Hunting for Whales

Tue 31 May 2016 - Gansbaai and Hermanus

There was an amazing sunrise from the lounge window this morning.

With a short day ahead of us we stayed talking to Zule and Tanya for a long while over a breakfast of mieliepap, a South African corn porridge, similar to tapioca, that Zule had kindly made for us. Having solved the country’s economic and prejudice problems we bade our farewells and left for Walker Bay.

Walker bay is a large bay mid way between Cape Agulhas and the Cape of Good Hope and nestled between the headland towns of Gansbaai and Hermanus. It is famous, along with a lot of this coast, as an over wintering ground for southern right whales and we went straight to a viewing point at Gansbaai to see what we could see. After scanning the sea with our binoculars we soon found a distant whale and watched it swim around for a while then dive for a snack. Chuffed with ourselves we drove along the coast road until it ended up at a Nature Reserve. The coastline here was remote and wild, just how we like it, and backed with the most enormous dunes we’ve ever seen - they must have been over 100m high.

Feeling hungry we resisted the temptation to explore the empty beach and turned our attention to finding somewhere to eat. A short trip into Gansbaai town turned up nothing so we made our way to Hermanus, a larger, more touristy town. As we entered the outskirts we noticed a sign to Grotto Beach and recalled Zule mentioned it as worthy of a visit so we turned off and stumbled across Dutchies, a small beachside restaurant with a Dutch flag fluttering in the light breeze. Finding a table in the sunshine we ordered some draught beer from a local brewery called Birkenhead and chose our food: fish and chips for Yvonne, and Broodjekroket (a weird stewed meat breadcrumb sausage) for Glenn.

Enjoying the sun and people watching we finished our lunch and went for a walk on the beach. More soft fine sand beneath our feet made it a pleasant affair until Glenn thought of going for a paddle. Now on the eastern side of Cape Agulhas the warm, south flowing current of the Indian Ocean had been replaced by a freezing, north flowing Atlantic current from Antarctica. It was colder than the sea around Britain!

Passing through the large, prestigious beachside holiday homes we arrived at Hermanus town centre and winged our way to Gearings Point, the main whale viewing headland for which Hermanus is famous. Glenn recalled seeing a few Rock Hyrax (like a huge, fat ferret) scampering around the rocks on his last visit some 10 years ago. Now the place is infested and because idiotic people, including one loud mouthed local, feed them they, like the baboons, now seek out humans expecting food and have become a nuisance.

Undeterred we walked to the main viewing point in the late afternoon sun and scanned the sea. Once more we were fortunate to spot a whale spout, although it was very far away. We hung around a while longer but not wanting to be trying to find our farm cottage in darkness decided to make our move.

Following the instructions from the owners we drove out of Hermanus, found our turning then drove the 9km up a gently winding mountain road past several wineries, making a note to return tomorrow, until we found High Season Farm. Our cottage was simply delightful. Well made and well equipped, with a log burner and lovely views - what a shame we were only there for one night.

Mieliepap

Our hosts: Zule and Tanya with Iggy the dag

The wild coastline near Gansbaai 

Grotto beach

One of the many Rock Hyrax

The Hermanus coast

Our delightful cottage at High Season Farm

Where two oceans meet

Mon 30 May 2016 - Cape Agulhas

Last night was luxury. Our first South African house that was warm both in the evening and the morning.

Thinking it was only a short hop to Cape Agulhas, we left late and were surprised when Harriet, the voice of our GPS, announced that our arrival time would be 1330. We now made a hasty journey along the remaining garden route and fortunately, with very little traffic on the roads, we reached a stopping point for lunch with only 53 km left to our destination. We drove through Bredasdorp, a medium sized town with a large industrial area where we were staying tonight with Airbnb hosts, to continue to the coast and oceans.

Nearing the ocean we drove through the town of St Agulhas and it was not how we had anticipated it. There was a host of modern and traditional holiday homes dotted along the coastal road which led us to Cape Agulhas lighthouse and finally, the car park which is a 150 m walk to the most southerly point in Africa and where two oceans, Indian and Atlantic meet. We had imagined the end of Africa to have sheer cliff faces with the two oceans crashing their waves on rock boulders, with us watching perched precariously on high. None of this was true. Instead the land quietly sloped into the sea with a dash of rock formations where the ocean steadily rolled in. The anticipated turbulent whirlpool of currents from the oceans, as described in various books, did not exist either. 

