BELVIDERE

Real estate agents describe Belvidere as a suburb of Knysna. In reality it is something of a quintessential English village on the west shores of the Knysna lagoon; a far cry from the modern Thesen Island that lies on the opposite bank.

The hamlet of Belvidere centres around the quaint Holy Trinity Church built by Thomas Duthie who settled on his farm Belvidere during his retirement in the mid 1800s. The incredibly pretty church is modelled on the Norman churches of the 11th and 12th centuries, built from local sandstone and timber, and consecrated in 1855 for Duthie’s wife, Caroline. It has but five rows of pews to each side, a little nave, and still holds weekly services. Across from the church is the village green, where Boxing Day cricket is a tradition.

BRENTON-ON-SEA

Lying on the other side of Knysna’s Western Head, nestled on the shores of the Indian Ocean in a quiet, lazy bay, residents describe Brenton on Sea’s beauty as the coast that Knysna doesn’t have, and in reality, Knysna lies on a lagoon, the rough seas making itself heard only at the Heads. The endangered Brenton Blue butterfly is responsible for large sects of land in the Brenton area remaining undeveloped.

The little community derives its name from the fragile free-flying butterfly, the Brenton blue, occurring only on the south-facing slopes of coastal fynbos at Brenton on Sea. Human disturbance in nearby Natures Valley led to the final disappearance of this beautiful specimen during the 1980s, only to re-emerge in 1991 in Brenton on Sea where the Brenton Blue Butterfly Reserve has been proclaimed.