Last month we were...Eating Oysters in Knysna

by Jonathan Andrews

It was a rainy Thursday morning when I left Cape Town and started my journey up the Garden Route. Raindrops burst on my car like water-balloons, and I was quietly pleased that I had not bothered to wash it.

On the road again

Once I reached the Overberg, the weather started to brighten up somewhat, and that holiday feeling began to take hold of me. This was a work trip however, and I had to be serious about things. How could I describe the rolling green fields of newly sprouting wheat, the piercing blue sky, complete with white clouds scudding gracefully across it? It looked rather like Teletubby-Land.

This part of South Africa is truly remarkable. I have travelled along the garden route many times before, and every journey seems to yield totally different landscapes. This time everything was washed clean and fresh and luminous.

At Mossel Bay I followed the road to the left and had the Indian Ocean on my right all the way through George, Wilderness and finally Knysna.

This is a beautiful stretch of the N2 that passes dense coastal hardwood indigenous forests and pristine white sandy beaches. It is easy to understand why this is one of South Africa's\South Africa most popular tourist circuits.

Out of the frying pan

If you don't like crowds, then you'd probably be better off steering clear of Knysna during the Oyster Festival. South Africa's favourite town brims with athletes and food-lovers who descend on the town to soak up the festival vibe.

The tranquility of my inbound journey was starkly contrasted by the instant traffic jam that slowly snaked its way into town. Knysna used to be a rather quaint holiday town, with a few shops and small cottages. These have given way to franchises and palatial holiday homes that dominate the mountainsides.

It's not all bad news

Still, Knysna does have its redeeming features, the lagoon and marshy wetland spread out in front of it have great views across to The Heads (two mountainous sentinels that form the mouth of the lagoon). Dinghies and houseboats poetically dotted along the reedy banks add little splashes of orange and red among the green aquatic plants and brown water.

The privately owned Featherbed Nature Reserve protects the entire western head. Featherbed is only accessible by ferry, and your nautical transport options range from speedy catamarans to a Mississippi-style paddleboat.

Other than Knysna's obvious natural appeal, it's also a great place to get unusual curios and trinkets. The little craft shops that are tucked away on Knysna's streets are worth exploring. If you want to find something a little more substantial than a dreamcatcher, nothing says Knysna quite like a wood carving.

One of the most enduring Knysna exports is the wood-carved birds from the Feathers factory. These collectable birds are made from indigenous wood and are hand-painted and uniquely numbered

Party time

The Oyster Festival is part food and drink, part physical exertion, depending on your preferences. Over a 10-day period, from 30 June to 9 July, organised events range from cooking demonstrations to half-marathons, cycle races and obstacle courses.

On my first full day on Friday, I thought I'd start by checking out the lay of the land. I took the steep winding road to the top of the populated eastern Head and parked at the lookout point. The views back towards town and out to sea from these sandstone cliffs are breathtaking.

From there, it was back into town for the obligatory stop at the tourist information centre. Situated right on the main street, the information centre is easy to spot. An enormous ghostly skeleton of a Knysna elephant dominates the entire shop-front.

I picked up an information booklet and map. The lineup of events at the festival is impressive and ranges from live music and late-night parties to more wholesome, family activities.

I recommend the beer

After having a wander about town and looking at some of the markets and shops and watching a brass band; I received a call from some friends saying that they were at Mitchells Brewery about to do beer tasting.

It was an offer I could not refuse and headed to the industrial area. For R30 you get a tour of the facility, a tasting glass and can sample all their ales and lagers. The Foresters Lager is probably the lightest and sweetest. I am quite partial to the Bosuns Bitter, but tastes vary.

An encounter with an oyster

There are oysters aplenty during festival time. Nearly every restaurant sets up special al fresco oyster bars so that they can keep 'em coming. Prices range from R5 to R20 depending on where you buy them from, their size and their cultivation.

I should probably come clean and admit that I really don't like oysters. It's not so much the taste, as the whole concept of eating something that lives in a shell. In fact, my general rule of thumb when it comes to eating things from the sea is - "if it carries its home on its back, I don't eat it." Which is just a verbose way of saying, no shellfish.

But, I was at an Oyster Festival and everyone else was doing it. I though a five-rand cultivated oyster would be money well spent. So as we were waiting at the stadium for a friend to register for the Saturday's Knysna Forest Half-Marathon I got myself a pint of Foresters and sat down with my mollusc.

I contemplated the oyster which I'd dowsed liberally with lemon juice, Tabasco sauce and black pepper and thought of a happy place.

It slid off the shell and lolled around in my mouth for a few moments. I tried dutifully to swallow, but regrettably the soft jelly-like texture was just too off-putting. I took a swig of beer to remove the lingering taste from my mouth. That was that.

Time to get physical

Saturday dawned and we made our way back to the sports stadium to watch the end of the 21,1 kilometre half-marathon. It had begun about an hour previously in the Knysna Forest.

The race is reportedly one of the most scenic in the country. There are only 5,000 entries and so, when registration starts in early April, the spots usually get filled within a couple of days.

The first half of the race is hilly, in fact, the first couple of kilometres are just uphill. But, because what goes up must come down, the course does level off - this is a mixed blessing though. Downhills can be really tough on your quads, and if you pound down the slopes, chances are you'll be feeling it when you reach the final flat stretch.

Regardless of the grueling course, most of the runners crossing the finish looked remarkably fresh.

What a rush

After a enjoying a very tasty pancake and wishing the runners well, we decided to go check out what was going on at the waterfront. The Quays is a relatively new development in Knysna which juts out into the lagoon. In addition to accommodating various yachts and ferries, there are plenty of restaurants and shops.

During the Oyster Festival, the Land Rover G4 Waterfront Rush draws contestants and spectators alike. The event is like a big obstacle course.

Basically, the course begins with two competitors sitting in white-water canoes on the top of a slide. They then skid about two and a half meters into the water and paddle a course around two buoys, head back past the start and get into an aquaball.

An aquaball is a larger waterborne version of a hamster-wheel. The contestants then effectively walk on water as they maneuver the aquaball around another buoy before returning to the platform where they scramble along a net-bridge, shimmy along the harbour wall, back into a canoe, and then up a climbing wall. It's quite a spectacle.

Time to calm down

It was time for a change of pace. After a tasty lunch at The Quays I headed 30 kilometres out of town to Plettenberg Bay. The crescent-shaped beach at Plett is iconic along the Garden Route.

As the afternoon began to turn into evening, the heat began to subside and a thin salty mist began to rise off the sea. On reflection, it had been a fantastic weekend filled with activities, entertainment, and wonderful food.[b]

Knysna is certainly a destination not to be overlooked[/b], and I would say that if you have the opportunity to visit, you should.

Article © Copyright 2006 Go2Africa.

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