The national park had provided a very good boardwalk to the point where it is recognised as the end of Africa and the two oceans meet and we obviously, as tourists, posed for the memory album. We also considered the last time we had seen the Atlantic, many months ago we discovered.

With the sun getting low, we took a quick spin along ocean view drive, stopping briefly at the Harbour where not much was going on this late in the day and then made our way back to Bredasdorp to meet our Airbnb hosts Tanya, Zule and their dog Iggy. We were interested in discussing their six month travels through South America which they had recently completed and we discussed the merits of Lonely Planet books and using blogs from other travellers.

Naturally, we spent some time with them discussing the woes of South Africa but these two women are committed to make a difference in the lives of South Africans. Both entrepreneurs, they have started their own company with an initiative called ‘Sunglasses at School’, in which they are endeavouring to get every school child to wear sunglasses with the aim to minimise eye related diseases caused by UV exposure. Tanya is a qualified optometrist and Zule recently gave up her career as a professional photographer to pursue this plan they both have. It was refreshing to meet two motivated and young women who wanted to see SA change and they were trying to make a valid and worthwhile contribution towards that. 

The board-walk to the cape(the object by Glenn's head is a stone thrown in the air for the camera)

The southern most tip of Africa

Along the shoreline of the cape

Lighthouse

One of the many old, thatched fisherman's cottages

By George

Sun 29 May 2016 - Knysna, Oudtshoorn and George

This morning we bid a sad farewell to the lovely cottage at Four Fields Farm and drove back down to Nature’s Valley to see if it was free from mist. It was, so we were able to take the photos we’d missed the previous two days then rejoined our way along the Garden Route to Knysna and George, where we would be staying.

Knysna is a popular spot set on a vast shallow bay. Full of large holiday homes built on the cliffs, waterfront apartments around the marina and high class shopping arcades and restaurants it is clearly aimed at the well to do. The narrow entrance to the bay is called The Heads and it was here that we went to first. The high cliffs were bedecked with large, impressive mansions of shiny metal and glass and we snaked our way between them to the viewpoint car park. Following a smart, brick path we came to the first of several wooden viewing platforms where we watched a vast bank of sea mist being held at bay by the cliffs and slowly evaporating as it spilled into the bay. After watching this from different angles at the various other platforms we spotted a beach below us and drove down there for lunch.

As we sat in the sand with our backs to a large rock to shield us from the wind, we munched our sandwiches while watching the mist make steady progress inland on the developing sea breeze and slowly block the sun from us. 

Back at the car we drove back through Knysna looking for a supermarket and ATM but were astounded to find very little open - it seems everything closes on a Sunday - so we set off for the larger town of George to see what we could find there. Not much it turned out.

We’d been recommended the town of Oudtshoorn by Carol and Phillip but decided against staying there as it didn’t work with our travel plans for the area but seeing it was only 50km away and having 2 hours to kill before we could get in our apartment we decided to go for a day, well afternoon, trip. The journey over the Outeniqua Pass was spectacular and we stopped at a couple of turn outs to admire the views. The coastal side of the mountains was lush and green but once over the pass the scenery changed instantly to the dry, arid bush of the Karoo of a few days ago.

Oudtshoorn is famous for its ostrich farms and we passed several on the way into the town all with herds(?) of birds rootling around in the bush for something to eat. As we entered the town we then passed shops and stalls selling ostrich leather, ostrich feathers, ostrich meat; you name it, they have it. The town itself had some interesting old buildings and we drove past several empty restaurants waiting for the evening diners to arrive.

By now it was time for us to return so we followed the road back over the pass and found the apartment we were to spend the night. Our host, Corlia, showed us around, pointed to a TV and told us it had all the satellite channels. We quickly found the England v Wales rugby game where we tried to spot our Floridian friend, Devin, who was at the game whilst over in the UK and were just in time to see the second half then, as that finished, we found the tennis at the French open - just how Sundays should be.

