Wilderness is another small coastal town along the famous Garden Route in South Africa, and it was without a doubt, the best place I visited on my entire South African adventure. I stayed in one of the best hostels of my life and every single day was fun filled, active and adventurous. Fairy Knowe Backpackers has the potential to be overlooked by some backpackers who, like myself, are travelling without the luxury of a car, due to it’s slightly out of the way location. However it is this peaceful and tranquil locale which helps make it such a wonderful place to stay.
Set in an old Victorian-esque estate in the middle of a forest, Fairy Knowe is close to the starting points for almost all of the hiking trails in the area, can provide all meals, snacks and drinks for pretty reasonable prices, and is only a 30 minute walk to the town centre. The dorm bedrooms are clean, well kept and have small secure lock boxes; whilst the showers have some of the best water pressure that I have ever had in a hostel. The staff are helpful and honestly, the place is just plain brilliant.
On the bus ride from George to Wilderness, I had befriended a lovely German girl named Lisa, who would end up travelling with me for over a week. On our first day at Fairy Knowe we decided to spend the morning paragliding and the afternoon kloofing.
Cloudbase Paragliding offers tandem paragliding flights for around $50 AUD, which does seem a little pricey, but it is easily the cheapest paragliding company along the Garden Route. Unfortunately weather conditions did not allow us to take off from the famous Map of Africa spot, but we were still able to have a pretty gorgeous flight along the beach.
Next up was our kloofing adventure! Kloofing is the word used in South Africa to describe canyoning or canyoneering. Through our hostel we were able to find a newer company offering half day adventures for half the price (around $30 AUD) of the larger and more established companies. Floating down rapids, jumping and sliding off of rocks and scrambling across the top of waterfalls was a pretty amazing way to spend an afternoon and something that I would recommend to anybody that has the opportunity.
THE LOWDOWN
Nights spent in Wilderness: 3
Hostel: Fairy Knowe Backpackers
Don’t forget to pack: Insect repellant and sneakers
Perfect destination for: Escaping city life, adrenaline junkies and hiking fanatics
So tell me, my lovely readers, if you could only choose one, would you rather do the paragliding or the kloofing?
I’ve always wanted to go paragliding but never dared. Is it as scary as it looks?
Taking off is a little nerve inducing but that all goes away the second you get in the air! It’s more exciting than scary, definitely something you should do! 😁
So jealous! I’ve always wanted to go to South Africa!
You should definitely go! It’s a truly amazing country 🙂
Wow this looks amazing!! I have always wanted to go to South Africa.
I would normally say paragliding in a heat beat, but kloofing looks so fun! I have never heard of it but would love to try it one day!
I think the paragliding for me of the two.
Lovely post! So glad you had a good time.
Can’t choose I want to do both. Great post!
A great read– thank you.
The photos look so amazing! I’d rather do kloofing to be honest… but both of them look scary to me :X haha, i don’t think I’m that adventurous.
Wow that’s stunning and looks like heaps of fun!
Paragliding!
I went canyoning in Interlaken and loved it. Would definitely like to do that again in South Africa. Paragliding would be fun too!
Love your write-ups, truly make me miss travelling! Hope you continue to have a wonderful time!
What an adventure! Thanks for sharing.
Paragliding looked awesome, but the Kloofing looked like a great time, too.
Great pics!!
I am about to head to the Garden Route myself, but had two questions. Did you book your accommodations ahead of time or upon arrival? We are driving it and were curious if we could have flexibility in where we sleep. Also, what company did you use for the half day kloofing? We are interested in doing that as well, but a whole day might be too much.
I booked ahead for some accommodation and winged it for some too, if you are going in peak season then it’s a good idea to book at least a few weeks ahead of time. I am afraid the company was very small and just starting out so I don’t know the name, but if you stay at Fairy Knowe backpackers (or even just pop by reception) they will be able to set it all up for you, they don’t require a great deal of notice 🙂
I hope this helps! Where were you planning on making stops on the Garden Route?
Wow… what an adventure…
I really would like to experience this once 🙂
Thank you so much for sharing …
Still following your travels. Such fun and excitement! I enjoy seeing you follow your heart and play in the world as you do. I have a kindred spirit to go adventure, though these days my adventures are a bit calmer than they used to be and a little less exciting than yours. Keep up the adventures and the blog. If you’re ever in the US look me up, Layla and I will treat you to the Red River Gorge area for hiking. https://dancordray.wordpress.com/
I might be around your side of the world late 2016 or early 2017! If so I will definitely take you up on that 🙂
Excellent keep in touch and let me have at least couple of weeks notice so that Layla and I don’t take off somewhere and miss you.
Paragliding but bit scared.!!
Looks like you have some thing going on!
Keep me posted and hope you like my travel scores.
Stay Happy!
Wow… nice to see your blog… and nice meeting you… 🙂 it was so amazing seeing all the pictures that you have…
https://onlyoneeight.wordpress.com/