The latest Love Knysna Projects trip found us hiking in a World Heritage Site, the Goukamma Nature Reserve and Marine Protected Area which lies in between Knysna and Sedgefield.

Sunday reminded us how lucky we are to live in the Garden Route!

After we crossed the river by hand-pulled pontoon, our route was a mixture of the Bushpig Trail, through the Milkwood Forest, and the Galjoen Trail, along the coast via Skimmelkrans Beach.

In between ,from the top of a fynbos covered hill, we experienced a magnificent view of the Goukamma River. On the way back, it was chilly. The warmth of the 29C day had met with the cold of the ocean, making us walk in a mist which would have seemed like clouds to people in the distance. In it, we gained goosebumps as our visibility dropped to 200m.

Good people make lives happier. Thanks so much to volunteers Desnay, James, Birgitt, Lize, Nixs and Rick. Thanks to Cape Nature who gave us free entrance. Special kudos to Eugene van Reenen and Tebogo Botaolo, the Cape Nature staff who gave up their day off to work for free as our guides!

We experienced lovely small world scenarios. One of the teens on the Goukamma Nature Reserve trip turned out to be the niece of one of our guides. The guides were happy to discover that one of our volunteers was a teacher at Rheenedal Primary School because they were intending an educational experience for the kids. They wanted to know who to speak to… and discovered that our volunteer was the Science teacher they were looking for 🙂

After 8km, half of that on the sand, we were exhausted.

To say that it was awesome hike is an understatement. This one becomes a great memory.