Woodcutters Hike in the Knysna Forrest
Hike began around the forest’s oldest tree, the 1.7m trunk of the Yellowood tree. We did the Circles in a Forest route (formerly known as the Woodcutters 9km hike). We managed it in just under 2 hours thanks to the relatively good terrain (river gorge but very manageable). No time to shower when we got back to the hotel as we were being picked up by the Backpackers Adventure group for a canoe trip up Knysna river and maybe a bit of cliff diving and abandoned bridge diving!
Sure enough, at 2 pm we were picked up in an old BMW jalopy convertible for the ride to the container (actually a big sea shipping container) that housed the canoes (actually kayaks). 4 seats, 5 people.
But what a canoe ride. Brendan and I rode tandem as did Ryan and Deb. The others were in singles. It took a little getting used to as the tide was coming in. Hard to believe that the current flows up river. And what a current. But, we all mastered the journey like old pros. First stopwas the cliff diving.
Ryan: Freaky looking down at the rocks and knowing that you had to jump past them on route to the rocks. But t was fine (as illustrated by the 5-6 jumps and 1 dive!).
Brendan: Fun rock jumps. I wasn’t scared at all. They seemed shorter than the towers at Carleton. I couldn’t stop trying to perfect my high tower dives. But I kept over rotating! The water was so warm.
Joe: I didn’t think I could do it, but after watching the kids, how could I chicken out? I really enjoyed it. And the water was so warm. The mix of the ocean tide, the bay’s naturally warmed waters and the natural river flow produced an amazing 25 degrees. Fantastic.
Deb: The jumping from the cliffs brought me back to my youth. And once I was in the warm water, wild horses couldn’t ge me out! I swam and swam and was so proud of my boys cliff diving and cliff jumping. What an experience. In the mean time Joe is trying to capture them on photo and asking them to go again and again! After I realized that the kids knew to jump out away from the jagged rocks beneath them.
Eventually our guide asked us to move on suggesting that the cliff diving was just a warm-up for the bridge jumping still to come!
After another 20 minutes or so, we reached our destination. The abandoned railway bridge. 9 meters off the surface of the water was a rusted-out, delapidated, use this bridge at your own risk bridge. And did we use this bridge!
All of us jumped from the bridge after our guide showed us the way. It was wild. Fun and wild and seemingly dangerous. After the kids and Deb had jumped, Joe was content and was not going to jump. Brendan quickly changed that! He swam to shore and said, “Dad, your turn. And I will go again, just to make sure you do it safely!
And we did! I think I was as happy with myself as I was with the boys and Deb. We dedicated these jumps to our adventurous friend Francis Burke, who recently lost his battle with cancer.
Then our guide put on the real show, doing swan dives from the top of the railway bridge – another 4 meters from where our we were jumping. And he was diving!
It was a great day. After baths to de-salt, we head over to the place that was prepared to make Brendan-safe pizza! It was fantastic!
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