The Natures Valley lagoon

Natures Valley

Knysna

Sea mist at the heads

Outeniqua Pass  

Ostrich feathers for sale at Oudtshoorn

Surf and Surf

Fri 27 & Sat 28 May 2016 - Natures Valley

We awoke to the total tranquility of this lovely spot and immediately opted to stay for an additional night. The morning was spent sitting on the terrace in the sunshine and admiring the views, the birds, the flowers and, for Yvonne, another opportunity to fuss the horses.

After lunch, also taken on the sunny terrace, we drove down to the beach to undertake one of the walks that Felicity, our host, had recommended to us yesterday. The beach was gorgeous, miles of unspoilt, super soft sand with huge waves crashing ashore, two prominent wooded headlands at either end and a peculiar wispy fog hanging in the air, not really obscuring the views or the sun but making everything a little hazy. It reminded us of some of the wild beaches we’d visited in New Zealand.

The first leg of the walk took us along the entire length of the beach and we ambled, barefoot along the glorious sand with only a handful of distant figures for company. At the distant headland the path contoured around its base past a sign warning that it should only be attempted at low tide, which we had already checked it was. The rocks were worn and jagged and stood against the crashing of the waves like rows of teeth, quite spectacular. Part way round the path began to climb a little higher and was then blocked by a sign stating that a landfall had made it dangerous and it should no longer be used. Following an exploratory mission by Glenn and a brief discussion we turned around and retraced our steps, quite literally, in the sand back along the beach.

At the car park end we sat on a piece of driftwood and looked over the large lagoon and the cormorants fishing or drying their feathers. This really is a beautiful place and we again thanked Carol and Philip for the recommendation.

Back at our cottage we reheated a dinner then sat down to plan the Namibia leg of our travels as Felicity and Graeme have travelled there extensively and we wanted to discuss our plans with them.

The next morning was much the same: breakfast, sun, horse stroking then lunch. Today’s walk  was going to take us around the lagoon and up to the top of the car park headland to admire the views but when we dropped down into the valley we drove into proper fog: no sun and poor visibility. Should we walk around in the fog or return to the cottage and enjoy the sunshine and tranquility? One millisecond later we’d turned the car around and were heading back - sometimes it’s great having a day doing nothing.


As the afternoon sun finally dropped below the trees casting us into shadow we grabbed the laptop and books that Felicity had lent us and headed down the drive to her cottage to have a good old chat about Namibia. An hour and a cup of tea later we had a firm idea of where we were going and places to stay in Namibia, Botswana and the remainder of SA.

Our hosts: Graeme and Felicity

Yvonne makes a new friend 

Our sort of beach

Around the toothed headland

Retracing our steps - literally

Enjoying the moment

Re-acquainted with her friends

Surf and Turf

Thursday 26 May 2016 - J Bay to Natures Valley

With a small window of opportunity and a glimmer of internet service, Glenn was up early and to contact our Airbnb host today to receive directions of how to get there as our next home, Four Fields Farm is a small holding farm in the Western Cape, slightly outside of Nature’s Valley.

We left Gary and his surfing family to head for the beach at Jeffreys Bay (or Jbay) where all the surf action takes place. This area is known for its supertubes and world class events take place here, in fact we are missing one taking place here in the next four days. Arriving at the beach there were several surfers already out and the others were on the beach looking like they were carrying out maintenance on their boards. We strolled across a spent mussel covered beach, the most either of us had ever since on a beach and we were careful where we stepped to avoid their sharp edges on our bare feet. We sat awhile watching the surfers and noticed several of them were indeed, silver surfers. We discussed how much time was spent just floating watching the waves rather than the 10 seconds of riding them. Our NZ friends, Lloyd and Linda, with two surfing sons, had explained to us this was part of the surfing experience and these times were spent, well, reflecting.

We left them, reflecting, and headed off to Spar supermarket for a quick shop for dinners to tide us over for the next couple of nights whilst we are in the remote and rural smallholding farm. Laden with goodies, we stopped at the town beach for a quick lunch in the car, just like old people do, and then drove off to the, clearly, wrong part of town whilst trying to find our way to the motorway. Again, out of town and very noticeable how different the housing and infrastructure was around here, we navigated our way to the N2 to follow the Garden Route for the next few kms.

