The benefits of travelling to Africa during the shoulder season

Travelling in the shoulder season (the period between the high and the low season) can be blissful – with benefits such as lower rates, fewer crowds and more moderate weather. However, these advantages aren’t only experienced by you, the travelller, they have a ripple effect on local communities where the seasonal nature of travel affects the regional economy.

Avoid overcrowding
Recently a video showing a mass of safari vehicles converging on a cheetah kill in the Masai Mara Reserve in Kenya went viral for all the wrong reasons. Judy Kepher-Gona, the director of the Kenya-based Sustainable Travel and Tourism Agenda was quoted in the New York Times. “Sadly, what is seen in this video is the rule and not the exception in Masai Mara reserve.”

While this migration is a spectacle of nature and it’s understandable that travellers want to witness it in person, it’s worth considering the impact of over-tourism. Travelling outside of peak season, or supporting initiatives to limit visitor numbers in popular regions helps support sustainable travel, which has the benefit of protecting the treasures that we travel so far to see. 

Where to go during shoulder season
The most popular time to visit South Africa’s Kruger National Park (and other game parks in the country) is during the dry winter season. However, the shoulder season months of April and October are lovely in Kruger and not as cold at night. 

October can be excellent for game viewing, as animals gather at watering holes waiting for spring rains to bring new life. Birds also begin courtship rituals and although there is no fixed calving season in Kruger (it varies from species to species and many mammals give birth throughout the year), impala are among those that calve from the end of October to December. 

During the shoulder season, the summer humidity in sub-tropical KwaZulu-Natal eases and it can be an excellent time to explore the parks and coastline here. If you’d like to hike in the Drakensberg with its dramatically beautiful peaks, autumn (April and May) or spring (September and October) are best. You’ll avoid the daily thunderstorms and the summer heat.

The northern parts of Kwa-Zulu Natal have a warmer tropical climate and just like neighbouring Mozambique can be very humid in summer. The climate around the Bazaruto Archipelago is more moderate in October and it’s an ideal time to scuba dive here.

Cape Town has a Mediterranean climate with a hot, dry summer, which makes the shoulder season of March and April favourable to those wanting to avoid the heat. The city’s summer southeaster wind will have died down and the restaurants, surrounding beaches and other popular attractions are less crowded than over the busy summer. The Cape Winelands can get particularly hot from December to February. Autumn offers a respite, with cooler mornings and evenings, and vine leaves that morph from green to variegated shades of brown, orange and red.

The shoulder season months of September and October are the best in which to see southern right whales and other cetaceans. Hermanus, De Hoop Nature Reserve and the Overberg coastline offers among the world’s best land-based whale watching spots.

Save on costs
A final benefit of travelling during shoulder season is that you can get better value for your money. Some hotels and lodges offer shoulder season rates and even if they are not advertised, you’ll have greater opportunity to negotiate discounts outside of peak season. Flights also cost more during the holiday seasons, which means that you can save by travelling outside of these periods. 

With fewer crowds and perks like access to popular destinations, there’s a lot to love about the shoulder season.

Happy Travelling,

The Leopard Team

P.S. Join Diana on 17 March in San Francisco for a fun evening of cheese, wine and talk about travel! If you don’t live in San Francisco but know someone who does, and is interested in traveling to Africa, please pass the invitation on to them.

To join this exclusive event (space is limited), please RSVP at: https://pp.events/leopardtravelafrica

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Summer in Cape Town – a family guide

Cape Town is a glorious destination for a holiday, especially during the summer and early autumn. With so many beautiful places to explore, you’ll have a hard time scratching the surface on any single visit. Once you’ve whet your appetite however, you’ll be sure to return time and again. Here are a few of our favourite spaces to spend time as a family on a holiday in the Mother City.

Kirstenbosch Gardens
Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, which lies along the eastern slopes of Table Mountain, is the perfect setting to enjoy an afternoon of tranquillity, with restaurants, lawns and lots of space for children to explore. Make sure to look for Colonel Bird’s bath (often mistakenly referred to as Lady Anne Barnard’s bath) and the Boomslang canopy walkway, or enjoy a picnic under the boughs. Live summer concerts are held on Sunday evenings and the Galileo Open Air Theatre also stages movie nights under the stars. 

