Self-Catering Accommodation in Wilderness

Wilderness is the Garden Route at its most low-key — a single village strung along a narrow shelf between the Outeniqua mountains and a long, wild beach, where the Touw River empties into a lagoon and a chain of lakes runs east behind the dunes. Self-catering accommodation is what the town does; there's no strip of big hotels, and where you stay comes down to one choice — the sea side or the river side.

The sea side sits above the beach, on the roads climbing off the main village. Chalets and apartments here have the long-beach view and the sound of the surf, reached by steep steps or paths down to a wide, dramatic stretch of sand that runs uninterrupted toward Kaaimans. The river side, along the Touw and the Serpentine channel, is flatter and calmer — self-catering cottages and homes with paddle-boat access to the lagoon, kingfishers on the reeds, and an easy walk to the village's small cluster of cafés and the Milkwood shops. Both sides are minutes apart; the difference is surf versus still water at your door.

The Wilderness section of the Garden Route National Park wraps the settlement on three sides, and the walking is the point. The Half-Collared Kingfisher trail follows the Touw upriver through indigenous forest to a waterfall you can swim beneath; the Giant Kingfisher trail runs the other way along the Kaaimans. Behind town, the lakes chain — Island Lake, Langvlei, Rondevlei and Swartvlei — is protected water for canoeing, birding and flat-water swimming, with paddle boats and canoes for hire at Island Lake. Above it all, the Map of Africa viewpoint looks down on a bend in the Kaaimans River that draws the shape of the continent, and paragliders launch off the Map of Africa ridge on a clear day.

Wilderness is also the most convenient base on the whole route: George Airport is about twenty minutes west, which makes the town a natural first or last night for anyone flying in and out, and Kaaimans Pass, the old Outeniqua Choo-Tjoe rail bridge and the drive over to Victoria Bay are all a short hop along the N2. December to February is summer and the village fills; November and March are mild and quieter, and the cool-weather months from June to August are ideal for the forest walks when the crowds have gone.