The scenery became lush with green rolling hills and blue sea on either side of the motorway and with the highway in good order we quickly came to stop at Storms River bridge, which expands across a spectacularly wide and deep gorge of limestone with the river running below. We hadn’t anticipated this being such a great attraction but quickly decided to walk across the bridge and spent a long time viewing the gorge in sheer amazement. 

Continuing on the famous garden route we pulled over to the Tsitsikamma NP site of a ‘big tree’ which required a short boardwalk path through the dappled light of the lush, cool forest and shaded us well from the strong afternoon sun. This yellow wood Podocarpus tree is estimated to be between 600 and 800 years old, stands over 36m tall and has a trunk circumference of 9m. Just as impressive as the NZ big tree in North Island.

Still on the garden route we crossed over the famous Bloukrans Bridge which is the highest commercial bridge bungee jumping off point in the world at 216m (or 709 ft), above Bloukrans river. Not a remote desire for either one of us.

Turning off the garden route N2, we followed our given directions to Nature’s Valley and turned down a dirt road track to find lovely gardens and our delightful cottage at the farm. Felicity, the owner, was out but Orson, her capable odd job man, welcomed us and showed us inside - spacious and with great views all around. A few minutes later Felicity arrived to welcome us, telling us the story of the small farm, how she and Graham, her chef husband, had turned this into a totally organic farm, rescued logging ponies, built herb gardens and now had numerous wildlife on the land including a leopard, to which she quickly added “they are nocturnal so you won’t see it”.

Seeking the wifi code Glenn went to Felicity's cottage leaving Yvonne stroking a pony and reliving her childhood. During a lengthy conversation about our travels Glenn mentioned our onward travel to Namibia, at which Felicity beamed with delight and invited us into the main farmhouse, to grab armfuls of books on Namibia whilst she enthused about the country and recommended plenty of must sees to us. As they collected Yvonne en-route she was now giving the pony a full on head massage while it stood motionless in apparent ecstasy.

Felicity and Graham have been here for over 35 years and health reasons mean they are now selling up as running the business is tying them down to travelling and visiting their family who live in Australia. The small holding is in an idyllic spot in Nature’s Valley, the three cottages and the 4 bed main house are stunning and their own cottage is offset in a delightful corner with land which has been well looked after. It’s all very tempting but Yvonne’s heart is in NZ.

As evening fell we made the most of a reliable internet connection to catch up on the past days worth of blog.

The beach at Jeffreys Bay

Across the bay

A surfer braves the rocks to gain access to the sea

The impressive Storms river bridge

A 'Big Tree' indeed. 

Home for the night...

...and the view from the porch

Return to the Valley of Desolation

Wed 25 May 2016 - Camdeboo Park

Having already decided last night that we would revisit the Valley of Desolation (V of D) in the full light of day we got up for an early departure so we could take at look at some of the game that were also in the park. Within metres of entering the park we saw a family of ostriches with a youngster and a herd of springbok, both of which we’d eaten last night - they looked much taster on the plate.

After greeting the gate man again and paying yet another entry fee, despite bartering for a two day deal, we drove along the road through the game area. Before long we’d identified, using the handy guide given out at the gate, some blesbok (these were the unknown antelope we’d seen in Golden Gate park a few days ago) and red hartebeest, which were very handsome and quite horse like.

Once we’d had our fill of quadrupeds we returned to the top of the mountain to revisit the V of D. To be honest it didn’t look that different from last night but it was much warmer so we were able to follow the Lizard Trail to the end of the buttress and sit a while to take in the view of the never ending plains. After speculating how far we could actually see Glenn determined to work on some trigonometry when he had a spare minute to find out - sad, but true.

