River cruises South Africa
Houseboats South Africa
Exciting new developments are changing the traditional houseboats and river cruises experience in South Africa.
In Europe, houseboats – and especially a houseboat holiday – is big business. There are 28 000 registered houseboats and 400 businesses are involved.
One of the pleasures of canal and river cruises across Europe is the fact that the houseboats can be tied up along the way, you can disembark, and go exploring.
The Europeans have progressed much further in exploring the possibilities of river cruises than we have in South Africa
Now Lightleys Holiday Houseboats of Knysna have announced a new program of boating, dayboats and river cruisers-based experiences in South Africa.
Two such experiences are already in place. It is now possible to moor Lightleys houseboats at Thesen Harbour Town’s jetty, pretend you’re footloose and fancy-free and go walkabout, as if you’d arrived at a Greek island in your own craft!
Lightleys Houseboats can also now be tied up at the Featherbed Nature Reserve’s jetty on the Knysna lagoon, and guests are then free to stroll around – or go on one of Featherbed’s arranged tours of the reserve.
Go to: www.houseboats.com.za for more details
South African dayboats, boat hire boating
Lightleys Holiday Houseboats has also launched River Runners – a range of boating based activities complementing the houseboats, and creating an exciting mix of boating activities for folk on holiday.
River Runners was designed to cater for a range of tastes and budgets. Fishing rods are on hire, there are canoes for rent, or dayboats (bigger fishing boats), in which the lagoon and the lower reaches of the Knysna River can be explored.
With your boat hire, gourmet picnic hampers with champagne can be ordered to take along to a quiet, romantic spot.
Go to: www.houseboats.com.za for more details
Knysna Speed Festival
It’s getting close to one of the big events on the Knysna calendar – the new Knysna Speed Festival, which replaces the popular Renault Hillclimb. The Hillclimb is still on the calendar – but it’s only one of a number of exciting new motoring-based events.
It all gets going on Friday!
This Friday there’s a Go-Kart Grand Prix to be run as a day/night race in Thesen Islands’ Harbour Town.
On Sunday May 15 the annual Garden Route Motor Club’s car show is being held on the Knysna High School sports field on Waterfront Drive.
On Thursday May 19 there is a charity golf day at the Simola Resort at which motorsport celebrities will be teamed up with regular golfers.
Friday May 20 is ‘free fall Friday’ when 20 of the local schools will compete in a Soapbox Derby. The local schools will be provided with soapbox kits donated by local businesses, and it will be left to the children to assemble, paint and, ultimately, pilot their machines down a portion of the Simola Hill.
Also on the Friday, from 14h15 there will be a parade of many of the cars involved in the festival – and especially the Hillclimb – driving through the centre of town before being put on display in the Waterfront.
The festival’s star event will start on Saturday 21 May – the Renault Knysna Hillclimb, run over a two kilometre course up the hill to the entrance of Simola Country Estate, which has been a key partner in the hillclimb from the beginning.
Documentation and scrutineering will take place on the Friday with proceedings open to the public, and all of the competing cars will take part in the town parade. The types of cars that will be on view encompass road cars, racing saloons and single-seaters, sportscars and the ever-popular and soul-stirring historics, all of which will run throughout the Saturday and Sunday. The Renault Knysna Hillclimb is bound to be a motorsport spectacular.
CAR – NIVAL TIME – make your Lightleys booking soon. For accommodation availability, call us on 044-386-0007.
Port Alfred family accommodation
At Lightleys Holiday Houseboats in Knysna on the Garden Route in the WCape and Port Alfred on the Sunshine Coast in the Eastern Cape we have some great family holiday accommodation special packages available, but the bookings are coming in fast, so our advice is to contact us soon.
For example: You can save up to 40% if you book well in advance…..
Go to our website: www.houseboats.co.za, look around there, and then give us a call.
And now a chuckle….some basic naughty-cal terms:
Propeller
Underwater object designed to wind up at high speeds any lines left hanging over the stern.
Radar
Extremely realistic kind of electronic game often found on larger sailboats. Players try to avoid colliding with “blips” which represent other sailboats, large container ships and oil tankers.
Regatta
Organised sailing competition that pits yours against your opponents’ luck.
Sailing
The fine art of getting wet and becoming ill while slowly going nowhere at great expense.
Satellite Navigation
Sophisticated electronic location method that enables sailors to instantly determine the exact latitude and longitude, within just a few feet, of whatever it was they just ran aground on.
Single handed sailing
The only situation in which the skipper does not immediately blame the crew for every single thing that goes wrong
Spinnaker
Large beautiful balloon shaped sail used in powerful downwind sailing, collapses at the sides to make control difficult and when lowered stores neatly into the galley and main cabin and heads all at the same time.
Tides
The rise and fall of ocean waters. There are two tides of interest to mariners: the ebb tide sailors encounter as they attempt to enter port and the flood tide they experience as they try to leave.
Yardarm
The object which the sun needs to be below before you can finally open that bottle…
Have a great week!
Owen Groenenstein and the Lightleys Crew