Beaches
While a visit to the southern cape to see penguins on Boulders Beach is well worth it, Cape Town has a lengthy coastline with lots of sandy seaside to choose from. Popular spots near the city include Camps Bay and Clifton, while Gordon’s Bay, Big Bay, Fish Hoek and Llandudno are among the many others worth visiting. (It’s always best to stay and swim within the demarcated areas manned by lifeguards).

Boat trips
From floating through the canals, harbour tours, pirate-themed jaunts on the Jolly Roger, eco-focused marine safaris, ferries to the historical Robben Island, as well as catamaran, yacht and speed boat trips, there are ample types of boat trips in and around the V&A Waterfront. You can also take a glass-bottomed, or other boat trip, to Duiker Island’s seal colony from Hout Bay harbour.

Wine Estates
The wine estates surrounding Cape Town provide serene spaces to enjoy fine wine and food and many of them are child friendly. Besides restaurants, picnics and interesting sculpture gardens, Spier offers offroad segway tours (children can participate from the age of 10) and the estate is also home to Eagle Encounters. Here you can learn about African raptors, see them up close and watch them soar overhead before returning to their handlers. 

Boschendal has a large tree house climbing gym and also offers guided nature experiences like scavenger hunts, obstacle courses, foraging and nature walks (these need to be booked 24 hours in advance). While Hazendal boasts a state-of-the-art edutainment centre known as Wonderdal, which is access-controlled and fully supervised, so parents can enjoy wine tasting, a meal at the Babushka Deli or a Russian tea ceremony.

Other things to try
Try something interactive like a cooking lesson in the Bo-Kaap, where you can learn to conjour up an authentic Cape Malay dish or join a chocolate-making workshop at the Lindt Chocolate Studio.

There are also numerous walks and hikes in and around Table Mountain National Park, or enjoy scooter ride on the Sea Point promenade. And no trip to Cape Town is complete without catching the cable car to the top of Table Mountain.

Happy travelling,
The Leopard Team

P.S. Join Diana on 17 March in San Francisco for a fun evening of cheese, wine and talk about travel! If you don’t live in San Francisco but know someone who does, and is interested in traveling to Africa, please pass the invitation on to them.

To join this exclusive event (space is limited), please RSVP at: https://pp.events/leopardtravelafrica

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Is an African Safari Dangerous?

You may have seen videos of an angry hippo chasing a boat full of tourists or an elephant charging at a safari vehicle. Could you find yourself in danger on an African safari and what can you do to avoid this?

While around 30 million tourists visit Africa each year and a large portion of those go on safari, deaths and injuries due to wild animal encounters are very low. Most incidents are caused by the reckless or ignorant behaviour of the visitor, such as approaching a pride of lions on foot (as incredible as that sounds, this has happened). Essentially, safaris are safe and enjoyable as long as you follow the rules designed to protect you.

How to keep safe on safari:
Make sure to stay at a reputable lodge or park with well-trained guides and obey the park rules as they’re designed to keep you safe. At Leopard, we only recommend reserves that have certified game rangers and have safe and ethical policies to protect both people and wildlife.

Staying safe on a guided game drive
Your guide will explain the specific rules pertaining to that park, but these include things like:

• Stay seated in an open safari vehicle. 
• Don’t raise your voice.
• Keep your cell phone on silent.
• Only disembark when your guide gives you the go ahead. For example, when you stop for morning coffee, your guide will check the area first to make sure that it’s safe.

A reputable, well-trained ranger will be familiar with the area and its creatures and will understand when to retreat from an animal encounter before it becomes risky.

Staying safe on a walking safari
Walking safaris in a Big-Five game reserve are the most adventurous type of safari and allow you to immerse yourself in the bush, guided by an expert tracker.

Rules to keep you safe often include:

• Walk in a single file behind your armed tracker.
• Keep quiet so that the tracker can listen to the surrounding sounds (and so you don’t carelessly frighten away animals).
• Don’t make any sudden movements.

Thousands of people enjoy walking safaris each year without incident and come away with a sense of wonder and gratitude for having an experience of this kind in the wild.

Staying safe on a family safari
A few things to bear in mind when planning a family safari:

• Not all lodges allow children on game drives and some request you book a private vehicle at additional cost. 
• Others cater specifically for kids and allow children over a certain age to join in on open-vehicle safari drives.  
• If children are too young to go on a game drive, child-friendly lodges often provide fun and educational wildlife-related activities within the camp. 
• Children under 16 are not usually allowed on walking safaris. 

