Garden Route - Coastal Splendour [antikvár]

he Garden Route lies along a 300-kilometre-strip of the southern Cape coast - a lush terrace bordered by the Indián Ocean and a barrier of continuousmountain ranges. in a country vvhich is, for the most part, hot and dry, it is not surprising that this small, specialised strip is a mandatory destination for iocal and foreign visitors alike. With its abundant water and lush vegetation, beautiful lakes and rivers, this celebrated region provides unlimited leisure and recreation opportunities and a well-established tourism infrastructure. A superb highway, seemingly designed to iramé the most breathtaking sights, carries the traveller to lookout points high above the ocean, over tovvering sandstone headlands thrusting into the sea, and past Iimpid estuaries, lakes and lagoons strung along the coast. Many of South Africa's most precious natural assets are protected in sanctuaries along the way; vast areas are set aside for indigenous forests, wild flowers, sea creatures and waterbirds that thrive in a network of sensitive estuarine systems. These are not shrines to Nature; visitors are encouraged to hike and fish, svvim and sail, or simply to restore their energy in a lakeside log cabin, or chalet with a vievv of the sea. But there's more to a holiday than a visual feast, The Garden Route offers a platterful of culinary delights with the emphasis, naturally, on fresh seafood. Topping the menu of local delicacies is the Knysna oyster, commercially farmed in the 17-square-kilometre tidal lagoon. The region alsó has an abundajice of fresh vegetables and fruit, grown in the nearby Langkloof, as well as local cheeses, home-brewed ales and wild honey from a variety of indigenous plants.