Knysna

Having had such a great experience at the Island Vibe backpackers in Jefferys Bay, we decided to stay at it's sister place in Knysna. It was a lovely place alright, but set in the centre of the large town, so it didn't have anything like the feel of the J-Bay place. We had a great room as the place was really quite quiet and it had only recently been completed, so everything was lovely and new, including the tiny but very refreshing pool.

Knysna again is a lovely town and we had a great day cruising around on bicycles. We stopped off for lunch at the town's famous oyster restaurant where they farm and process their own oysters. We had a very interesting personalised (i.e. just me and Sarah), short tour of the oyster business there, even meeting the current oyster-shucking world champion and seeing how the whole process works. Naturally at the end of the tour we get to sample some oysters with our lunch, which was great.

We also cycled out to the Mitchell Brewery and got another personalised tour there too, as they were just closing for the day but Sarah managed to persuade the guide to whizz us around real quick. Then it was back for a quick shower and out to watch the rugby world cup final, with South Africa playing England. We'd heard and seen cars with flags and horns blowing all day, but actually the atmosphere, given the enormity of the occasion, seemed a tad muted to me. We'd asked around for the best place to watch it, and everyone said the same place (which I can't remember the name of now!).

We'd kinda made friends with the guy who worked at the backpackers (it was very quite!), so he came along with us and another girl we'd met. The bar was pretty packed, but only as packed as any popular pub in central Dublin on a normal Saturday night. We arrived not long before the kick-off and got a good spot near the bar and with a good view of a telly. We never had to queue at the bar or anything. I guess it might have been because Kynsna isn't that big (although it isn't particularly small either), or maybe it's like the Aussie culture of eating and drinking at home with mates during big sporting events. But regardless, there was still a good atmosphere in the place and a couple of extremely drunk people to keep it entertaining (including the girl who worked at the travel agent myself and Sarah had been to the day before, who was completely off her head but keep asking me not to tell her boss she had knocked off work early that day). There were also quite a few English supporters brave enough to wear the English jersey, so they made the atmosphere more lively by cheering for the obvious underdogs.

Anyway South Africa won easily enough in the end and the town was quite lively afterwards I suppose. Our newfound local friend took us down the road to the most popular nightclub in town, which was a bit of a laugh, but again didn't seem all that busy really.

The next day we went extreme mountan biking, getting the bikes from Outeniqua Biking Trails
in Harkerville. This was definitely the best day mountain biking I've ever done. Of course I decided to take the 'Red' route, which was the most technical and boy was it serious off-roading. Lots of steep and very narrow single track trails through the forest, which was completely brilliant. Sarah had a spot of bother or two at the start (so obviously Negator made her inevitable appearance), but soon her confidence was up and she was fine and even began to enjoy herself. The route took us past more spectacular scenery as we passed out from the forests and travelled along the coast. We stopped at the fantastic spot for lunch, saying 'Hello!' to the only other people we met that day - two German lads also on bikes.

So that was pretty much Kynsna, a lovely spot for a couple of days if your not rushing headlong along the Garden Route. Next stop was Oudtshoorn.