20 things to do in Wilderness on the Garden Route

​By Roxanne Reid
Wilderness. Even the word speaks to my soul. Visit the village of Wilderness in South Africa and you’ll discover a world of rivers, lagoons, lakes, beaches, forests and mountains. Spoil yourself with everything from nature, hiking and birding to paragliding, eating and shopping. Here’s my pick of 20 things to do in Wilderness on the Garden Route.

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​​1. Visit the Wilderness Section of the Garden Route National Park. Stay over at the Ebb and Flow Rest Camp to make the most of the hiking and canoeing in the park. Choose from a beautiful grassed campsite, budget-friendly forest cabins or log cabins on stilts. The Touw River flows past the campsite and forest cabins, making this one of my favourite spots to stay along the Garden Route.

The budget-friendly forest cabins along the Touw River at Ebb and Flow

​​2. Go hiking along one of the beautiful hiking trails in the Wilderness Section of the park. Some of my favourites include the Brown-hooded Kingfisher Trail, which takes you along forest paths to a river (5km), the Half-Collared Kingfisher Trail near Ebb and Flow Rest Camp’s bridge (7km) and the Giant Kingfisher Trail from Ebb and Flow North to a waterfall where you can picnic and swim (7km). This last one is tough going at first, especially on a hot day, but worth it for the reward at the end

Walking in the forests in and around Wilderness is always enjoyable

3. Hire a canoe at the day-visitors’ site at Ebb and Flow Rest Camp in the Wilderness Section of the Garden Route National Park and paddle up the Touw River. Once you pass under the railway bridge, you’ll be surrounded by indigenous forest on both sides. If you’re a keen birder, take your binos for a chance to spot kingfishers and the colourful local ‘special’, the Knysna turaco, swooping from tree to tree with a flash of red.

Paddle up the Touw River in a canoe

4. Go mountain biking. Although most of the mountain biking routes in the Garden Route National Park are further east than Wilderness – in the Knysna section (see more about them here) – there’s no reason you can’t take to the gravel roads that link the Wilderness Lakes or ride part of the Seven Passes road (see point 10 below) on your bike. If you love a challenge, there are some steep climbs from Wilderness village up towards Hoekwil or the Map of Africa (see point 13), where you’ll get superb views out towards the ocean.
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5. Explore Wilderness and Sedgefield’s very own Lake District, a Ramsar Wetland of international importance. These lakes, like Langvlei, Swartvlei and Rondevlei, are home to 32 fish species, some 280 endemic plants, 300 bird species, and numerous invertebrates. Go birding here (see point 6), cycle along the gravel roads from lake to lake (see point 4), go canoeing on the Serpentine or Touw River (see point 3) or wind-surfing on Swartvlei (get a permit from SANParks’ Ebb & Flow Rest Camp in Wilderness).

The lakes are good places to see water birds and waders

6. Go bird-watching. If you’re a birder, you’ll be in heaven around the Wilderness Lakes. Two of my favourite places to spend time with my binos are the Malachite Hide across the railway line at Langvlei and the Rondevlei Hide, where you might see African purple swamphen, malachite kingfisher, black crake and African rail, as well as lots of cormorants, perhaps even an African fish eagle.

Malachite Hide

7. Join biologist and ex-teacher Judy Dixon on Swartvlei Beach for a Moonlight Meander. (If she's away, her son Mark stands in for her.) Billed as ‘the best fun you can have after dark on the Garden Route’, the moonlight beach walks to Gericke’s Point let you meet intriguing sea creatures of the intertidal zone. Every spring tide at full moon and new moon (i.e. once every two weeks) finds Judy combing the beach and tidal pools for plough snails, limpets, chitons, barnacles and sea urchins, perhaps a cuttlefish or two. She makes it fun too. Did you know, for instance, that littorina are the bungy-jumpers of the mollusc world and barnacles have a penis 20 times longer than their bodies? To find out why, book for one of her magical moonlight meanders!

Have fun poking around in rock pools on the Moonlight Meander at Swartvlei beach

​8. Stop at Dolphin Point Lookout just west of Wilderness on the N2 towards George. From this outcrop you can enjoy expansive views over Wilderness’s coastline, the Kaaimans River mouth and tidal estuary, and the old railway bridge the Outeniqua Choo-Tjoe used to run along until 2009 when floods washed away part of the line. Parking is tight but it’s worth stopping for the views or to spot whales and dolphins.

