We enjoyed Witsand Nature Reserve and Garden Route National Park so much on previous visits that we returned for winter adventures.

Witsand Nature Reserve – Our favorite part of the 3,500 hectares is walking up and down the twenty to sixty meter-tall white sand dunes. And the bird hide provides a good respite from the sun. The benches in the camouflaged shelter sit low enough to provide easy bird and critter viewing at the eye-level waterhole. Unfortunately we didn’t see any pygmy falcons, South Africa’s smallest raptor, which sometimes come to the trees and shrubs near the bird hide.

Garden Route National Park – We re-visited the Tsitsikamma section of the park. First we viewed the Storms River Bridge from the rest stop terrace and then walked along both pedestrian lanes spanning the gorge. Just a short distance down the highway we took a quick break to complete the Big Tree Walk. The 800 year-old majestic yellowwood tree stands over 36 meters tall with a trunk circumference of 9 meters. 

Tsitsikamma means “place of much water” and this section of the national park includes 80 kilometers of cliff-filled coastline. The mouth of the Storms River is probably the most popular portion of the strand. We took a stroll across the suspension bridges and hiked the short Lookout Trail.

Flowers and feathers