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If you are ever lucky enough to be able to bring a visit to the Garden Route in South Africa, you are in for a real treat. Kilometers of white sandy beaches on one side, flanked by mountains and rain forests on the other side make for a holiday paradise. The route starts in the west at Mossel Bay and ends at the Tsitsikamma rain forest near Plettenberg Bay in the east.

Arriving from Cape Town, you will first encounter Mossel Bay. This historical old town with its many finely preserved colonial buildings has an atmosphere and charm all of its own. It lagged behind the other Garden Route towns in development for many years, but nowadays it bursts at the seams with luxury hotels and guest houses. Standards are high: We could not help to notice that our hotel even had baby bath tubs available for those who travel with a baby.

A few kilometers to the east lies the resort towns of Klein Brak River and Groot Brak River. Both have been popular holiday spots for South Africans for decades. When it’s winter in the Northern hemisphere, it’s of course summer in South Africa. This makes the country the ideal winter holiday location for people from the North.

Sixty kilometers east of Mossel Bay you will pass the commercial hub of the Garden Route. George has many good restaurants, shopping malls and cinemas. This is where holidaymakers come to stock up on beer, movies and groceries. Twenty kilos east of George you’ll find the well-known seaside resort town of Wilderness. It’s trademark wide, sandy beaches and may restaurants draw thousands of tourists every year. I once spent a lovely evening at one of these restaurants where they had live music and the leader of the band had a Martin acoustic electric guitar, just like my own back home!

Leaving Wilderness, the road criss-crosses through a series of lush green hills and valleys where you will catch a periodic glimpse of the Indian Ocean to your right. A few km further to the east the road passes through Sedgefield. This is a timber-producing area with many lovely lakes. Despite asking around, we couldn’t find the fine costume jewelry wholesale distributor mentioned in our guide book.

Sixty kilometers east of George lies another historical town. Thirty years ago Knysna only came to life during the peak holiday seasons, but today this town can barely cope with the thousands of tourists descending upon it from all over South Africa and Europe during virtually the whole year. The waterfront area is particularly popular – not surprising taking into account the many excellent restaurants you will find there.

The last town on the route is Plettenberg Bay. This is where the wealthy and well-known hang out to see and be seen. There’s a legion of upmarket hotels and guest houses and just as many restaurants. A few km further to the east you arrive at the eastern border of the Garden Route – the Tsitsikamma rain forest. Here you will forget for a few hours that you are only 200km away from the semi-desert Karroo region – it’s a haven of waterfalls and ferns and you might even run into one of the few remaining elephants in the forest.

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