After a fun morning, zip-lining and taking in the scenery of South Africa’s stunning Eastern Cape, I’d developed a fully grown obsession with trying to see as much as possible as I could of the area.

One bit that you will see (and probably not be able to explore as a tourist) are the ravines around Tsitsikamma National Park.

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They are dramatic, high and particularly scary when you’re stood right above them on a bridge and some huge trailer drives past and leaves the bridge shaking and you quaking in your boots.

Like seriously, between the wind as the zoom past and the vibration of the bridge, you get a terrifying sense of how deep these ravines are. My camera is fairly wide-angled and able to take in a lot of the vista but even that couldn’t capture the entire height of this places.

It’s also why the world’s highest bungee jump is here (but more on that later).

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After a quick pitstop back at the lodge, we decided to head out to Plettenberg Bay (which had been recommended loads of times to us) on Instagram and Twitter.

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The drive to Plettenberg Bay however is so distracting as you come across so many points where you just have to stop. Case in point – the Bramon Wine Estate recommended to us by Jeanne from Cook Sister (who’s actually from Port Elizabeth in South Africa and knows the area quite well).

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The lavender lined vineyards called out to you to come explore it some more – and perhaps even stop to try the wines.

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Ravines, Vineyards, Elephant Walking And The Most Spectacular Beach In South Africa's Eastern Cape (9)

Lloyd was doing the driving, not me, and so, as unfair as this sounds, I was the only one able to try the wines. 🙂

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Not a bad place to stop on our way, right?

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Ravines, Vineyards, Elephant Walking And The Most Spectacular Beach In South Africa's Eastern Cape (13)

This would have been the perfect stop for lunch too and one we promised to return the next day and truly take advantage of every aspect of the vineyard – especially its sparkling wine!

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Ravines, Vineyards, Elephant Walking And The Most Spectacular Beach In South Africa's Eastern Cape (15)

 

 

 

Arriving at Plettenberg Bay, we were greeted by a gloriously long sandy beach with stretches of mountains as its backdrop!

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Totally worth the ‘hike’ here. 🙂

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Now there’s a beach you can definitely write home about!

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The sun was actually setting in the opposite direction but quite frankly, who cares? 🙂 And then it dawned on me, for a country that’s particularly famed for its beaches, and one that I’d spent over 3 weeks exploring different aspects of, this was the very first time I’d been on a proper South African beach…

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Ravines, Vineyards, Elephant Walking And The Most Spectacular Beach In South Africa's Eastern Cape (50)

… and not a bad one to start with, might I add!

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The ride back to Tsitsikamma after all we’d done across the day left me feeling very fulfilled and more importantly, rather lucky to get to experience such an amazing country all over again!

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Ravines, Vineyards, Elephant Walking And The Most Spectacular Beach In South Africa's Eastern Cape (53)


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