Teniqua Treetops, Knysna

After spending a few days on the coast we moved to a totally different setting, Teniqua Treetops.

A group of canvas tree houses make up an eco friendly place to stay high up in indigenous forest on the foothills of the Outeniqua mountain range.

Driving through acres of farmland, forest and bush, passed burnt out houses, schools and cars, that had been destroyed in the recent wild fires, we didn’t really know what to expect.

View from Tree house, some of the land burnt in the wild fire

Luckily the fires had stopped before reaching the site and we spent three days discovering many birds and mammals that I’d never seen before.

The circular walk around the site allowed us to see numerous birds. Walking through open grass land, then down through dead wood and thorns following a trail, we were surrounded by the sound of birds I’d never heard before.

Some of the birds I still need to identify, so I would be really happy if anyone can help. I’ve also probably got a few wrong.

African Hoopoe

Jackel Buzzard

Fiscal Shrike

Speckled Mousebird

Southern Boubou

Little Sparrowhawk

Knysna turaco

Southern double-collared sunbird

Cape weaver

Cattle Egret

Hadada ibis

Cape White-Eye

The much longer River walk meant scrambling over rocks, ducking under fallen tree trunks, down and up a steep gorge and walking along the Karatara River. It was definitely worth the walk to see the waterfalls and the cola coloured deep pools of water. The water is brown due to tannins from the surrounding plants.

Although we didn’t see many animals on the walk except scorpions, we did see many signs of bush pigs and a Vervet monkey down by the river.

The whole site is an eco-friendly resort with rain water collected for drinking, river water for washing, and compost toilets.

It was brilliant and slightly weird to bath looking out over the forest.