Garden Route Archives - TRAVELBUCKET

WANDERING IN WILDERNESS

When you visit the beautiful village of Wilderness, that lies in the heart of the Garden Route, you will experience rivers, lakes, beaches and forest, all within easy reach of each other. With many accommodations to choose from this is a perfect base to explore from. You can spoil yourself with some good eateries, adventure activities (kloofing, abseiling, paragliding), excellent farmers markets and beach strolls. So, why NOT visit Wilderness? This is South Africa’s own lakes district. There are various bird hides along the lakes system that you can, well, hide in, to watch some bird life along the lakes. Find Gullilule and Malachite Bird hides for some splendid bird activity along the lakes. The chances are good that you will be the only person in the hide. By far one of the best kept secrets still in the Garden Route! Stop at Dolphin’s Point and enjoy the view both… Read more >

VLEESBAAI 4X4 DUNE ROUTE

We have been to the Vleesbaai 4×4 route many, many times in the past, but each and every time that we go it is something special as the dunes constantly shift and change its look with the seasons. It is time for sun, sea and sand and happy holidays again. Vleesbaai 4×4 route is the perfect destination for those windy and cloudy days when the weather does not want to play along for a beach visit. Early morning when you are first on the route you will encounter many fresh spoor – some very cat-like (I was thinking in the direction of a vaalbos kat), small antelope, mice and birds. As they say the early bird catches the worm or is it spoor in this case? The interesting thing about this route is that it changes according to the time of day that you visit. Early morning the sand… Read more >

THE GARDEN ROUTE WILD FIRES

The past two weeks towards the end of October 2018 we saw some hectic raging wild fires in the Garden Route. The once green belt of South Africa, known as the luscious Garden Route, was turned into a black belt – no, that is not a karate black belt, but burnt black by a fire monster. The raging fires did not leave a green inkling in its wake. Everything was devoured by flames and hot air. Now they say it is good for fynbos to burn once in a while, and I agree to that, but not like the wild fires that devoured thousands of hectares of plantation and indigenous forests which were home to century old Yellowwoods.. Our region, renowned for crisp mountain air and clean beaches was covered in a haze of smothering smoke. The smoke followed you everyone – in your house, in your bed, in your… Read more >

TRAVELBUCKET MEETS TRAVELSTART @ ECMEETUP 2018

It was that time of the year where bloggers from across the Eastern Cape get together to share ideas, exchange business cards, meet the newbies on the block and share experiences. For the Travelbucket team it was time to travel again, to experience the Eastern Cape and to visit a new venue that has not been visited before – another tick off our list……..it was time for the #ECMeetUp. We’ve been blogging under the radar for a few years now, but we could never understand why our following would not pick up. For the month’s leading up to the ECMeetUp, we would follow and keep a close eye on the event on social media. Being a traveling family, we would always choose a solitary life in the wilderness somewhere. There where we would be alone and make memories for us to remember. Even though we were sharing our memories with… Read more >

GO SLOW IN SLOWTOWN

Life can be fast – get up, go for a jog, a quick shower, drop off the kids, grab breakfast and coffee on your way to the office to start your day. This is not what Sedgefield is about. Take your time, because you are in a slow town. A town does not choose to be a slow town randomly; you need to meet certain criteria as set out by the Cittaslow movement in Italy, before you can adopt the name “slow town”. Sedgefield earned this name in 2010 and was the first town (and thus far the only town) in South Africa to be awarded with that title. South African now joins the list of slow towns of the world. These towns can be found in some unexpected countries like Japan and South Korea in the East to Denmark and Finland in the North and USA and Canada in… Read more >

CATCH OF THE DAY

This holiday we were exploring our own region to see whether there are still spots that we have not visited before and to my astonishment we did found such a place – Gullilule bird hide near the Fairy Knowe Hotel! The Pied King Fishers is one of my favourite birds as they have magnificent hovering and diving skills. With their black and white plumage, they are not as colourful as the rest of the King Fisher family, but still very pretty. On arrival we found a pair perched on some dry branches right in front of the hide and shortly thereafter they started their display for us. It was time to get out the camera and start clicking! First their super hovering skills were displayed, then with perfect timing a quick dive into the water was executed (alas too quick for me to get the shot) and when it surfaced… Read more >

A CENTURY OLD WRECK

Shipwrecks always have some sort of mystical ambiance about them for me. If you are willing to take a more or less 6km round trip eastwards along the beach at Glentana you will reach the mossed skeleton of the floating Port Natal dry dock resting on the beach since 1902. —– oOo —– HISTORY OF THE WRECK: It was stranded after the tow rope from the steamer Baralong parted during a tow operation from Durban to Cape Town. The dock was a Clark Standsfield self-docking design and built at CS Swan & Hunter’s yard at Wallsend (Yard No. 279). It was oredered by the Natal Government for the Harbour Commissioners of the Port of Durban. It was to be the first floating dock introduced into South Africa. The dock was launched on the 6th of October 1902, and it was originally intended that the Dutch Smit Tugs, used to tow… Read more >

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