We spent a long while admiring the endless view but with a 3 hour journey ahead of us made our way back to the car and drove out of the gate but not before spotting some distant antelope that appeared close the main road that also traverses the park. Speeding around to where we thought we’d seen them we pulled off the road, raised our binoculars and watched a herd of Eland munching their way across the plain. Then we noticed another new species with the most enormous, straight horns. A quick check our identification chart revealed them as gemsbok, powerful looking beasts and probably not to be messed with. While we were watching one particularly fine specimen Yvonne noticed a group of small creatures bounding along in front of him and then a couple reared up on their hind legs to take a look around - Meerkats. Although they were a long way from us we could see them taking it in turns to stand up on lookout duty and it was entertaining to watch the small heads bobbing up and down above the scrub.

Time really was getting on now so we had to drag ourselves away from all those interesting animals and hit the road for the 3 hour drive across the Karoo. The roads were very straight and very long with only the odd pothole, crossing monkey, verge nibbling antelope and flag waving roadworks lady to distract us. However, as a consequence we were able to make rapid (too rapid in parts for Yvonne’s disposition) progress and we eventually drove into Jeffreys Bay and found our AirBnB hosts, Gary and Louisa, just before sundown. After negotiating the electric security gate and the barking dogs we entered the compound to be shown our little apartment at the rear of the house. A quick trip to the supermarket and we were soon having one of Yvonne’s scrummy chilli’s and snuggling up in bed to keep warm - South African houses seem to have no form of heating for the winter months. Hoping to catch up with the blog, which was now several days out of date, and, more importantly, book tomorrow’s accommodation we were vexed to find the internet not working. Glenn and Gary then spent the next hour rebooting things to no avail until Gary suggested that Glenn come into his office and sit right next to the wireless router. Success! With much relief Glenn dispatched a request to our next port of call then sat and chatted to Gary about his son, who is a 21 year old professional surfer, currently in Japan for a competition, until the confirmation reply arrived.

Our first sight of a red hartebeest 

The game viewing area

At the viewpoint

Two gemsbok with a couple of meerkat sentries just visible in the centre

The Karoo road disappearing over a pass

To the Valley of Desolation

Mon 23 & Tue 24 May 2016 - Clarens to Graaff-Reinet

We split this long journey over two days to make it less of an ordeal and we’re glad we did as we were able to take a leisurely start on Mon. After bidding our farewells to Sherrene and Roy we drove into town to buy some bottles of our favourite beers from the brewery and get the, by now filthy, car washed by the small group of black youngsters who gather on the village green armed with their buckets and cloths.

We arrived at the green at 0950 and were immediately approached by a guy offering to wash the car for R40 (about £2). Done deal! We then wandered over to the brewery to find it not open until 1000 - time enough for us to take a last wander around the green. Then with the beer bought we sat in the sun while our washer leathered off the last of the water, he really had made a good job of it, then got on our way.

From the tops of the cliffs of Saturday’s walk we’d seen the large cluster of small houses that we guessed was the black end of town - it really is that distinct in South Africa - but nothing prepared us for the corrugated iron shanty settlement right on the edge of town. Clarens really is the worst possible example of us and them.

We’d been recommended the scenic route ahead of us by our friends the Jones’ and it did not disappoint. The road swept in graceful arcs through huge sandstone cliffs, along canyons and over passes (not dissimilar to Utah and Arizona) as it meandered down from the high mountains to the vast lower plains of the Karoo. The only thing spoiling the journey were our old friends the potholes. Although there were no where near as many as on other roads their occasional appearance meant Glenn had to keep his full attention on the road and could not afford to admire the scenery for too long.

After a glorious 3 hours the mountainous scenery began to give way to flat plains. Here was the realm of the dead straight road disappearing into the horizon with the odd sandstone outcrop piercing the landscape. Several times we were flagged to a halt by human traffic lights (ladies waving large red flags) while a large group of workers resurfaced a stretch of road by hand.

Finally we reached our overnight stopover of Burgersdorp, a sleepy ‘in the middle of nowhere’ sort of place that time seems to have overlooked, and found the Zetana B&B, our home for the night. Tucked down the very end of a side street it looked a tired 70’s style building constructed of strange angles but once inside we were pleasantly surprised by the recently refitted room and an unexpected kitchenette. The TripAdvisor reviews had split opinion on the only restaurant in town so we were pleased to be able to hunker up inside and enjoy baked potato with baked beans - what a treat. We then spent a frustrating evening trying to use the intermittent internet and phone to arrange our next few days accommodation and organise appointments and accommodation for when we get back home. All without success. The internet in SA is always shown as available in the accommodation we book yet it often transpires it doesn’t work.

