To the East of the West – Part 3
Knysna and The Heads
Knysna is really a beautiful place. It is advisable not to travel through the town on Christmas or New Year. But then again, if you have nothing to do on those days, that would be a sure way of passing the time.
But I would not want to sound like I’m running the town down. A cursory look at a map would give a fair indication of (at least part of) Knysna’s popularity.
[Source: Map data ©2014 AfriGIS (Pty) Ltd, Google]
Returning from Harkerville we went down to the Knysna Waterfront. It’s a rather cool place.
This guy was giving a display of utter motionless.
However, he did lick his ice cream from time to time. The guy in front, though, did not move. I later thought he might be dead or something, but no medics arrived.
We then boarded the John Benn.
The John Benn is the one on the far side. It’s pretty much like a double decker pub.
I reckon from a boating perspective it must also pretty much drive like a pub. The keel depth is half a meter, according to Cornelius who skippered the John Benn. Given the prevalence of the various sand banks, it is understandable.
The John Benn was clearly not built as a testament to speed and agility.
[Source: Imagery ©2014 TerraMetrics, Map data ©2014 AfriGIS (Pty) Ltd, Google]
On the way to the Heads, you drive past the Featherbed restaurant. If you so wish, you can take the ferry destined for lunch at Featherbed. Apparently you also get a game drive included in the outing.
The Heads.
The weather on the day was a bit overcast, with a rather chilly wind blowing. In spite of that it was a very enjoyable outing. Next time we’ll try to include Featherbed in the itenary.
Tucson
Just for the petrol heads that might be reading here. The 2009 Tucson 2.0 GLS manual offers quite a bit of car for your money. I’m tempted to say its weight in gold, simply for the reason that this 2×4 SUV weighs in at 90 kilograms heavier than my double cab 4×4 Mazda bakkie.
The 2.0 GLS engine offers 104 kW (as opposed to the Mazda 3.4’s 108kW) but is geared differently. It feels vastly quicker and nippier than the Mazda, especially given the mass it needs to drag along.
The seven passes road we did we obviously did at a very leisurely pace, but the car handled the road with aplomb.
On the open road it can easily keep up with traffic. Although I prefer to drive at 110km/h, if need be the power is there to get you out of a tight spot.
Average fuel consumption over most of the trip was 11,2km/l. A strong headwind, and thereafter having a trailer full of wood hitched to the Tucson brought the fuel consumption down to just over 10km/l.
Rather splendid, I thought.
PG JONKER