Sharon and Andy's World Tour 2006

Knysna (pronounced nice-na) really is nice. And not least because we took a tour of the local real-ale brewery - Mitchells. We like brewery tours even more than we like caves. However won't dwell on the great time we had there or the inevitable bag full of take-outs we bought (and drank soon afterwards).

One of the things we really wanted to do in South Africa was to take the 67 kilometer journey from Knysna to George on the Outeniqua Choo-Tjoe steam train.

The route takes in every kind of terrain imaginable; through steep rock cuttings and forests, across expanses of water and alongside picturesque bays. Sensibly, we decided to have our carriage window open for the entire journey and thus emerged at George Station covered from head to toe in soot! However, the journey has been one of the highlights of the trip so far.

Knysna itself is a charming provincial town situated on the edge of a lagoon, and is also famous for the 'Heads' - two sandstone cliffs which 'guard' the estuary leading to the lagoon.