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Over the Christmas holidays, 40,000 residents from Johannesburg's wealthy northern suburbs decamp to
PLETTENBERG BAY
(usually called Plett), 33km east of Knysna, and the flashiest of the Garden Route's seaside towns. It's wise to give it a miss at Christmas, when prices double, accommodation becomes impossible to find and everything gets very crowded. Yet, during low season, sipping champagne and sucking oysters while watching the sunset from a bar can be wonderful - the banal urban development on the surrounding hills somehow doesn't seem so bad because the bay views really are stupendous. The deep-blue
Tsitsikamma Mountains
drop sharply to the inlet and its large estuary, providing the constant vista to the town and its suburbs. The bay generously curves over several kilometres of white sands, separated from the mountains by forest, which makes this a green and temperate location receiving rainfall throughout the year.
Southern right whales
appear every winter, and are a seriously underrated attraction, while
dolphins
can be seen throughout the year, hunting or riding the surf, often in substantial numbers.
Swimming
is safe, and though the waters are never tropically warm they reach a comfortable temperature between November and April. River and rock
fishing
are rewarding all year long, and one of the Garden Route's best short
hikes
covers a circuit round the Robberg Peninsula - a great tongue of headland that contains the western edge of the bay.
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