EZTrip.com International Destination Guide and Hotel Listings

The drive between Wilderness and Sedgefield gives glimpses on your left of dark-coloured lakes which eventually surge out to sea, 21km later, through a wide lagoon at SEDGEFIELD , a lacklustre holiday village a few kilometres off the road, with a safe swimming beach that makes a refreshing pit stop. Sedgefield's unpromising appearance of shops, restaurants and B&Bs lining the highway until recently hid a gloriously undeveloped beachfront. But with the dawn of the new millennium, the resort's authorities have woken up to the economic potential of development, and turned parts of the beachfront into a building site.

Sedgefield could be used as a base from which to explore Goukamma Nature and Marine Reserve and the western extent of Groenvlei , a freshwater lake that falls within the reserve's boundaries. An unassuming sanctuary of around 220 square kilometres, Goukamma ranges west as far as the small seaside resort of Buffels Bay to absorb 14km of beach frontage, some of the highest vegetated dunes in the country, and walking country covered with coastal fynbos and dense thickets of milkwood, yellowwood and candlewood trees.

The area has long been popular with anglers for Groenvlei's six fish species. Away from the water, you stand a small chance of spotting one of the area's mammals , including bushbuck, grysbok, mongoose, vervet monkeys, caracals and otters. Because of the diversity of coastal and wetland habitats, this is also good avifauna territory, with over 220 different kinds of birds recorded, including fish eagles, Knysna louries, kingfishers, and very rare African black oystercatchers. Off the shore, southern right whales often make an appearance during their August to December breeding season, and bottlenose and common dolphins can show up at any time of year.

Apart from angling and bird-watching, the Goukamma offers a number of self-guided activities, including safe swimming in Groenvlei. There are several day-long hiking trails that enable you to explore different habitats - if you plan on hiking you should pick up the Cape Nature Conservation map from the Lake Pleasant Hotel . A beach walk, which takes around four hours one way, traverses the full 14km of crumbling cliffs and sands between the Platbank car park on the western side and the Rowwehoek one at the other. A slightly longer trek across the dunes also takes you from one end of the reserve to the other, but via an inland route. A shorter circular walk starts at the reserve office and goes through a milkwood forest.

Two roads off the N2 provide access to the reserve. At the westernmost side, a dirt road that runs down to Platbank Beach takes you past the tiny settlement of Lake Pleasant on the south bank of Groenvlei, which consists of little more than a hotel and holiday resort. On the eastern side, access is via the Buffels Bay road, along which the Goukamma office is reached about halfway. There are no public roads within the reserve.