Staying safe on a self-drive safari

• Make sure to familiarise yourself with the reserve rules when using your own car or a hired vehicle. For example, staying inside your vehicle and not leaving the roads.
• It’s also important to note that South Africa’s National Parks are wilderness areas, rich in wildlife, and kept as natural as possible. You won’t find petrol (gas) stations between camps, so make sure you have enough fuel to complete your journey.
• Check the gate and rest camp closing times before leaving, these change with the seasons. Allow yourself sufficient time to return to the camp without having to speed. 
• If you are driving to Kruger National Park, avoid the Numbi entrance gate, which has been the scene of recent criminal activity.
• Don’t feed or try to touch any wild animal. Be wary of baboons and monkeys, especially around Cape Point and at picnic sites in the Kruger National Park. 

At Leopard we do our utmost to provide our clients with a seamless and carefree travel experience so that you can enjoy the best of Africa without concern for your safety or that of your family.

As resident South Africans who’ve travelled the continent extensively, we’ll help you make informed decisions when holidaying in Africa, whether it’s a romantic trip, a family holiday or a solo vacation.

Happy travelling,
The Leopard Team

P.S. Please let us know if there are any places you’d like us to cover in future newsletters, or questions you have about travelling in Africa.

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Best African travel destinations for 2023

The ideal time to plan your next vacation is as soon as you return from your last one. While getting back to work and setting goals for the year is good and necessary, work life can bring with it a certain amount of stress which can be offset by the anticipation of something good. According to a study conducted in 2015, “anticipating a positive event is uniquely able to induce positive emotions.”

We’ve rounded up 12 sublime locations to holiday in Africa – so that you can start planning.

January and February
1. Cape Town, South Africa 
Voted both the best city in Africa and the best in the world, by readers of Travel + Leisure and The Telegraph respectively, we agree that Cape Town is certainly gorgeous. The city has an especially vibrant energy in summer, with its restaurants and brilliant white beaches buzzing with both locals and visitors. 

2. The Garden Route, South Africa
The Garden Route stretches from Mossel Bay along South Africa’s southern coast as far as the dramatically beautiful Storms River in the Tsitsikamma section of the Garden Route National Park. The area’s forests, rivers and beaches can be explored by vehicle, on foot, by boat, by zipline or on a mountain bike. It’s an ideal destination for family travel and is home to landmark sites like the Map of Africa, the Knysna Heads, Featherbed and Robberg Nature Reserve as well as the Cango Caves.

March and April:
3. Seychelles 
One of the best times of year to visit Seychelles’ pristine palm-fringed beaches, framed by granite boulders, is between March and April when the trade winds don’t blow. The water is warm and clear and your days can be filled by doing as little or as much as you choose. Sailing, snorkelling, scuba diving, trips on glass bottom boats or massages by the poolside are all possibilities.

4. Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
​​While it can be enjoyable to visit Victoria Falls in November and December when the flow of the Victoria Falls is at its lowest and you can visit Devil’s Pool, if you want to experience the falls at their peak, April is one of the best months to do so. The rainy season will just have ended and while the weather is still pleasantly warm (and even hot) it will have cooled somewhat after the summer. As April is not considered high season you can secure better deals with off-peak rates too.

May and June:
5. Bangweulu swamps, Zambia
Birders will enjoy a visit to Zambia in May during the dry season to search for the prehistoric-looking shoebills. These birds favour marshes and wetlands and are typically found in the Bangweulu swamps on the country’s northern plateau. You can also spot them in Kasanka National Park, to the southwest of the wetlands.

6. Gorilla Trekking, Rwanda
A gorilla trek in Rwanda is a bucket-list item no matter what time of year you go. However, the dry season between June and September makes hiking through the jungle to find these gentle apes a bit easier. 

July and August:
7. Serengeti, Tanzania
The great migration of wildebeest is a spectacle that fascinates visitors each season. After crossing the Grumeti River the herds of wildebeest continue north and begin crossing the Mara River in July and August. It’s not only the wildebeest that are attracted to this river crossing but also wildlife enthusiasts and photographers who marvel at the spectacle.

8. Kruger National Park, South Africa
While Kruger is a year-round destination, the vegetation is not as lush during the dry winter season, providing better game-viewing opportunities. Besides being an excellent place to see the Big Five on safari, the Greater Kruger also offers an array of luxury lodges with modern facilities, excellent service and outstanding cuisine.

