Blog Day 21 Fri 27th May 2011
Well to say the least there was no early start to the day today. The effects of last night are defiantly kicking in; we got up around 10.30 but only because the girls in our room were leaving & the cleaner had come in. We went to the Waterfront which is only about 15mins from the hostel & quite a nice easy walk. The town of Knysna is quite quaint and the waterfront is lovely. We eat at Spur restaurant for lunch & wander around for a little while before heading back to the hostel in time for a trip to Knysna Heads; this is a free tour so we jump at the opportunity. A huge Dumb N Dumber looking guy (Harry not Lloyd) is our ‘Adventure’ guide. His name is Oren & he has a really deep husky voice the kind of guy that’s in scary movies chasing people out of the forest with axes, but fortunately for us he is actually a really nice guy. His deep husky voice is due to a rugby accident a few years ago. He takes us out to the Knysna Heads & we walk the tour trail getting a good look at the views, the sun is due to set soon so the sky looks lovely. Between the heads is a lagoon which is not safe to use because of the water pressure between them, they say it 60 million tons of water crashes through every 6 hours that’s the equivalent force of 20 million fully grown elephants-though it seems pretty calm at the moment. Once we are finishing up here Oren gives us the opportunity to do a quick Township Tour for free, so we agree & off we go. The sheer size of the townships is still crazy to me, they are not all poor people as believed, and they choose to live in these conditions because they are all one unit & like to stick together. The majority have jobs in town at restaurants or as cleaners so earn enough for a living at least. Walking around the area was actually pretty scary, there are loads of barefoot kids running around & loads of dogs too but the kids are just so happy to see you, they were running up to us & pulling at our clothes just to say hi. We wandered the Township & everyone was saying hello which really put you at ease, at the end of the day it is still their land & still their homes so they are proud of what they have. It has been raining recently & it is very muddy but it still doesn’t bother the children or the people, whereas we are wandering around like ‘spot the tourist’. Everyone is just starting to prepare their fires for the evening as most don’t have any running electricity, it really is a different world but good to see. We get some good pictures that the children have to be shown as they love to see themselves smiling back. It’s a great experience & as we head back to the hostel the main town is just 5mins from where these people are living, it’s a crazy world!! Once back at the hostel we get changed & head out for a Chinese which we won’t be doing again as its not great but its edible, then we head to the cinema. The tickets are R30, which is less than £3.00 each. Unknown is the movie of choice. It was a good film though the screen was a bit fuzzy, but what do you expect for that price. Then it’s back to an empty hostel room for bed.