Lake Pleasant Caravan Park in Sedgefield was where we camped in February 2024.
At this stage we were already 13 months into our long-term camping lifestyle, and its still better than at home in Centurion.
The resort is just outside Sedgefield in the Western Cape and the area offers a top community Farmers’ Market, a number of beaches nearby, action sports such as hang gliding, good restaurants and a shopping centre in town.
The resort lies between Knysna and Wilderness (map below)
Management is accessible at all hours.
There is limited assistance with setting up camp as Lake Pleasant employ only labour that they need. If there are multiple tents to be set up, you may have to wait. There was only one employee available when we set up which wasn’t a problem as we do our own setup and breakdown of camp. The employees are friendly and helpful and each ablution have an attendant available during the day.
Lake Pleasant offer free washing machines which was welcome.
The two new Samsung machines handled all the camper washing with ease. Stuart, the owner, told me he did the calculations, and in his case it was more economical to get two new machines every 3 – 5 years than buy expensive industrial machines and pay for its maintenance over years.
We visited the Sedgefield Wild Oats Farmers’ Market every Saturday to get our weekly fruit and veg supplies. It’s one of those special markets that is a success because the people make it a success.
Shopping can be done in Sedgefield. We found the Spar much more affordable and the staff more helpful than the Pick n Pay franchise.
Pili Pili Beachfront Restaurant right on Myoli Beach is well-known and is a good place to visit any time of day.
Lake Pleasant offers swimming in a clean, fresh water lake as well as rowing boats and canoes free for the first hour. The beach is 3km from the resort but we only used the road once and decided the state of the road wasn’t to our liking. Myoli Beach in town was our preferred beach.
The beach at Wilderness was our favourite beach to walk and we did a few km when we visited!
(Click images to enlarge)
Pili pili is Swahili for hot-hot like hot peppers, the waiter told us.
Like most campsites, Lake Pleasant have its quota of spiders and we encountered a variety around our tent.
I joined a really great group of knowledgeable people, The Spider Club of Southern Africa on Facebook, who share their knowledge freely and answer the same questions day after day with great patience. I quickly learned that more than 99% of spiders are in fact not poisonous which now makes us much more tolerant of them.
I am constantly surprised to see how “nature loving” campers try to rid their campsites of any of the local critters. To me, it defies the purpose if you want to be in nature and then you set about eradicating it.
As usual, we found the local favourite Fish and Chips shop, which turned out to be Mr Kaai, an out-of-way shop which you would pass by if the locals did not tell you not to miss it.
Not for the weak and the meek
A market without jams and preserves is not market!
The area is popular for paragliding, or hang gliding, and one can drive up to the paragliding launch area for a great view of Sedgefield. There are a number of paragliding companies that offer paragliding and training.
Lake Pleasant is well situated for daytrips to Knysna, Wilderness, George, and Victoria Bay.
We enjoyed our month at Lake Pleasant Caravan Park and would camp there again if we happen to be in the area.
Our next stop is Dibiki Hartenbos.
Lake Pleasant Caravan Park offers:
Safety: Safe. No security fencing.
Wi-Fi: Yes.
Private ablutions: No
Standard of ablutions: Good. Paraffin heated. Cleaned during the day. Showers. Adequate toilet paper was provided.
Wheelchair accessible: Yes
Plugs in bathrooms: Yes
Laundry: Free washing machines.
Condition of access roads: Good 500m from N2.
Nr of stands: 55
Paved stands: No.
Unpaved stands: Yes. Grass.
Shade: Yes.
Shop on-site: Yes. Wood, ice, ice cream, bar.
Nearest town: Sedgefield 5km.
Pet Friendly: Yes.
Load shedding: Yes.
Hot and cold swimming pools: Cold.
Pensioners rates: Yes
Long-term camping rates: Yes.
Location:
Lake Pleasant Resorts,
Groenvlei Rd (off N2)
Sedgefield
Contact
Tel: 044 343 2661
Email
Website