Wilderness from Dolphin Point; you can sometimes see whales from here

Trains no longer run along the Kaaimans River bridge

9. Go to the beach. If you’re a beach person, you’ll enjoy Wilderness’s long creamy one. I love an early morning walk along Wilderness beach before all the sun bathers hit the sands, when the tide has cleared away yesterday’s footprints and left virgin sands to be explored.

A misty early morning walk along Wilderness beach

10. Don’t miss a drive along the Seven Passes road on the back roads between George and Knysna – or even a small part of it. You’ll get a healthy dose of gravel roads, clear brown rivers, historic bridges and indigenous forests. Take your time to enjoy the peace of this 75km route that embraces seven passes as part of a continuous route that takes you far from the pressures of the N2 highway. A lot of the indigenous bush along this route was burnt in a forest fire in October 2018, but it will soon recover and be even more beautiful.

A bridge over a river along the Seven Passes road

11. When you drive the Seven Passes road (see point 10), stop for lunch at Totties Farm Kitchen on the Rheenendal road. You’ll find good food in generous helpings, from wraps, burgers and bobotie to cakes, as well as a lavish buffet lunch on Sunday (for which you need to book in advance). Enjoy a peaceful nook in the garden or sit inside to be enveloped by old-fashioned charm in this historic little building.

Part of the restaurant used to be Tottie van Reenen's house in the 1920s

12. Another stop along the Seven Passes road (see point 10) is the Woodville Big Tree. It’s an 800-year-old Outeniqua yellowwood that towers above you at 33m and has a 12m circumference. Sit on a bench along the boardwalk, take a picnic or braai to enjoy nearby, or go for a walk along a forest trail.

The Woodville Big Tree

13. Don’t miss a detour off the Seven Passes Road (or a short drive up Hoogte Road from Wilderness village) to see the Map of Africa viewpoint. Look out over the Kaaimans River gorge to see indigenous forest shaped like – you got it – a map of Africa. This is a favourite launch spot for paragliders so you may be able to watch some of them take to skies and get inspired to follow suit (see point 16).

Map of Africa

14. The last time I drove the Seven Passes, I stumbled across the Bistro Celeiro restaurant not far east of the Woodville Big Tree (see point 12). It looked super, a country style building on a hill that could be in Tuscany or France. The grub looked good too, but they were fully booked for lunch. I can’t vouch for the food because I haven’t tried it myself, but I know that next time I’m in Wilderness I’m making a booking well ahead of time. It’s only open on Sundays for most of the year, but in December/January high season it opens every day from Wednesday to Sunday. 

Bistro Celeiro

15. Stop at the Hoekwil Country Café above Wilderness for coffee and a snack or meal. Their baked cheesecake is good; a local magazine voted it best in the country a few years back and it still happily trades on that accolade.

Hoekwil Country Cafe

16. Enjoy whale-watching along the coast, especially the migratory southern right and humpback whales that come here between June and November. You can join Ocean Odyssey for a boat-based whale-watching excursion that lasts 90min to two hours. Although this operates out of Knysna, it’s only about 45km away from Wilderness so I mention it for those who are especially eager to see these marine giants up close.

A drive to Knysna is worthwhile to experience boat-based whale-watching

17. Love an adrenalin rush? Knock yourself out with kloofing, abseiling or paragliding. Eden Adventures are the people to help you with kloofing and abseiling. For a tandem paragliding adventure try Cloudbase Paragliding or Dolphin Paragliding. 

Paragliding is popular in Wilderness

18. Although shopping isn’t usually top of mind when I’m surrounded by so much nature, if you feel the urge you could do worse than popping in to the Timberlake Organic Village on the N2 about halfway between Wilderness and Sedgefield. It’s a collection of independent businesses including a coffee roastery, restaurant, deli, clothing, leather and metal crafts, with a playground and fairy garden to keep the kids amused.

​19. Another superb place to shop for local farm and homemade food products is the Wild Oats Community Farmers’ Market in Sedgefield, just a 20km drive from Wilderness. On Saturday mornings you’ll find everything from fresh organic fruit and veg to cheeses, breads, cakes and more. A special treat is to have breakfast under the trees. 

Wild Oats Community Farmers' Market

20. Another market worth visiting is the Outeniqua Farmers’ Market in George, about 15km from Wilderness. Open on Saturday mornings, it has about 150 stalls and sells a range of goods from foods like fruit & veg, honey, cheese, pies and cakes to crafts. There are rides and fun for the kids too. Find it opposite the Garden Route Mall.

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