I ♥ Plettenberg Bay Because ...

I ♥ Plettenberg Bay

Hi, I’m Helen Ward from One Hanois in Plettenberg Bay on the Garden Route.

Plettenberg Bay IS BEST KNOWN FOR its mag­ni­fi­cent blue flag beach, mar­ine life, out­door activ­it­ies and wild­life experiences.

GET YOUR PICTURE TAKEN AT the Elephant Sanctuary where you are able to inter­act with these amaz­ing gentle giants or if you are a cat lover with the chee­tah cubs at Tenikwa.

THE BEST PICTURES AND VIDEOS FOR adren­alin junkies CAN BE TAKEN AT at Storms River for those brave enough to take the plunge off the world’s highest bungy jump.

OTHER HAPPY SNAPS AT Robberg nature reserve from where you can enjoy the mag­ni­fi­cent views of the entire bay with the moun­tains in the dis­tance; the beach and at any of the excit­ing places to visit in and around Plettenberg Bay. Continued

Tenikwa — Spots and stripes

Tenikwa Wildlife

One of those dif­fi­cult to spot spe­cies in the bush is the cats, or to be more spe­cific, those ever elu­sive leo­pard and chee­tah. So pay­ing a visit to the Tenikwa Wildlife Awareness Centre, just out­side Plettenberg Bay is a priv­ilege to which I am look­ing forward.

Having been relieved of my hand­bag (one can only carry cam­eras into the enclos­ures), we embarked upon our one-hour tour at 09h30, with our two little boys in hand. The centre is open from 09h00 and tours depart every half hour to 16h30. Our first stop appeared to be the good old domestic cat, only on a far grander scale, and can weigh up to 6.5kg. Continued

The sanctuary of gentle giants

Elephant Sanctuary

I am not one to often visit the vari­ous reserves and wild life centres that have sprouted up near pop­u­lar hol­i­day des­tin­a­tions. We have always pre­ferred spot­ting wild­life in their more ‘nat­ural’ hab­itat, for example, the Kruger National Park, and tend to be scep­tical of the more ‘canned’ setups.

But with young boys, and a hol­i­day in Knysna and Plettenberg Bay on the Garden Route, we received an invit­a­tion to visit the Elephant Sanctuary at The Crags, in Plettenberg Bay. On arrival it is evid­ent that this is not your aver­age com­mer­cial ven­ture. As I waited to book in, I over­heard the recep­tion­ist gently answer a tele­phonic enquiry that ele­phant rid­ing is not the emphasis of the sanc­tu­ary, but rather Continued

Winner of the 3 Night Garden Route Big Game Getaway

CONGRATULATIONS to Charmaine Ellis of South Africa who has won a 3 night stay at the fab­ulous Plettenberg Bay Game Reserve, loc­ated in the Garden Route of South Africa. Charmaine's prize includes 3 con­sec­ut­ive nights accom­mod­a­tion for 2 people shar­ing at the exclus­ive Baroness Luxury Safari Lodge, break­fast and din­ner daily as well as a game drive or, for an “up close and per­sonal” exper­i­ence, a horse safari each day of her stay ... Continued

Win a 3 Night Garden Route Big Game Getaway (closed)

WIN a 3 night stay at the biggest game reserve in the Southern Cape — Plettenberg Bay Game Reserve — and dis­cover an "Out of Africa" exper­i­ence just a few minutes drive from the sea­side town of Plettenberg Bay on the Cape's mag­ni­fi­cent Garden Route.

The prize includes:

• 3 con­sec­ut­ive nights accom­mod­a­tion for 2 people shar­ing at the exclus­ive Baroness Luxury Safari Lodge
• break­fast and din­ner daily
• a game drive OR (for an "up close and per­sonal" exper­i­ence) a horse safari each day

Continued

A Visit to "Birds of Eden" in Plettenberg Bay

Birds of Eden

Birds of Eden is a unique and enorm­ous 2 hec­tare dome which spans over a gorge of lush indi­gen­ous forest. It is, in fact, the World’s largest free flight bird sanc­tu­ary dome. The nets are placed rather high in the air to allow the birds to fly around freely. They are pro­tec­ted from any unwanted predators.

The decision to develop Birds of Eden stemmed from the need to cre­ate a safe envir­on­ment in which to release a large col­lec­tion of free-flight African birds and mini­ature mon­keys. This gor­geous dome is home to over 100 spe­cies of vibrant birds includ­ing a few endangered spe­cies. More than 2000 birds hab­it­ate this dome.

When we entered the dome, it is as if you have lit­er­ally entered para­dise. It is abso­lutely exquis­ite! We were wel­comed by 2 African Grey Parrots. These gor­geous birds seemed to be keenly inter­ested in us! These birds have become so accus­tomed to humans that they like to amuse them­selves with them. It felt rather won­der­ful hav­ing birds fly on your shoulder and arms. Yet, while there were some that were friendly and leis­urely sit­ting on our arms, there was another African Grey Parrot try­ing to bite our feet and fol­low­ing us wherever we went! Continued