In the morning we met the owner, who took our cooked breakfast order while we munched on some cereals and then had an ordeal for over an hour trying to phone home to make dental appointments for when we return home.Then it was back on the road for the last 250km to Graaff-Reinet, home of the rather dauntingly named ‘Valley of Desolation’, our next objective.

Today the roads were even straighter, even longer and disappeared over even more distant horizons - this was true wilderness interspersed only by the occasional small settlement. It always mystified us when we frequently passed people walking along side of the road in the middle of nowhere - where did they come from and where were they going?

Around midday we crossed over a couple of high passes then entered a greener, more mountainous area - the home of the famous valley. The town of Graaff-Reinet is surrounded by the Camdeboo park and there were signs everywhere for mountain rides, game safaris and viewing points but we’d agreed to arrive at our AirBnB bungalow at midday as we had a well overdue appointment with its washing machine. Something Yvonne was very much looking forward to.

Following a quick tour of the backstreets, something the satnav on Glenn’s phone is prone to take us on, we found our house, located just off the main street, found the key safe and let ourselves in. As we’d noticed there was no form of heating we threw open all the windows and doors and let the sunshine in - we needed all the warmth we could muster. Then while the washing machine churned away we found a secluded patio at the rear of the house and laid out in the sun for a couple of hours - a very pleasant change.

The information provided with the house advised us that sunset of the Valley of Desolation (VofD) was not to be missed so with an hour or so to go we left in search of the park’s entrance. Uncertain of our bearings we took a short tour of the town before realising that the house was, in fact, on the road to the park so we passed it on the way and drove the few km to be greeted by a ranger needing the usual life history and money before he would let us in. It turns out the VofD is not a valley in the true sense of the word but more of a cleft in the side of a mountain, a big mountain that took a long while to drive up and afforded some wonderful views of the town directly below and miles and miles of mountains and open plains.

At the rim of the VofD the sun was already so low in the sky that half of it was in shadow, not the best for photographs. It also wasn’t as big as a we had expected, being just a few hundred metres in both length and breadth but the formations of dolerite were sufficiently spectacular to urge us to return tomorrow when it is better lit. With the altitude it was now getting unexpectedly cold and our lightweight tourist gear was just not cutting it so we fled to the sanctuary of the heated car, drove down the hill a short way then pulled over to watch the sunset. We were facing south (away from the sun in the southern hemisphere) but we watched the sun’s rays cast shadows from our peaks that slowly crept across the plain until they climbed up the mountains on the far side and enveloped them.

The park is also a game reserve and as we left we saw some distant springboks, a family of ostriches that took it turns to take a dust bath and a large herd of Blesboks that sprinted across the road in front of us a few at a time.

When reading the Lonely Planet for this town we found a reference to the Coldstream Restaurant where their speciality is a trio of Beef, Springbok and Ostrich steaks: this we had to try. Choosing to walk to the short distance we paced our way along the empty main street unsure if it was as safe here as at Clarens - the South Africans had made us a little paranoid with their tales of crimes and attacks. We found the Coldstream easily, placed our order with the charming waitress then sat back sipping tasty local wine and enormous G&T, awaiting the arrival of our meal with interest. It did not disappoint. The ostrich and springbok had the chewy texture of the beef steak but more than a hint of liver about the flavour. Very tasty.

Now much later, would the road home be any more intimidating? The sight of a single young girl ambling nonchalantly home gave us the confidence that this is probably just like any other sleepy rural town.

The poor side of town

Our road disappears through the sandstone landscape

Yvonne studies the local viewpoints

The vast expanse of the Karoo

The valley (cleft) of desolation

Rock hyrax?

Evening shadows in the sunset

Vulture Restaurant

Sun 22 May 2016 - Golden Gate Park

The Golden Gate park is set in a sandstone canyon and has a lot on offer so we were in the car park at 0900 ready to make the most of a glorious sunny day. Although the road through the park is a public highway access to the nature loops and the hiking trails requires a permit (not that there is anyone to check) so Glenn shot inside the office to complete the formalities and grab a rubbishy A4 photocopied map, then we were off.

