Manor 38 Guesthouse

We only stayed at Manor 38 for 1 night.  While I can't recommend the town of Port Elizabeth, I wholeheartedly recommend Manor 38.  Manor 38 is on a quiet sidestreet off the main strip along the beach.  The strip along the beach reminded me of Daytona Beach.  I had enough of Daytona in college.

Our room was beautiful and right off the interior courtyard that housed the pool.  The main areas of the guesthouse were beautifully decorated and but my favorite part is the pool area.  Unfortunately we weren't there very long so we didn't get to use it.  The doors and windows of the common areas were open air with sliding doors that opened out to the courtyard.  Nor did we get to enjoy breakfast since our flight was at 6 am the next day.

They did have turndown service while out at dinner and provided us with a glass of sherry which was a nice touch.

Knysna Stays Guesthouse

We were at Knysna Stays for 2 nights.  The location was only so-so.  I would have preferred to stay on Thessen Island but everything was either booked up or super expensive.  It seemed that most guesthouses in Knysna weren't walkable to anything though.

The other downside was the common room was kept locked up except during breakfast.  It would have been nice to have a place to lounge around like the other guesthouses.

On the plus side, the bathroom was gorgeous!

Emzini Township Tour

Emzini Township Tour was one of the best parts of our entire trip.  It was run by Penny and Ella.  Ella lives in the township and leads the tour.  Penny is her friend from church who helps with all the administrative work and books the tours as well as accompanying Ella and helping her run the tours.

During apartheid, blacks were forced to move into townships on the edge of cities.  Apartheid is over but still many blacks live in poor conditions in the townships.  Ella explained to us that the government was building new houses for people in the townships so they wouldn't have to live in shacks.  The new houses were 2 bedrooms and looked pretty nice.  Ella also said that many families continue to live in their shacks and rent out their new government built homes for income.  As you can imagine, there's many problems in the township including high unemployment and alcohol abuse.  The government uses local workers from the township when constructing the new homes.

The township in Knysa actually looked "nice" compared to some of the shacks we saw near the Cape Town airport and on our way to Stellenbosch.

Ella and Penny began the tour by driving us around the township.  Many stores were closed as it was the Christmas/New Years holiday so we didn't get to go in like they normally do.  We also didn't get to visit a school because it was closed.

We did get to see the daycare that Ella runs for children after school as well as the soup kitchen and the women's shelter that was just built.  We also got to go to Ella's house where she told us her history and about the township.  She served us tea and a doughnut topped pastry.  Then she played the drums and sang a traditional Xhosa song.  Then we got to take a turn at the drums. 

Ella's building an addition to her house.  As a structural engineer, I was able to give construction advice about the best way to do things and what walls could be cut for new windows and doors and what had to stay!

We loved our tour so much that we have decided to donate money to continue Ella's mission to help the residents through the daycare, soup kitchen, and women's shelter.

Keep in mind that tourists should not visit townships without a registered guide.

Knysna and Featherbed Nature Reserve

Knysna is a vacation town situated on a lagoon.  I had trouble deciding whether to stay in Knysna or Plettenberg Bay.  In the end the general concensus was Knysna is for old rich people and Plettenberg Bay is for college kids who like to get drunk.  Well we're neither of those.  But we picked Knysna because The Heads looked interesting.  The Heads flank either side of the entrance to the lagoon from the Indian Ocean.  Going in and out of the lagoon is very dangerous because of the hidden rocks and the rough seas.  There have been many famous shipwrecks in history.

The west side of The Heads is part of the Featherbed Nature Reserve and is only accessible by a limited amount of tours.  This tour was pretty highly rated.  Yet all it consisted of was a tram ride to the top and then a walk down a trail.  Except that there were several people in the group who were not in shape enough to walk or were children and we had to wait for them as we weren't allowed to get ahead of the group.  There also wasn't a ton of vegetation and really no animals to see.  This was really the only disappointment of our whole trip so I can't complain, but I just really can't recommend it.  Thankfully we hadn't booked the tour with the accompanying buffet lunch.  I can't imagine that was great food.

Oudtshoorn

We drove from Wilderness north to Oudtshoorn then on to Knysna in one day.  The main reason we were going to Oudtshoorn was to see the ostriches.  Well I wanted to see the ostriches.  Nick hates birds and would not go near them. 

There are also the Cango Caves to explore or the Cango Wildlife Ranch for animal lovers.

We only really drove through the town but I wouldn't recommend staying there.  It seemed very touristy and a lot of the hotels looked kind of rundown to me.

This was our guide

The ostrich giving a man a kiss

I'm getting a hug from the ostrich

And now I'm riding an ostrich!

Yes I'm falling off right here

Who doesn't love a face like that?

This part of the tour is called the ostrich "massage"

Nick is standing on an ostrich egg. This was the closest he got to an ostrich all day.

After the ostrich farm, we spent the afternoon driving the Swartberg pass over a 17 mile gravel road

There were stunning views

And locals having picnics

And finally we reached the top

There was a lonely picnic bench at the top

On the other side of the pass is Prince Albert.  Frommer's had told me this was a cute little village.  In reality we found it creepy.  The whole town looked deserted.  Not a single person walking on the downtown streets.  We had trouble finding somewhere to eat lunch.  Do not follow Frommer's advice to overnight in this town.  Stick to Wilderness or Knysna.