Now, If You’ll Look To Your Left... A Handbook for Tourist & Community Guides In Knysna and Plettenberg Bay Martin Hatchuel Now, If You’ll Look To Your Left... A Handbook for Tourist & Community Guides In Knysna and Plettenberg Bay ISBN 0-620-28541-9 © Martin Hatchuel 1998 (Revised 2001) Martin Hatchuel, P O Box 2690 Knysna 6570 [email protected] Cell 084 951 0574 Published by The Garden Route & Klein Karoo Regional Tourism Organisation P O Box 1514 George 6530 54 York Street, George Telephone 044 - 873 6314/55 Fax 044 – 884 0688 E-mail [email protected] www.gardenroute.org.za Disclaimer: Whilst every care has been taken in the production of this book, the publishers and author accept no responsibility for errors that might occur. Please verify addresses, hyperlinks, telephone numbers, opening times, etc. with your local tourism bureaux, the individual attractions or the Phone Book & Yellow Pages Southern Cape and Karoo (pub. Telkom Directory Services [Pty] Ltd.). Special Thanks to Prof. Brian Allanson of the Knysna Basin Project for proof reading material on the marine environment; Keith Burton for providing material on guiding techniques; Nicholas Cage of the South Cape Herbarium for material on the fynbos; Cobri Vermeulen of DWAF for material on the forests of the Southern Cape; all the staff of the George and Knysna Museums and all the librarians at Knysna and Plettenberg Bay. Electronic copies of this Handbook are available free of charge on the Internet. Request your copy from [email protected] Contents CONTENTS .............................................................................................................................. 3 INTRODUCTION TO TOURISM AND KNYSNA ........................................................... 5 TOURISM AND CULTURE: AN OVERVIEW OF ........................................................ 12 KNYSNA’S HISTORY ........................................................................................................ 12 .................................................................................................................................................. 13 PART 2 .................................................................................................................................... 28 CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY OF KNYSNA ............................................................... 28 PART 3 ................................................................................................................................... 39 CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY OF PLETTENBERG BAY ....................................... 39 PART 4 .................................................................................................................................... 54 THE VEGETATION OF THE GARDEN ROUTE ......................................................... 54 PART 5 .................................................................................................................................... 64 CHECKLIST OF TREES OF THE GARDEN ROUTE ................................................. 64 PART 6 .................................................................................................................................... 76 CHECKLIST OF MAMMALS OF THE GARDEN ROUTE ........................................ 76 PART 7 .................................................................................................................................... 90 CHECKLIST OF BIRDS OF THE GARDEN ROUTE .................................................. 90 PART 8 .................................................................................................................................. 136 CHECKLIST OF REPTILES OF THE GARDEN ROUTE ........................................ 136 PART 9 .................................................................................................................................. 148 THE MARINE ENVIRONMENT .................................................................................... 148 PART 10 ................................................................................................................................ 198 KNYSNA’S NATURAL ENVIRONMENT .................................................................... 198 © Martin Hatchuel 1998 Now, If You’ll Look To Your Left... Page 3 PART 11 ................................................................................................................................ 215 PLETTENBERG BAY’S NATURAL ENVIRONMENT ............................................. 215 PART 12 ................................................................................................................................ 239 GUIDING TECHNIQUES ................................................................................................. 239 SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY .............................................................................................. 251 USEFUL ADDRESSES ....................................................................................................... 251 INDEX ................................................................................................................................... 251 © Martin Hatchuel 1998 Now, If You’ll Look To Your Left... Page 4 Part 1: Lecture 1 Introduction to Tourism and Knysna © Martin Hatchuel 1998 Now, If You’ll Look To Your Left... Page 5 Introduction to Tourism and Knysna Tourism is the World’s biggest earner of foreign exchange: 592 million people traveled as tourists during 1995, and 100 million people found work in tourism. During that same year global tourism generated 1903.5 billion rands worth of foreign exchange: that is 10% of the combined Gross National Product of all the nations of the world. During 1995, tourism brought 13 billion rands worth of business - and, therefore, 13 billion rands worth of foreign exchange - to South Africa. The average foreign visitor spent 19 nights in the country, of which 12.3 nights were spent in the Western Cape Province (8.8 nights in Cape Town, 1.7 nights in the Garden Route and 1.8 nights elsewhere in the Province). It is significant that the majority of foreign visitors spent the largest part of their holiday in our Province! Knysna‘s Geographical Location Knysna is one of the most important towns on South Africa’s Garden Route. It lies on the banks of the Knysna River Estuary. The national road route N2 runs through the town. Knysna is 490 km east of Cape Town and 260 km west of Port Elizabeth. The Garden Route is a narrow coastal strip within the Western Cape. It lies between Albertinia in the west and Storms River in the east. Its northern border is formed by the Tsitsikamma and Outeniqua Mountains. It is the only part of Africa that receives all-year rainfall. The name Garden Route was given to the area because of its natural beauty. The unique combination of mountains, rivers, beaches and ocean combined with a patchwork of fynbos, forest, lakes and small towns is what draws the visitor to this area. Satour, South Africa’s national tourism authority, has published results of surveys that show that 30% of all tourists rate scenic beauty and 30% rate wildlife as their most important reasons for coming to the country . It can be concluded that the Garden Route draws the majority of its visitors for the same reasons1. The Satour statistics show that the five most important attractions in South Africa are in the Cape Peninsula. They are: 1 The V&A Waterfront, 2 Table Mountain, 3 Kirstenbosch, 4 The Wine lands and 5 Cape Town itself. It is significant, therefore, that the next two most popular attractions for foreign visitors are: 6 The Garden Route and 7 Oudtshoorn 1 It is important to examine why environmentalists and pressure groups fight so hard to preserve the scenic beauty of the Garden Route: It is often done to protect tourism, because the scenic beauty that we have here is so important to the tourist, and because tourism is an industry that directly and indirectly provides many of the jobs in the area. © Martin Hatchuel 1998 Now, If You’ll Look To Your Left... Page 6 Getting to Knysna Knysna is easily accessible to tourists because of: • its position on the national road route N2 • its close proximity to George airport (60 km to the west) and Plettenberg Bay airport (30 km to the east) • the regular, scheduled inter-city bus services that pass through • the regular, scheduled train service provided by the Outeniqua Tjoe- Choo. The Tourist’s Perception of Knysna From Satour‘s figures, we can conclude that the tourist is most probably drawn to Knysna by its natural beauty. But once here, what is his perception likely to be? To say that Knysna‘s visitors chose to spend time here only because of the town’s natural beauty, would be to ignore its many other attractions. The Knysna Tourism Bureau has identified these attractions as being (in no special order): • The natural beauty • The town’s potential as a host for sports events and conferences • Investment opportunities (property and business opportunities) • The village-like atmosphere of the town centre • Our endangered wildlife: The Knysna elephant • The Brenton-Blue butterfly • The Knysna sea-horse • Indigenous forests & fynbos • The safety (lack of violent crime) and tranquillity of the Garden Route • Easy access • Pleasant weather • Unusual agricultural enterprises (such as oyster farming) • The entertainment offered (night-clubs, bars, theatre, music, fine art) • The mystique of the town: that almost undefinable sense of atmosphere