South Africa: The Garden Route

The Garden Route is the name of the road that runs along the southern coast of South Africa. It is the southern most shores on the African continent.

Most of the road is undeveloped with miles of both flat terrains and mountains with very few sign of human life anywhere.

It is connected by small towns with plenty to do and see. Many of the attractions are related to wildlife: ostrich farms, elephant sanctuaries, cheetah & leopard breeding, crocodile farms, etc. There is also lots of outdoor activities and high adrenaline options.

We started our trip down the Garden Route from Cape Town. The first stop we made was a rather odd one. Ronnie’s Sex Shop has become a well known landmark on this route. You drive for miles with nothing around and suddenly come to this shack. The story behind this place is that it was originally called “Ronnie’s Shop”. In an effort to get more people to stop, his friends thought it would be funny to paint the word “sex” on the sign. It seemed to work because more and more people started stopping here out of curiosity. It is really just a place to stop to grab a cold drink or light snacks on the way. It is decorated with tons of bras and underwear people have left behind.

We continued our way to Oudtshoorn where we opted to use some Marriott points to stay in a bamboo hut at Protea Hotel by Marriott Oudtshoorn Riempie Estate. Definitely the most exotic Marriott I have ever stayed in before.

Oudtshoorn has a zoo called Cango Wildlife Ranch which features many hands-on exhibits. You can opt to get in a cage with crocodiles, hang out with the lemurs, and hold a huge snake.

I chose to pet some of the cheetahs they have raised since they were babies. Some of them were feeling rambunctious so we had to switch which cheetahs we were meeting three times before finding some that were relaxed enough.

Oudtshoorn also has a well-known ostrich farm nearby. Ostrich is a common source of protein on the menus as a burger, steak, or eggs. We opted for the ostrich jersey.

This was definitely an unusual animal for us to see on a menu. In South Africa it is very common though and farmed the same way we would farm chickens or cows. Ostrich is a lean meat that tastes like a filet steak, but is much healthier than beef.

We headed further toward the coast and made some stops along the way. We found a beautiful cove to park and eat lunch while looking out at the ocean.

It is amazing how many secluded beaches you can find driving around South Africa. You can see some footprints on sand, but we didn’t see a soul on the beach the entire time we were here.

Our next overnight stop was in Plettenberg Bay. There is tons to do in this area so we stayed a few nights. We stayed at African Array Backpackers Lodge which was on a mountain in the middle of the forest.

It was a little rough around the edges but had a personal charm to the place. They had a campfire every night which was a great way to meet people staying here. They had to put up a fence to keep the baboons and monkeys out of the property. They trained their dogs to guard the area and even had 24/7 security roaming in the surrounding forest to protect the place from people and animals breaking in.

Plettenberg Bay has some really great beaches, hiking trails, and plenty of cute restaurants. We went out on the popular Robberg hiking trail which has three different lengths: 1 km, 3 km, or 11 km.

We chose the 11 km (7 mile) hike all the way to the point of the peninsula and back. The trek was pretty challenging. We packed lunch and lots of water which we were really happy about.

We were able to watch a whale and dolphin playing in the water. There were tons of seals sunbathing on the rocks. Some of the seals were playing in the massive waves near the beach. Apparently when the water is clear, you can even spot great white sharks in the water.

There were tons of different terrains on this hike. It went from a dirt trail in the jungle, to a huge pile of rocks where you had to really look for the trail markers, to an enormous beautiful beach.

After spending a full day hiking, we rewarded ourselves with fish bites at a small beach cafe.

We took our time traveling to our last destination. The mountains we drove through were beautiful. There are very few cars or people around making it feel like we had them all to ourselves.

Our final stop was Port Elizabeth. This is a bigger city used as the end point for the Garden Route. We didn’t explore much here, but mainly ended here to be able to fly out to Johannesburg the next day to begin our 18 day safari!