After we left Lesotho, we made our way to the Garden Route, a string of mostly seaside towns along the southern section of South Africa’s Indian Ocean coast, and one of the country’s most famous tourist trails.¹ The Garden Route officially stretches around 300 kilometers from Mossel Bay to just beyond Plettenberg Bay, and is dotted with dramatic scenery, countless beaches, and more opportunities to engage in adventure tourism than anyone could possibly utilize. We took a relaxed approach to the Garden Route, taking in the scenery as we drove along and stopping at various points and towns along the way, mostly eschewing the adventure tourism.²

Queenstown

Queenstown is located in the Eastern Cape and not part of the Garden Route. We spent the night here after leaving Lesotho and driving for several hours through sparsely populated mountain and desert expanses. While there isn’t much to see in the town, it made for a comfortable and convenient place to spend the night after a long day on the road.

Where We Stayed:
☆ Cozi Corner. Four goats. Self-catering accommodation with free wifi, a very comfortable bed, and a friendly hostess.

Cradock

We stopped in the Eastern Cape town of Cradock, at the edge of the Karoo Desert, just long enough to eat lunch, but that lunch was so delicious that it deserves a mention.

Where We Ate:
☆ True Living. We sat outdoors and feasted on what might have been the best sandwiches we had had all year (sorry, Banh Mi Saigon, but we still love you). Although located in the middle of town, the restaurant was in the back of a farm stand shop, and it was difficult not to leave with jars of onion jam, lemon curd, or three-fruit marmalade.

Jeffreys Bay

Jeffreys Bay is in an area known as the Sunshine Coast, which is along the coast to the east of the Garden Route. Jeffreys Bay is a popular surfing destination, but we didn’t stick around long enough to attend surf school. It was raining as we arrived into town, and the forecast didn’t look promising, so we moved on after one night.

Where We Stayed:
☆ Mandyville Hotel. Three goats. We didn’t choose Mandyville; it was chosen for us. We made a reservation online with a different B&B, but it was overbooked and they transferred our reservation to Mandyville. The B&B we had chosen was higher up on the hill and had a view of the water, and we were disappointed not to have that view at Mandyville. In Mandyville’s favor, it was near the beach, had a friendly staff, and included a breakfast featuring made-to-order omelets.

Where We Ate:
☆ Nina’s Real Food. This was the first restaurant we had seen in Africa that had tofu on the menu, but there were so many options on the menu that I ended up choosing a fancy salad featuring falafel and haloumi. Our food was good and the wine was cheap. Highly recommended.

Bloukrans Bridge

As we made our way to the Garden Route, we crossed the Bloukrans River, which separates the Eastern Cape and the Western Cape provinces. The N2 highway goes over the Bloukrans Bridge, which is home to one of the highest bungee jumps in the world (a spine-tingling 216 meters, or 709 feet). We stopped at the view point to take some pictures of the iconic bridge and watch people braver (or crazier) than us throw themselves from the bridge.

Plettenberg Bay

Plettenberg Bay was our first stop on the official Garden Route. Our guidebook tells us that most people visit Plett for its beaches, and we were no different. We killed most of the afternoon just sitting on the beach, watching the waves roll in. We walked from one end of the central beach to the other before enjoying a sundowner in a bar at the end of the beach.

Where We Stayed:
☆ Nothando Backpackers Lodge. Three goats. Although both of our guidebooks fell over themselves to recommend this place, we didn’t find it to be anything special. Everyone was friendly and our room was comfortable. We didn’t purchase breakfast there.

Where We Ate:
☆ The Table. The Table was buzzing and trendy, and, if the place hadn’t been so spacious or included a play area for the kiddies, you might have thought you were in New York. The menu was inventive, and we shared some caramelized onion pizza bread. Marc had a tuna dish, and I had an eggplant and tomato “stack” (essentially vegetable lasagna minus the noodles).

Robberg Nature Reserve

On our way out of Plett, we stopped at the Robberg Nature Reserve. There were three different trails: a one-hour trail, a two-hour trail, and a four-hour trail that led you completely around the point (and also carried some warnings not to attempt in high tide). We chose the four-hour trail, and it was amazing. The trail encompassed an incredible diversity of scenery, including a cliff-side walk with seals barking below, jagged rocks not far from the crashing waves, and a deserted stretch of beach with soft white sand.

Sedgefield

Sedgefield’s beach was beautiful, with dramatic waves and cliffs in the distance. The water is laced with rip currents and not ideal for swimming, but we were told there was an area nearby that had good snorkeling. In addition to snorkeling, there seemed to be plenty of activities in Sedgefield – the friendly hostel staff kept mentioning paragliding, for one. We were more interested in relaxing than in taking part in any adventure travel, though, and we enjoyed an amazing sunset on the beach with a cheap bottle of wine.

In the morning, we took a two-hour long walk along the beach to see some fossilized sand dunes. I hadn’t known what to expect with the fossilized sand dunes, but they were incredible: tall, deeply grooved walls of hardened sand. I could have stayed in Sedgefield for another few days, but it started to rain, signaling that it was time to move on.

Where We Stayed:
☆ Afrovibe Adventure Lodge. Four goats. Awesome beachside location with a friendly staff that didn’t freak out when we temporarily mislaid our room key on the beach (after consuming the aforementioned bottle of cheap wine).
Where We Ate:
☆ Pili Pili, Afrovibe.  We shared some Hawaiian pizza augmented with peppadews (an amazing combination) and some salad, and then finished off with a delicious coconut cookie purchased from the Afrovibe reception area.
☆ Zucchini, Timberlake Organic Village. We stopped here on our way out of Sedgefield, and had a fantastic lunch.  Everything on the menu looked good, and it was hard to choose. Eventually, Marc ordered springbok meatballs, and I had an incredible homemade chickpea burger.

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¹ The Garden Route’s popularity with tourists is evident. Although not necessarily crowded during our visit in late April (mid-fall in South Africa), one got the impression that it would be much busier during the warmer, summer months. Although we enjoyed the Garden Route, after a month in the much less developed parts of South Africa, Swaziland, and Lesotho, the Garden Route’s polished tourist infrastructure and marketing felt a bit odd.

² Many of the adventure activities looked interesting, from surfing and sea kayaking opportunities to wandering around the world’s largest free-flight aviary or taking a guided walk through a rehabilitation center for cheetahs and other big cats. Had (i) our travels in South Africa been shorter and limited to Cape Town and the nearby Garden Route (as is the case for many foreign visitors that are not heading to Kruger National Park), (ii) we not been ready for a leisurely break from our recent mountain adventures the Drakensberg and Lesotho, and (iii) the weather not been becoming rapidly more autumnal, we likely would have been more active participants in the available activities.