The name Outeniqua comes from the Khoekhoen term meaning “those who bear honey,” named for the honey-gathering Khoisan people who once lived in the area.

Once numbering in the hundreds, only a handful of the legendary Knysna forest elephants are believed to survive today.

The Garden Route forms part of the Cape Floristic Region, home to over 9,000 plant species — with about 70% found nowhere else on earth.

Oudtshoorn, on the Garden Route’s doorstep, became the ostrich feather capital of the world in the late 1800s.

The iconic Paul Sauer Bridge, built in 1956, is a striking concrete arch that soars 120 m above the Storms River gorge, once the highest bridge in Africa.

The Knysna seahorse is found only in South Africa’s Knysna, Swartvlei, and Keurbooms estuaries — one of the world’s rarest seahorse species.