The hiking trail we’d chosen, Wodehouse Peak, was, naturally, the longest but encompassed two of the other sites at the park. After following the wardens verbal instructions to reach the start of the trails we soon came to a large signboard filled with trail names and direction arrows. Finding our trail name we followed the arrow and we were off.

The trail wound steadily up the hillside until it came to a large overhang some 100m long that resembled a huge breaking wave. A short traverse along its length and we rounded a corner to reach the chain that had been placed to help hikers ascend the steep, rocky path to reach the summit of Brandwag buttress, a large multicolured outcrop that stands like a sentinel over the road below. We stood on the summit a while enjoying the view and planning our next steps. The signposts indicated a turn west down a steep descent away from Wodehouse Peak but there were several well worn paths that seemed to go straight up. After a lengthy discussion we opted to follow the signs and lose most of the height we’d just grafted up knowing full well that we would have to regain it later.

The path headed west for a couple of km making a diagonal traverse up to the start of a long ridge where the going got tough. The initial climb was steep and with the sun now blasting down and the air noticeable thin from the altitude (over 2000m) we were soon panting and sweating. Glenn was an a mission to burn calories so powered up the hill until the first viewpoint while Yvonne changed down a gear to avoid excessive heart beats and steadily plodded up to join him. At the top we saw a small herd of Eland a few hundred metres away that were watching our progress with interest.

From the top of the initial climb the path rose steadily up a series of mini summits. The higher we got the more the distant Drakensberg escarpment became visible from behind the peaks on the other side of the valley and it was such a clear day that although the escarpment was many km away we could see it in great detail. As we continued up we saw some wildebeest and other antelope in the distance - it’s the first time we’ve hiked in a game reserve.

After several dummy summits we finally made one last climb up a rocky face to sit on top of the world, well, the park, and looked around for miles. This really is a massive empty country.

With half an eye on the clock - we had more to do in the park and we’d promised to take Sherrene and Roy, our AirBnB hosts, to the brewery, which shuts at 1800 on Sundays - we reluctantly left the top and made our way down a steep descent path. Losing height quickly we reached the top of Mushroom Rock, another aptly named feature with an overhanging cap, then wondered how we were going to get down. The path was signed over the edge so we boldly followed and with a series of steps, scrambles and a strange vertical section with steel bars set in the rock to hold onto we made it to the bottom. The path then traversed around the rounded  base of the mushroom and we could look up under its rocky cap with an occasional drip of water falling from it.

We got back to the car at 1400 and stretched before setting off for the vulture restaurant. This is not some weird bistro serving carrion but a place in a remote part of the plains where park staff leave a carcass next to a viewing hide that is open to the public. The hide is a lovely brick built affair with glass windows and wooden benches, which is just as well because every hide we’ve visited so far has led to a long wait and this was no exception. We settled down, binoculars in hand, obeying the ‘silence’ signs and patiently waiting for one of the feathered scavengers to appear. Needless to say none did but it was, however, quite fascinating to see the inside of a dead cow.

With the afternoon slipping by we made a quick trip round the two viewing loop roads but only spotted an antelope with a long, shaggy, grey coat nibbling at the remains of a burned patch of grassland.

By 1600 we were back at the B&B and after a quick shower we walked into town with Sherrene and Roy to visit the brewery for our third and final time. Whilst we ordered our favourite ales they were brought one of the tasting boards to see which ones they liked. We were so engrossed in conversation that it was soon 1800 and the staff began to let us know it was time to leave. 

Now hungry we called in at a pizza house and munched our way through a tasty dinner still discussing the untapped powers of the brain and its potential ability to improve our physiology as well as our mental wellbeing. We then walked home under a cloudless starry sky with a full moon so bright we cast well defined shadows on the road. It was then straight into bed for a another sound sleep.

Our first objective, Brandwag buttress

The fascinating wave cave

The canyon

Part way up the ridge of never ending summits

Across the park to the Drakensberg escarpment

Beneath the cap of Mushroom Rock

The vulture restaurant devoid of customers

Our last night at the brewery with Sherrene and Roy