Phantom View River Resort

Wake up to the sound of the Knysna Loerie!

Situated on the water’s edge of the Knysna Lagoon with uninterupted views of the lagoon, the river and the Outeniqua Mountains.  Our two and three bedroom wooden log chalets are well appointed with wide shaded wooden verandas and large entertainment areas.  All the bedrooms are en-suite and each chalet has a Weber and gas barbeque and television sets.

 Our mostly indigenous gardens are well maintained with an abundance of beautiful bird life. Sit on your balcony and watch the kingfishers catch their next meal in front of you while sipping on an ice cold glass of champagne. During early autumn the display of spoonbills, egrets and cormorants wading in the shallows of the salt marshes in front of the property are breathtaking. And if you are lucky you could here the cry of our resident pair of Fish Eagles nesting on the ridge above the chalets.

  On-site facilities include canoe, fishing boats and houseboats day rentals and for those wishing to bring their own boats we provide moorings. Guests are welcome to bring their own canoes or kayaks and can launch from our jetty at Lightleys Holiday Houseboats. Fishing on the edge of the lagoon is a favourite pass time and guests can bring their own rods or rent one from our convenience shop. Guest facilities include a swimming pool, shaded parking and a laundry service. 

 Situated six kilometres from Knysna central on the Phantom Pass Road and with-in easy distance of the beaches at Brenton-on-Sea, Buffelsbay, the Outenique Mountains and the famous Knysna Forests where elephants still roam free.

 Construction on the Phantom Pass road started in 1862 and reportedly the pass was named after the elusive white Phantom moth found in the indigenous forests. The road links up with the Seven Passes Road named after the seven passes negotiating the deep river valleys of the Outeniqua Mountains and is ideal for the more energetic who wants to explore the area on mountain bike.

 Phantom View River Resort is the ideal place to explore and enjoy all the beauty and adventure activities the Garden Route has to offer.

 Known as the “Crows Nest” our conference venue can seat up to 50 delegates comfortably.  Our venue offers a rustic feeling and is situated in a beautiful garden with uninterrupted views of the Knysna Lagoon. Our units are equipped for self-catering but our off-site caterers can supply picnic baskets, breakfast and suppers. Feeling like spoiling somebody … situated with-in walking distance are some of the finest retaurants in Knysna.

 Excellent all-year round weather makes Phantom View River Resort perfect for family holidays, small tour groups, conference goers, incentives and our unique boat-based team building breakaways.

 Please visit  the Phantom View River Resort website for more information.

 How did the Phantom Pass get its name? -THE PHANTOM MOTH OF PHANTOM PASS
By Martin Hatchuel

They say that Phantom Pass, which runs from the Knysna River over to Rheenendal, is named not for a phantom – but for a moth. The phantom moth, to be exact, Letho venus.

But the French explorer and naturalist, Francois le Vaillant, spent six months in the Knysna district in 1782, recording all its most important natural phenomena – and if the phantom moth is so well known, why did he never describe it?

And why doesn’t it appear in other texts from the early nineteenth century? Could it be because the phantom moth didn’t exist before 1881?

Victoria Esposito was said to have been the most beautiful of the silk spinners at Gouna. And the silk spinners at Gouna were a group of about forty Italian silk-farming families who were brought to this country in 1881 by the British Government in the hope that they would create a silk industry from the wild mulberries which, according to the Honourable Henry Frederick Francis Adair Barrington, a wealthy farmer in the Knysna District, grew aplenty in the Knysna Forests. But Barrington’s research had been (to be polite) scant, and, of course, South Africa’s wild mulberry – Trimeria grandiflora – bears no resemblance at all to the ‘real’ mulberry – Morus alba – upon which the silkworm prefers to feed. And because of this fussiness on the part of one tiny worm, the silk spinners were stranded without work or means of working – and, with the government embarrassed by their presence and Barrington disinterested in their plight, found themselves left to rot in their clearing in the Knysna forest.

Incensed by this official inaction, the proud and beautiful Victoria is said to have borrowed (without asking permission, of course) one of Barrington’s horses to ride to Knysna where she hoped to find a ship that would take her and her family home.

Victoria rode out on a stormy night in September (a month not normally associated with bad weather), her path lit only by the lightning which tore at the sky. As terrified as its rider, the horse bolted and Victoria was unable to do anything more than cling to its neck and hope. The lightning struck just as the pair emerged onto the high ground at the edge of the forest at the very top of the Pass. It was a direct hit and girl and horse were killed instantly – but the power of the girl’s beauty was so great that, instead of transforming to ash, their bodies were transformed into moths. Exquisite brown and grey moths which appear again and again each year in spring – each one of them with Victoria’s beautiful, baleful eyes etched forever on its wings.