Kynsna is pronounced ‘Nighz-nah’. Glad we got that sorted; I still can’t pronounce it properly, so don’t feel too bad. Chatting to the locals as we travel South Africa, it’s plain to see that different people look for different things in life. When asked what the next town is like, we envitably get “Ooh, it used to be nice, but it’s really changed now. It’s so busy now…”

For the record–and according to me–Knysna is a nice seaside town not unlike Dartmouth in the UK. It has a nice waterfront area with shops and cafes facing onto a lagoon (Dartmouth is on the mouth of the River Dart, obviously) with a headland to the Indian Ocean. We stayed in the loft of a most fabulous bed and breakfast, the Idle Monkey, complete with thatch roof and two of the most enormous beds we’d ever seen.

We really wanted to get on the water to have a tour of the lagoon. The local boat tour company told us that there weren’t enough punters to justify taking out one of their tubs and so we were left to forage around to find our own ride. After bouncing around a few freshly made contacts and maritime engineers, we were put in touch with a small company (I only wish I could remember the name of it) who said that they would bring a motorboat to us within the hour.

Excited about cruising up and down the lagoon in our motor-yacht, we eagerly awaited it’s arrival. After a thirty minute wait we could hardly contain ourselves. Imagine our smirks as a four-seater (at a push) “rubber duck” rib boat splashed around into view and into the harbour! It wasn’t quite the yacht that we had imagined, but actually was an awful lot of fun and probably a better introduction to the lagoon than an organised cruise would have provided. Cheekily we putt-putted into the private residential moorings behind the harbour to check out some of the million-pound yachts aimlessly bobbing up-and-down outside their owners’ holiday homes. I bet that most of these boats rarely get used — a crime, if ever there was one!

After a couple of hours of bezzing around we returned to shore and the boat owners had another surprise for us: A free ride on a powerboat capable of warp speeds. We went out for a thrilling blast around the lagoon — video under the gallery below.

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