Diepwalle Forest

Diepwalle means deep walls, and the name fits: this is the tallest surviving stand of the Knysna forest, with Outeniqua yellowwoods over forty metres and the Big Tree, a specimen estimated at some six hundred years old, on a short boardwalk near the road. Three colour-coded elephant walks loop out from the forest station through fern gullies and stinkwood. The elephants they are named for are the real story. The Knysna forest herd once numbered in the hundreds and was hunted down through the nineteenth century; by the 1990s the accepted count was one or two animals, and surveys since have produced camera-trap images of a single female and periodic dung finds, so the honest position is that a very small number may persist and nobody claims certainty. Guides here are careful about this, and so is the signage.

Highlights

• The Big Tree - a yellowwood estimated at around six hundred years old, on a boardwalk.
• The forty-metre canopy - the tallest remaining stand of Knysna forest.
• The elephant walks - three colour-marked loops from the forest station.
• The open question - whether any Knysna elephants remain, treated honestly on site.

When to go

All year; the forest is greenest after rain. Half a day. Weekdays are quiet.

Practical notes

You will not see an elephant - the population, if it exists, is one or two animals in dense forest. The access road is gravel and slippery when wet. Trails are muddy for much of the year. Rain is frequent; this is one of the wettest corners of the country.

Nearby

Knysna is downhill; the Prince Alfred's Pass road continues north.