26/05/2026
Titbit Tuesday 🐟
🐠*The Featherbed* 🐠
*Location* 🎣:
The Featherbed Nature Reserve is located on the rugged, indigenous fynbos-covered slopes of the Western Head of the Knysna Estuary along South Africa's Garden Route. It consists nature conservation, guided nature walks and tours , as well as a restaurant overlooking the Knysna lagoon and Knysna estuary.
*Why is it named “Featherbed” ?*
Sailors called the calm lagoon waters a "feather bed" after fighting through the rough waters of the heads , so the Western Head got the name. 🌊🪶
*Who owns it ?*👨💼
A Johannesburg-based business man , Kobus Smit , who bought Featherbed Co in 2008.
**How did Kobus get it ?* *🐡
The land was bought in the 1950s by Professor JLB Smith, the ichthyologist ( a specialized zoologist who studies fish) famous for identifying the coelacanth, which is a rare and ancient “ living fossil “ fish . He used his profits from his 1956 book 'Old Fourlegs: The Story of the Coelacanth' to buy the land . His son , William Smith , founded Featherbed nature reserve and it was opened to visitors in 1984 . William then sold the land to Kobus in 2008 as he entered retirement .👴
*Plant species on the Western Head 🌳🪻:*
Featherbed sits on the Western Head and is mostly Knysna Sands Fynbos , which is a critically endangered division of Cape fynbos.
The 2017 Knysna Fires burned 95% of the Featherbed Nature Conservation’s vegetation which resulted Kobus and William hiring a rehabilitation horticulturalist and team for 18 months to protect and restore biodiversity . Since 2017 , 300 species of plants , birds and insects have been recorded . The vegetation is a mix of resilient milkwood forests, coastal succulents, and native fynbos, including prominent species like the White Milkwood, Sour Fig, and the Candelabra Flower.
*Who built the walkways👷⚒️ :*
The original path was constructed in the 1890s when a civil commissioner ,Maximillian Jackson , arranged for prison labour to build a path from Smith's Jetty to Needles Point. This was for the Rocket Brigade. They'd fire rockets with lifelines to ships wrecked in The Heads. The Brigade only used it for one rescue in 1897.
Today's infrastructure includes wooden walkways built with local materials and minimal environmental disruption, and are kept up by the Featherbed Conservation teams .
*What the walkways are for* 🌱:
The wooden walkways are used for eco-tours which consist of a 4x4 drive and an optional 2.2km walk through the coastal forest and fynbos into ancient Khoi San sea caves . They are also used for conservation access for tours and educational purposes.
