn about different animals that are native to the area in the natural history museum.
That's Hattie teaching the kids about the fauna in the area. Afterwards, they can walk the labyrinth and take a night walk.Then they have dinner and marshmallows and hot chocolate. It was really fun (and educational-who'da thought?).

Knysna Forest

My Aunt Betti knows a really cool chick named Dominique that is a forest ranger in the Knysna forest. She took us through a tour of the forest-she knew a lot! She knew all the spots to take us. We went on top of this mountain to a place called Spitskopf (sp?). You could see forever-all the way to the ocean. It was awesome!

We also saw "The Big Tree". You're really not supposed to touch it but she gave me special permission to "hug" it.

Birds of Eden

Right next to Monkeyland is Birds of Eden-this hubungous aviary. They had some crazy pretty birds and some funky ones. There were lots of parrots, flamingos, pheasants and all other kinds. You just walk around the forest and see what you can see (and hope you don't get pooped on). The birds are very used to humans so they have no problem landing on you and stealing your jewelry if you don't hide it. They also didn't have a problem thinking my rat's nest for hair was good nest-making material. I was excited that we saw a Knysna Lourie, a native specifically to Knysna!

Monkey Business

On our way home from Addo, we also stopped at Monkeyland. It was great! The monkeys just run around all over the place. They're used to humans so they don't have any problem getting right up in your grill. It's funny, locals think that monkeys are a big nuisance. They will sneak in your house and steal all of your fruit and make a mess. I think they're hilarious!
Basically how it works is there's a guide that will walk you all around the forest and show you the monkeys. The forest was cool-there were big bridges and trails and things.

Anyway, we saw lots of monkeys-I even got to see a ring tailed lemur.
All the monkeys there were rescued monkeys. There were big huge ones and little tiny ones (in a cage so the other monkeys don't get them). It was a lot of fun.

Addo Croc & Lion Ranch

Just outside Addo, there was a small establishment that just said Addo Croc & Lion Ranch. It wasn't very big or noticeable on the side of the street, but I begged my aunt to let us check it out.

It was so neat! I finally got to see my lions! Basically, they use this ranch to raise lions and then they let them go in the wild (at one of the parks). The crocs....I don't know what they do with them.
They even had a tiger (although, they aren't native to Africa so I don't know why they had one). His name was Tigger.
But the best part was a little lion cub named Princess-"Sissy" for short. How can you resist?!?

I'm so glad we stopped. They had other animals, too-tiny monkeys, Lynx, big lions, etc. You never what you'll find at these questionable side-of-the-road establishments.

Blog Delay

Hi everyone,

There may be a blog delay as Betti's computer is out getting fixed and this one is questionable about loading photos. I leave for home tomorrow night. It's gonna be a long trip home-George to Johannesburg, then to Paris, then Minneapolis and then finally home. I'm not looking forward to those long flights but it will be nice to be home again.

The last couple of days we have been living the life of a Knysnan. We took a trip through the Knysna Forest, watched an eco-education production for kids out in the forest, went to an art class, visited the Knysna Heads, and I finally got to go to the Knysna Oyster Co. where we tried some oysters...they're not my favorite. But Knysna is famous for their oysters so it was on my list of things to do. We rode bikes to the waterfront and shopped a bit.

Give me a few days and when I get home I'll post some more pics. Thanks for checkin' it all out!