Port Alfred Birdlife
Birding in Port Alfred
The picture below was sent to us by one of our guests. The crowned hornbill took the liberty of perching on the angler’s fishing rod while he was fishing. Before this pic was taken, there were three hornbills on his rod !
Bird watching on the Kowie River has gotten a whole new meaning…..now the birds come to watch YOU!
Our Facebook competition winners!
Congratulations Teegan Viedge and Romany Carstens ! You’ve won four nights on a Lightleys Holiday Houseboat on the Knysna lagoon in our Facebook competition.
Now that we’ve got the rest of you curious…..go to our page on Facebook, where you can see what the competition is all about.
Just DO IT ! You too could be a winner!
Party on the Knysna lagoon with friends and family
From Jock, Port Elizabeth -
If you’d like a really great and different party experience, you can do no better than renting a houseboat or two on the Knysna lagoon.
We had SUCH a ball last weekend ! A couple of friends and I hired a houseboat for the weekend, and on both Friday and Saturday nights we had an awesome time anchored near the ‘Red Bridge’ at a Lightleys ‘designated sleeping area’.
There were two other boats near us, and they were also in party mood, and man was it fun ! They were also young (we’re late twenties), and the vibe was so cool.
Houseboats on the Knysna Lagoon
It wasn’t, like, rowdy or out of control (they weren’t teenyboppers), but just friendly. The boats have GREAT sound systems, and we had some cool music with us.
Seriously, your adrenalin is kinda up ‘cause you’re doing something different, and the SCENERY is just totally stunning – the sunsets and sunrises will blow you away.
- Thanks, Jock, we’re glad you had a great time! Yes, having a good time is what houseboating is all about, after all. We’re glad that folks seem to be more responsible than they were sometimes in the past, when the partying could get radically out of control. That’s not cool, and also dangerous – in this case water and alcohol DON’T mix ! – Editor
Knysna Speed Festival
From soapboxes to Supervan, slot cars to a kart grand prix, the Knysna Speed Festival promises a week of great motoring action
Building on the remarkable success of the Renault Knysna Hillclimb, which first took place in 2009 and immediately captured the imagination of the country’s motorsport enthusiasts leading to a bigger and more involving event in 2010, for this year the organisers have opted to run the climb as the climax of a week-long festival of speed.
The date has been brought forward from the previous end-October to mid-May, a time when the weather is historically stable and the town is able to lend its full support.
The Knysna Speed Festival commences on May 13/14 with an innovative and spectacular Kart Grand Prix to be run as a day/night race (like the Singapore Formula One Grand Prix) on Thesen Island Harbour Town, a street circuit unparalleled anywhere in the world.
Sunday May 15 will be a more relaxed day with the annual Garden Route Motor Club’s car show being held on the Knysna High School sports field on Waterfront Drive. A wealth of auto classics will be on view, together with displays from the local motor trade.
From Monday 16 to Wednesday 18 it is planned to hold a slot car challenge at the Knysna Slot Car Club’s premises in the centre of town. At this stage, details have still to be finalised but the intention is to have a challenge for schoolchildren during daytime and for adults in the evenings.
Thursday May 19 is allocated to a charity golf day at the Simola Resort at which motorsport celebrities will be teamed up with regular golfers for a fun day on the fairways.
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. ‘Who dares wins’ may be the order of the day, but all the kids involved will have fun with this gravity-driven spectacular.
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, a cavalcade that over the last two years has proved to be a major attraction for residents and visitors alike.
The festival’s star event will start on Saturday 21 May 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.
Amongst the star drivers expected to entertain the crowds are the previous two year’s winners, Sarel van der Merwe and Geoff Mortimer, along with Ian and Jaki Scheckter, Robbie Smith and, making his event début, Grant McCleery. Travelling from France especially for the event will be former world motocross champion Jean-Michel Bayle who will compete in a Renault.
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.
The Knysna Speed Festival will be a week-long programme of motoring action never before attempted in South Africa and is destined to become not only one of the town’s famed tourism highlights, but a premier event on the national motorsport calendar. The festival caters for all segments of the population and proceeds will benefit nominated local charities.
Wednesday May 18 has been declared local elections day but this will unlikely affect the festival’s programme, although visitors to the town will have to cast their ballot before leaving home.
Further information can be found on the festival’s website www.speedfestival.co.za
Knysna and Port Alfred Accommodation Packages
At Lightleys Houseboat Holidays in Knysna and Port Alfred we have some great 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.
Dolphin in the river at Port Alfred
This dolphin was seen by some of our Lightleys guests a few weeks ago.
Three houseboats returning at more or less the same time were joined by the dolphin (a South Pacific hump back dolphin) as they moving in single file.
What made it is the fact that this, according to the locals, has never been seen before. The dolphin started swimming alongside the houseboats from the first private jetties, a distance of about three km up river from the mouth.
It then followed the boats into the small boat harbour where it looked as if it was entertaining us for another 2 to 3 hours before it headed into the marina where we lost sight of this awesome creature.
The water in the sea was very cold at the time but much warmer in the river. Perhaps the dolphin could have been after the warmer water in the river?
- Thank you Werner for this item!
Monkeys at Lightleys Knysna
We are used to our little light-fingered friends being around and about in the trees near the Lightleys offices, but recently they’ve become really cheeky!
If Owen Groenenstein, the owner of Lightleys, leaves his office door or window open and leaves the room, the monkeys are inside quick as a flash – fiddling with all the interesting objects on his desk. We thought monkeys only went after food, but this proves it’s not so…
Through the window, the monkeys have seen Owen’s wife Hester having breakfast in HER office downstairs – and now if she leaves a window open and leaves the office, they’re inside.
Our reception personnel have to be constantly vigilant to keep them out of our shop, where all manner of goodies are on view through the open doors. On Sunday they raided the shop, taking out packets of Simba chips and wine gums!
Our experience is that monkeys are not awfully bothered by a female human trying to get them away and back into the trees – but if a human male makes eye contact with them and conveys a determined message for them to clear off, they will.
It’s great fun to watch the little ones bounding around and doing acrobatics on our office deck – and even more poignant to hear city kids enjoying our houseboats with their parents saying joyfully: ‘Oh, look, daddy, there’s a MONKEY….wow!’
Knysna Fishing
Myburgh at Breezers Fishing says there are a lot of juvenile Leervis being caught and released in the vicinity of the old Belvidere jetty, which augurs well for catches of full-sized Leeries in the months to come.
There are also some good-sized Elf coming out there, as well as Kabeljou – which enjoy live mullet bait.
And now a chuckle. In our last blog, we had a joke which tested the guys’ sense of humour. So now it’s YOUR turn, ladies…..
Reasons Why Boats Are Better Than Women:
Boats only need their fluids changed every year.
Boats curves never sag.
Boats last longer.
Boats don’t get pregnant.
You can ride a Boat any time of the month.
Boats don’t have parents.
Boats don’t whine unless something is really wrong.
You can share your Boat with your friends.
Have a great weekend!
Owen Groenenstein and the Lightleys Crew
