Garden Route Day tour. Mosaic Tourism with Peter Giddy Guided Tours. April 2019

Peter Giddy Guided Tours
April 2019

An adventure that few people can enjoy is being really close to the largest land mammal in the world.

Garden Route Day tour  --- Monday 15th April 2019

I meet up with Gershon and Yair Peleg at 7am at the Beach Hotel.  Gershon is taking his grandson for an adventure holiday in South Africa.  They are from Israel and it is Yair's Barmitzva year.  Shaun and Sarah (Mosaic Tours)  have arranged our meeting and the first thing that Gershon wants to clear up is the time of arrival in George which cannot be later than 5pm for a 6.20pm flight departure for Cape Town.

Prior to meeting me they have spent a few days at Kariega Game Reserve.
Today we will do a flash Garden Route Tour -- Starting in Port Elizabeth and ending in George

We drive to Jeffreys Bay where Yair hires a wetsuite and surfboard and he does an hour of surfing.  He also tried a bit of surfing in Muizenburg (Cape Town) earlier this month.  The waves are big and tough to plough them. It is exhausting for Yair but he manages to paddle out and catch a number of waves.  He is quick to stand and it appears that through his fatigue he has enjoyed the morning.

From Jeffreys bay and after a Coffee Break, We continue on Westwards to TsiTsikamma where we sign up for the Adventure Falls Zip Line.   Gershon is a little apprehensive at the thought of the long climb back up.  But we all take part and have a great adventure.   There are 8 sections.  There are no mishaps and we all manage the long walk back up to the top.

From the Zip Lines we make a brief stop at the Storms River Bridge and then at the Bloukrans River bridge to watch the Bungy Jumpers.  Unfortunately, despite there being many people; there are no jumpers when we are there so we see the venue but no jumping.

Back onto the N2 and continuing westwards we pass through the Toll Road and over the Groot Rivier and the Baviaans Rivier Gorges.  Then to Plettenberg Bay.
In Plett we stop at the Beach Front.   We had hoped to do a Boat ride to see some Dolphins and Seals.  But today was not to be.  There was a strong wind and almost continuous rain.
It is lunch time so we choose Moby's for a Hake and Chips lunch.  As always the quality is excellent and the views across the beach and the bay make this a special venue.

After our lunch we leave Plett and stop at the KEP -- Knysna Elephant Park.  Yair had a bad experience with Elephants on a previous encounter when he felt threatened when the Elephant charged their group.  However today he decides to push aside his fears and makes the decision to enjoy a close encounter with these giants.

After the short instructional video we climb onto the "Shosholoza" Tractor and trailer and onto the open fields where the guides and elephants are wandering around.  It is important to note that KEP is a sanctuary and not a show..... 45 Elephants have been relocated from KEP and it is through Tourism that the vision of saving and restoring Elephants is able to continue.

We start with feeding of the Elephants and then we enjoy a walk and close encounter with these beautiful animals. Yair simply loved the touch and feel of their skin as well as the strange sensation of the trunk picking out fruit and vegetables from his hand.   This turned out to be something memorable for both Gershon and his grandson.

We now have just 90 minutes to get to George Airport;  The rain continues and traffic slows us down but in the end I drop them off at the George Airport at 5pm which was our goal from the start.

Something that made today really special was the weather.   Each time we got into the car, the rain would start to fall.  But not just a light rain -- heavy, lashing rain that threatened to wash our day away.  BUT each time we exited the car for some activity or stop of any kind -- the rain would stop and we were able to fully partake in all our planned activities of the day.

And my 4 hour drive home from George to PE was almost entirely in dry conditions.

Gershon and Yair at the Jeffreys Bay Surf shop.

 Yair catches waves and stands up surfing to the shore line.

 Gershon Zooming down the cable with ease.

 Our guides today are Charles and Bonga.  Both competent and experts in the Zip Lining they are great instructors and considerate towards their guests.

 Storms River bridge is always a good stop.  Looking down this amazing gorge is something not to be missed.

 Plettenberg Bay .. The main beach .... It has been raining most of the day and there are only a few walkers on the beach.

 Moby's for a Hake and Chips (rice) lunch .... a filling and satisfying meal .

 Feeding Elephants at the Knysna Elephant Park.

At the end of the day we were swapping phone numbers and pics.  It was a really successful day.



To enjoy this and other Garden Route or Wildlife Tours.  Contact Peter at peter.giddy@gmail.com

0027 82 55 03 714    Whatsup

peter.giddy@gmail.com

• Addo Elephant Park
• Kragga Kamma Wildlife Reserve
• Daniel Cheetah Project
• Pumba; Shamwari; Amakhala; Kariega -- Day trips Private Reserves.
• City and Cultural Tours
• Hikes and Walks around Port Elizabeth (2 hour Nature and Coastal walks)
• Garden Route Adventure Tours (Zip Lines; Segway in the Forest; Bridge Walks; Bungy Jump; Walking with Elephants; Monkey Land and Birds of Eden; Big Cats Sanctuary; Oudtshoorn Cango Caves and Ostrich farms)
• Shore Excursions from Passengers ships
• Airport; Hotel and Wildlife Reserve transfers. 
• Volkswagen Factory visits. 

Website --   petergiddyguidedtours.wordpress.com

For tours and bookings.. email me at.    peter.giddy@gmail.com

Contact me on Whatsup....  0027 82 55 03 174