September and October:
9. Sossusvlei, Namibia
Climb Dune 45 or take photos of these iconic crescent-shaped red dunes before visiting the nearby Deadvlei with its cracked clay pan and petrified trees, then visit the nearby Sesriem Canyon. An early morning balloon trip that gives you a birds-eye perspective over the Namib Desert, followed by a champagne breakfast, will be a memorable addition to any holiday here.

10. Vilanculos and Bazaruto, Mozambique
While the tropical destinations of Vilanculos and the Bazaruto Archipelago can be enjoyed all year round, the dry season from June to November is best, with September and October being ideal. Scuba divers will also find visibility is also better during the dry season.

November and December
11. Chobe, Botswana
The winter safari season is busier than others in Botswana, however, November allows visitors to Chobe to witness not only its voluminous elephant population (and the rest of the Big Five) but also the annual zebra migration. In November herds of zebra congregate to form a mass of about 20,000 animals. After spending the dry months in the vicinity of the Chobe River floodplain, they begin migrating southwards to the Nxai Pan area at the end of November and in early December.

12. Grand Gaube, Mauritius
The island nation of Mauritius is a short flight away from South Africa and offers a perfect tropical escape. Explore the sandy, palm-lined beaches of Grand Gaube where you can snorkel in warm, azure water or take a day trip to Coin de Mire – a small island off the coast. The warm, clear waters around this nature reserve provide the ideal location for snorkelling and scuba diving. You may spot sting rays, triggerfish, parrot fish and leaf fish, among others.

If you’d like help in planning a seamless holiday in any of these destinations or the others that we cover, drop us a line and we’ll be happy to help.

Here’s to a new year full of travel adventures.

The Leopard Team

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The ebb and flow of travel in 2022

In our next newsletter we’ll be sharing Leopard’s selection of destinations to travel to in 2023. For now, however, we take a nostalgic look back on an extraordinary year as it draws to a close. 

The best part about 2022 was that people started travelling again. After a shaky start, travel reemerged with a vengeance. People don’t want to wait to do that long-desired family trip with elderly parents and siblings, or that bucket-list road trip with their children, or a safari adventure with their beloved. Rightly so, as nobody knows what the future holds. 

For Leopard, 2022 started off slowly. The Covid omicron variant caused the world to panic at the end of 2021, and led to flight bans to South Africa and subsequent holiday cancellations. This meant that  2022 didn’t take off in the way that the local travel industry had hoped.

However, the year improved considerably. Over two hundred valued clients travelled with us in 2022. We did hotel visits in South Africa, Zanzibar, Mozambique and the Okavango Delta. We also added four new African countries to the destinations we offer, bringing the total to sixteen! 

Helen, a longtime family friend, joined our team, taking on a big load of administration and finance work. She has made a huge difference in our operations already. I’m fortunate to work with six highly competent women who are incredibly motivated and good at what they do. They give their best every day for Leopard and our clients, something which I deeply appreciate.   

Most importantly, this year, our clients got to experience that exhilarating feeling of travelling again! They did road trips through Namibia, encountered incredible African wildlife and celebrated special family times in Mauritius, Zanzibar and Seychelles.  They also spotted migrating southern right whales, observed nesting turtles, saw the rare dugong in Mozambique, ate incredible local food, drank world-class wine, and enjoyed the warm hospitality of the African people. Without clients, we would not have work, so thank you to each and every one – your support means a lot! 

And finally, thank YOU for being part of the Leopard community and keeping in touch through our newsletter. We wish you a very happy New Year, and we look forward to welcoming you to Africa in 2023.

Best regards,

Diana and the Leopard Team

P.S. Take a look at our highlights from 2022, in this video:

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Winding down the year 2022

Perhaps your year, like mine, is speeding up before it slows down. The beginning of December in South Africa marks the start of the long summer school holidays and a period when most people take a break. 

If you’re one of those who’ll be putting your feet up in December and would like to relax with some good audio content that’s far more enjoyable than Santa Claus Is Coming To Town we have two suggestions.

Leopard has created an African playlist that will take you on a musical journey around our beautiful continent. Drink in the sounds of Oliver Mtukudzi from Zimbabwe, King Sunny Ade and Fela Kuti from Nigeria and the queens of homegrown African music, Angélique Kidjo, Miriam Makeba and Cesária Evora. 

If you’re one of Leopard’s 48 clients travelling to six countries in Africa over December and January, this playlist will be the perfect addition to your holiday.

Find our playlist on Spotify, or click here to access it.

