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.
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| Our first sight of a red hartebeest |
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The game viewing area
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| Two gemsbok with a couple of meerkat sentries just visible in the centre |
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| The Karoo road disappearing over a pass |
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