Day 11

Day 11  - Rest Day in Knysna (Mon. 18 Nov.)

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Today is a 'free' day to do what we like - the only thing planned is late afternoon, the Catamaran cruise around Knysna lagoon.
Mrs. K. and I enjoy a leisurely breakfast alfresco at the Greywood before stepping out to explore Knysna. On our shopping list is some smaller bottles of South African Gin/Whiskey to take back to the UK for our son. With smaller, we take more variety while staying within the UK customs limits. We're in luck and secure a good selection from the Pick n' Save store.
Once we've finished exploring the 'up town' Knysna shopping area, we walk back down past our hotel to explore the Knysna waterfront/marina area with it's restaurants, bars and shopping. We enjoy our ice cream and coffee and stuff down here. I spot a new sleeveless fleece that I like, so buy that too, I'll use it mainly under my jacket when I'm back in the U.K. It's good because it's not too long like a lot of them are.
Rather than go back to the Hotel to meet before the boat ride I arrange by phone to meet with the others at the entrance to the marina, where the two towers are. From there we all take the (5 min) walk to the Featherbed Co.'s terminal, where we check in and wait for the catamaran. While we wait we have coffees and/or coffees from their bar. It's warm and sunny sitting out on their deck, overlooking Knysna lagoon. Featherbed people then announce; "Oh, you are in the wrong place, you've got to walk back down to the marina to board the Heads Explorer". Hmmph. Waste of time coming up here then. Cynical thought: 'they just wanted some custom at their bar'.
So, back down at the marina we see the boat and go on board. First, though, we have to remove all shoes n socks as it's only allowed to be barefoot on board. I suppose they have heir reasons (safety?) I'm not sure. Whatever. There's a crew of 3, the skipper who just drives the boat and 2 others who crew for him, and also serve up the food and drink for us, all of which are included in the price, we just ask for whatever we want. The buffet is served later, nearer sunset time. We were thinking that it'd be just us on this cruise but Featherbed have led this other guy on with us. Strange.
Heads Explorer (that's the name of the catamaran) starts off under motor power, and out in the lagoon switches to sail power, abetted now and again by the engine. The weather is perfect and the atmosphere is now really peaceful. Appropriate music playing gracefully in the background.
Skipper man takes us out to the narrow channel where the lagoon meets the Indian Ocean, what they call "The Heads". If conditions are right, we would go out into the ocean, however skipper judges that conditions are not good enough. The states of the tide/current/ winds and so on deny us passage and so we circle the lagoon instead. Shame.
The buffet is presented. Very good spread, thanks. Plenty for 10. Eat as much as you like and the drinks keep flowing. Very casual. Now, at around 7.15, the sunset starts to happen, so the Heads Ex. Is positioned to make the most of seeing the sun go down over the cliff tops to the west of Knysna lagoon, as we move back towards the marina.
An enjoyable enough cruise methinks. Very nice boat indeed, it looked quite new, certainly modern and up to date , all clean and white. Probably better would have been to set off a little later, making it shorter overall, then again if we had got to go out through the Heads it would have been just right.
So, we leave the boat and the marina behind, reunited with our footwear we decide that we don't actually need a sit down dinner tonight, not after the full buffet, so instead we retreat to Olde's bar, on the same block as the hotel, on Gray St. for a few drinks and chat. SO endeth the eleventh day.


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