If you enjoy podcasts, Leopard has a podcast that features interviews with eight incredible South Africans who are passionate about their area of expertise. You can learn about South African wine from one of the region’s top sommeliers, art from a local artist, photography from a world renowned wildlife photographer and much more. 

Listen to one, or all, episodes on our website: https://leopard.voyage/podcast/

Happy travelling,

Diana

P.S. Look out for our newsletters at the beginning of next year where we hope to inspire you for the holidays you may be planning in 2023.

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Turtle time – experience one of nature’s miracles

November to February is an exciting period when you can witness female turtles nesting on the northern beaches of KwaZulu-Natal or watch as hatchlings emerge from the sandy womb and make their way to the ocean.

We love the fact that by visiting these sites you get to play a role in ecotourism.

Both the critically endangered giant leatherback turtle, as well as the loggerhead turtle nest on stretches of coast within the iSimangaliso Wetland Park and its marine protected area (MPA) provides important feeding grounds for these reptiles.

Get close to the turtles on land, or if you don a snorkel and mask (or scuba gear) you have an extraordinary opportunity to observe them underwater. Besides the leatherback and loggerhead turtles that nest on our beaches, you may spot a non-breeding resident green turtle in the water too.

It’s quite incredible that while loggerheads and leatherbacks can swim the length of the continent, once mature and ready to reproduce, female turtles often return to lay eggs only metres away from where they once hatched.

Active conservation in the MPAs has produced positive results, according to Marine Protected Areas South Africa.

“Ongoing monitoring since 1963 has revealed remarkable results demonstrating the importance of beach protection for nesting female turtles.

In 1966, fewer than 10 leatherback turtles nested on the Zululand coast. The average number of nesting leatherback females has now risen to more than 70 nests per year. The number of loggerhead turtles has risen even more spectacularly from less than 250 in the early 1960s to 1 700 nesting annually within the iSimangaliso Wetland Park.”

Whether you spot a loggerhead, leatherback or green turtle, like the character Crush from Pixar’s Finding Nemo, the experience may leave you as inarticulate as the animated creature who said, “I saw the whole thing dude! First, you were like, ‘woaaaah’, and then we were like, ‘woaaaah’ and then you were like, ‘woaaahh’”.

We’d love to help you plan a journey to experience this wonder of nature.

Happy travelling,
The Leopard Team

P.S. Drop us an email at info@leopard.voyage to find out more and remember to share this newsletter with someone who’d love to swim with turtles.

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The romance and excitement of an East African safari.

Drumroll, please! Leopard now offers safari holidays to Tanzania and Kenya. Writing this gives me goosebumps because I’ve long wanted to offer East Africa holidays to Leopard clients. We’ve also added two new adventure destinations, Congo Brazzaville and Madagascar. This means that we can help you visit 16 countries on the continent.

People often ask us about the difference between a Kruger and a Serengeti (Tanzania) or Masaai Mara (Kenya) safari. Each have compelling reasons to visit, so it is not an easy decision to make. The Serengeti-Mara ecosystem is know for it’s abundance of wildlife, and the great migration of vast herds of wildebeest across the land. Kruger does not have wildlife in the same numbers, but has a better density of wildlife, meaning that you are likely to see the Big Five (leopard, lion, elephant, buffalo and rhino) within a few days. 

The landscapes are also quite different. In the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem, you typically find open grassland savannah. In Kruger, you will find a variety of habitats including shrub mopane, thorny acacias, marula trees and giant baobabs. Both destinations are family friendly, although each lodge has its policy on whether children are allowed on safari game drives.

Kenya and Tanzania’s tented camps are perfect for those who love nature and the idea of just a sheet of canvas between you and the wild. Depending on your budget, the camps in Kenya and Tanzania often have only basic facilities (no TVs, air conditioning, some may have a bucket shower and chemical toilet). In Kruger, especially in the private reserves that make up Greater Kruger, you will find a selection of luxury lodges with modern facilities, excellent service and outstanding cuisine.

Cost is another consideration. The cost of a safari depends on variables such as time of year, location, logistics and level of luxury you would like. In general, Kruger is more affordable at around $350 – $550 per person per night for a comfortable four star pad compared to $550 – $700 per person per night in the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem. In Kruger, a luxury five star lodge will cost between $1,000 and $2,000 per person per night, compared to $1,550 – $3,000 in the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem.

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to choosing a safari. It depends on the kind of experience you wish to have, the time of year you wish to travel, and your budget. 

