Knysna and Noetzie

Some of our friends in Portland gave us the names of some friends in Knysna who we met up with. The girl's name is Bethany and she is American. She married a South African, Andrew. They are great people and are in the process of trying to move to the US, possibly Portland, so we may be seeing them again in the future. Anyways, they were incredible hosts to us in Knysna. They put us up in a place that Andrew's parents own outside of Knysna called Noetzie. It's a conservation area and they have a place right on a lagoon that opens into the ocean. It's awesome there with lots of monkeys that you have to be careful so they don't get into the house. We canoed up the river which was amazing. They have a bird there called the Knysna Loerie which is green with wings that are bright red, but only underneath so you can only see the color when they fly and it is really impressive. We saw a bunch around the lagoon. We also canoed out to the beach where there are a bunch of old castles. You can kind of see them in the picture. Then we spent the next day hiking with Bethany in the Knysna Forest where there are apparently around 10 or so elephants, but they are very rarely spotted. Even though I felt confident we would be the lucky ones, we were not. We also went to a really great farmers market there that is run by a Texan of all people. And we had the best cheesecake maybe ever. My new goal in life is to figure out the recipe. The other picture is of a blooming aloe plant. Kind of crazy.