This trip we planned to meet Peter and Cheryl at Ebb and Flow in the Wilderness section of the Garden Route National Park.
This national park is made up of the the old Tsitsikamma national park, the Wilderness national park and extensive areas of the Knysna forests. It’s an area well worth exploring and there’s an abundance of things to do. Ebb and Flow, situated on the banks of the Touw river, is beautiful. There are two rest camps, north and south. We chose to stay in the north as it’s further away from the N2 highway and quieter.
The south camp is bigger and better grassed but the north is more natural. Every day we were visited by wildlife – a pair of Egyptian geese with chicks, guinea fowl, a black headed oriole and a pair of bushbuck.
Egyptian goose family; bushbuck ram; black headed oriole
The bird life is wonderful and we also saw Knysna loeries, coots, cormorants, kingfishers and more. Up to 85 species can be found in the park. Diagonally across the river from us a pair of pied kingfishers had a nest in a hole in the bank. We watched them coming and going but I never managed to get a decent pic of them, they were just too fast. Patience is required!
We arrived on Sunday and set up in beautiful weather, then settled down to enjoy the peace and beauty of the surroundings. The next morning dawned clear and still. Peter and Cheryl were due to arrive around lunchtime and, as the weather forecast was predicting a strong west wind and some rain for the afternoon, we decided to go for a walk down the Half Collared Kingfisher trail before they arrived. This trail is on the opposite bank of the river to the camp and I’ll talk more about it later. No sooner had we got onto the trail than a strong easterly wind whipped up, not what was predicted! A little while later we were opposite Wagtail and looking across the river we could see that something was wrong with the centre pole of the tent. We turned around and hurried back to find that the wind had snapped off the pin at the top of the pole, which goes through the tent and has the guy rope looped over it. While looking at it wondering what to do, our neighbour walked over and asked if he could help. I always travel with an pretty comprehensive tool kit but not an electric drill. No problem to Stewart! He whipped out one and in no time we had drilled out the remainder of the pin. I was then able to put a long bolt in from the top and with some wire made a loop to attach the guy rope. What would we do without friendly fellow campers?
Peter and Cheryl arrived some time later and as they did the wind swung round to west and the heavens opened. It poured!! Luckily our tent is big enough for all of us so we spent the rest of the day sitting around waiting for the rain to stop. It eventually did early evening and Peter simply leveled their caravan so they could sleep. Their tent could wait till the morrow. What a start to our week!
The next day we traveled to Mossel Bay to visit our favourite aunt who recently celebrated her 95th birthday. After spending some time with her, we went to a quaint little coffee shop in the main street for lunch. It was a delightful place and the food was excellent, tasty and well presented. However, that night Peter, Carol and I were afflicted with the runs. Seems the venison pies we had for lunch must, thanks to load shedding, have become contaminated from being warmed and cooled too often. That night we were in the middle of load shedding and the camp was pitch dark. All that could be seen were the magnificent stars and torches going to and from the ablutions as we each made numerous trips to the loo! It was funny in retrospect but not at the time.
Lesson: be wary of meat dishes in areas where they experience long hours of load shedding. Cheryl, who had a different dish, was unaffected.
The week seemed to be jinxed!
On Wednesday morning we just relaxed and tried to get over the food poisoning. In the afternoon Carol and I decided to take a slow paddle up the river. We had our own canoe but there are canoes for hire at the south camp. One can also take a guided boat trip up the river with a guide. Contact Wild River Safaris for more details.
Hire a canoe or book a cruise
When we returned I tried to run the bow of the canoe up onto the bank so Carol could step out onto dry land. Unfortunately, I didn’t tell her of my intention and when we hit the bank at speed she promptly fell out, taking me with her. Now she was sopping wet and had swallowed some of the river water, on top of a queasy stomach. I was laughing fit to burst but she wasn’t! She did see the funny side later, but we did wonder: what more could go wrong?!
On Thursday Carol & I were feeling a lot better, so we decided to hike the trail up to the waterfall. It’s mostly easy going, apart from a steep climb up and down stairs near the start and any reasonably fit person should have no problems. For the really fit there’s a loop to the top of the mountain to see incredible views of the park and surrounding area. Be warned though, it’s a steep climb up and down.
Trail Map
Once over the steps the trail runs along the bank of the river till you get to a pontoon, where you cross the river.
From there on there are a lot of boardwalks, making it an easy climb to the waterfall. There are massive yellow woods, ferns, wild flowers and birds -something special round every bend. I was intrigued to see a wild hibiscus, just one of nine species indigenous to South Africa. 
Gorgeous vegetation
At the waterfall there’s a fantastic pool to swim in and place to sunbathe on the rocks. We were amazed at how many people were there. They were mostly foreign tourists, escaping the northern winter and enjoying our warm sun.
This trail is well worth doing. There is so much to see, amazing views and the peace of being in nature, away from the hustle and bustle of the rat race.
Wilderness is a great base from which to explore the Garden Route. Fantastic beaches are close by, George is 15 minutes, Sedgefield 5 min and Knysna about 25 min away. There is so much to do in the area. Here are a few suggestions –
- the Farmers market in Sedgefield on Saturday mornings
- pick strawberries at Red Berry Farm in George
- drive the Seven Passes road from Knysna to George and marvel at the road building skills of Thomas Bain
- go tandem paragliding in Wilderness or Sedgefield
- join Judy Dixon, a biologist, for a Moon Light Meander on Swartvlei beach and discover the fascinating night life in the inter tidal zone
- mountain bike one of the numerous routes in the area
- hiking – besides the Half Collared Kingfisher trail there are many more trails in the area
All in all it was a wonderful trip, despite the mishaps, and we will definitely be going back to Ebb and Flow. One word of warning though, Friday and Saturday nights and long weekends are best avoided as the place can get overrun by local day trippers.
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Sounds wonderful, definitely on my bucket list.