As always, we are just an email or WhatsApp away, if you’d like to have an exploratory discussion on any of our incredible holiday destinations. We look forward to welcoming you to East Africa. 

Happy travelling,

Diana

P.S. We have just updated our website. Please take a look and let us know what you think! I love the videos we created for some of the holiday inspiration pages, to better showcase the experience. I think this is my current favourite: https://leopard.voyage/2022/01/24/island-escape/

The Great Migration video can be viewed below.

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Garden Route galavanting. The perfect playground for families, couples and solo travellers.

Whether you’re looking for a family holiday or honeymoon destination or planning an adventurous solo escape, the Garden Route is as rich in beauty as Elon Musk’s mind is in profitable ideas. 

Driving from Cape Town to Mossel Bay, which marks the start of the Garden Route will take just over four hours, while a flight from Cape Town to George (the next town along the route) takes an hour. From here, it’s an easy drive on the well-maintained N2 that connects Mossel Bay to George, Wilderness, Sedgefield, Knysna and Plettenberg Bay. The road continues northeast across the Bloukraans Bridge, where you can experience the world’s highest commercial bungee jump.

Ideal for families
The wonder of exploring caves with chambers housing massive stalactites and stalagmites sculpted over time is worth the drive inland from George to Outshoorn’s Cango Caves. Take an Adventure Tour (for children over six years old), which makes its way deeper into the network of caves than the standard tour. An experienced guide will lead you from the main caverns down Jacob’s Ladder and through narrow spaces like the Tunnel of Love and the Devil’s Postbox before you return to the main chambers. 

You’ll find Acrobranch at Timberlake Organic Village (between Sedgefield and Wilderness), where children and adults can manoeuvre across obstacle courses suspended in the trees. Afterwards, head to Pomodoro in Wilderness, arguably the best Italian restaurant you’ll discover on your trip. 

Boat rides along the Keurbooms River pass between forested banks where Knysna loeries and woodpeckers, sunbirds and giant kingfishers make their home. A trip on the Knysna Pirate Ship will have you entertained by Captain Fish and crew member Mad-Maton as you sail across the Knysna Lagoon.

No family holiday to the Garden Route would be complete without visiting Birds of Eden. This two-hectare domed aviary allows its 3,500 birds (some are rescues) to fly freely between the treetops and creepers in the indigenous forest, complete with walkways and waterfalls. You’ll find Monkeyland next door, which offers guided walks through a forested enclosure to search for primates.

Garden Route romance
Sail to the Knysna Heads and beyond, into the Indian Ocean, on The Heads Explorer catamaran. You can laze on the trampolines sipping champagne while taking in the extraordinary views. When you’re ready to hang your hat, you’ll find several treetop lodges in Knysna and Plettenberg Bay’s forests, where couples can retreat from the shoreside buzz.

A picnic and wine tasting at Newstead Wine Estate is a relaxing way to spend an afternoon, or head to the top of Baron’s View Estate to enjoy a meal with spectacular views at Sky Villa Boutique Hotel’s restaurant, which overlooks the Keurbooms Lagoon and Plettenberg Bay.

Spend a morning in nature by hiring a tandem canoe and paddling up the Touws River in Wilderness. Your canoe can be left at the mooring spot so you can stroll through the moss-lined pathway in the forest that takes you to the Touws River Waterfall.                    

Solo adventure travel along the Garden Route
The adventurous may want to begin the journey at Mossel Bay by leaping out of a plane to experience the exhilaration of tandem skydiving. If you prefer the water to the sky, you’ll find great white shark cage diving in the bay, and for a good combination of land, air and sea, there’s the Mossel Bay Zipline. This zipline – the longest over-ocean zipline in the world – begins on the cliffs at The Point before taking you over the sea. Hurtle down the line at speeds of up to 80 kilometres per hour, with a chance of getting splashed by surging waves as you pass by. 

Knysna and Plettenberg Bay are full of exciting networks of mountain bike trails that wind through the Knysna and Harkeville forests and, like those at Cairnbrogie and Harkerville, which run along the cliffside overlooking the ocean. A hike through the fynbos-clad cliffs of the Robberg Nature Reserve will also provide you with dramatic views over Plettenberg Bay, where you have a good chance of spotting whales and dolphins in season.

Let us know your favourite spots along the Garden Route!

Happy travelling,

The Leopard Team

P.S. Look out for some exciting news in the next newsletter – we are expanding!

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