Road trip South Africa
West Kaap
Zuid-Afrika
Jkkoning
Road trip South Africa
On the road in our Chevrolet Sonic, okay maybe we wanted the 4x4 more but we couldn't resist the rental price off the sedan.
Just an hour out of Capetown Mark yells already that he sees Zebra's! okay they look like Zebra's but I'm not convinced, it is not at all a Zebra landscape so I think those were horses with a zebra costume! Has to be!
Later on we drive thru beautiful endless landscapes, on our own, hardly no other vehic les. Again we see wild animals, Sprinkboks, pretty and elegant. We name them handbags because we saw the fur already in the stores :( .
We are already very happy we decided to rent a car and just go on our own roadrip, every day a new plan. Now we're up to our first stop in Clanwilliam. Did some shopping for a picknick on the (windy) beach. Because I did read about a hostel around Clanwilliam we went off road looking for it.....guess ....we never found it. We stranded at a farmers house with a sign "akkomodasies" so our first night we spend in a simple self catering house in a middle of nowhere valley. We really didn't knew were we were, only that we had to follow the next day last road we drove to get back in town.
In the morning we did some extra shopping for "in case of". No idea what we can expect. Funny because we feel like strangers but lot's people think we are Africans, also because we try to speak a bit Afrikaans and we look like the white colored people here. Many people speak Afrikaans and it is very understandable for us. Otherwise they speak English. All the people are super friendly and helpful. There is a still a weird feeling inside me, maybe I just don't know my place over here. Many stories about unsafety, carjacking, shootings, townships etc.
In Calvinia we had such a lovely Guesthouse, almost as nice as our house in Bonaire! Not much to do in these town so we prepared ourselves a nice and simple meal (great groceries stores here and half price compared to Bonaire !!!) and close our eyes early.
Around Calvinia we visit the Boudow valley, on top of the hill we see a orange/yellow colored sheet. As we come closer we the sheet are millions of little flowers. These flower are the SA famous spring flowers and we are just on the right time to see them.
From here we went north towards Upington, just for one night as a stop over to the Kgalagadi desert game park. Because normally you have to reserve a lodge/chalet in that area about 13 months in advanced we were lucky a woman helped us. So we could stay in the perfect Kgalagadi lodge just 5 km from the entrance of the park. 3 Nights we spend here (unfortunately the camping sites in the park were booked, we could loan a tent from the very nice lodge owners). Early morning before sunset up, breakfast and a self game drive in the park! Waking up with -2 and in the Park we the same day 36 C.
Ready for the animals :) It took a while, first we say one Ostrich and a valley further one Springbok, so we joked that this will be all for today! As we went further down in to park we saw more and more animals. Like Gemsbok, a wildcat, foxes, Hyena's, Squirrals,Suricate (stokstaartjes)and yes! Giraffes! or as the South Africans say Kameelperd.. ! Just another great sort of dutch half dutch word . A great big group of Giraffes upon the hill. Fantastic how tall they are. Also there were baby giraffes in the group. Later on we had the Giraffes in front of us on the road! Magnificant! Every were big groups of Springbokken and Gemsbokken also many Wildebeasts.
The legend about the Wildebeast is that God had some animal parts, left and put them together. So the Wildebeast exist now. The head of a Buffel, body of a Zebra, back part of a horse and some more we forgot. It is actually a little bit a (very) ugly one.
Two days we drove true great landscapes which changed sometimes, about 500 km on the meter. And many animals already crossed from our wishlist.
Satisfied we enjoyed the "braai" (our bbq) at our chalet, a good wine and fantastic view over the desert.
Last visit for now is the Augrabies falls, one of the biggest falls in the world....when there is enough water! We are now in the dry season! But any way we enjoyed it a lot, little hike, game drive in the park and we met new animals like the Dassie. I called it the African koala, so cute!
We had a delicious dinner at the park restaurant, maybe the last one for the upcoming period. Because the beautiful guesthouses costs between $40 to $75 per night we decided to go camping. Yes with a tent and all that stuff!!!
Long time ago that we did this but we both are positive about it. Our only worrie is the temperature at night. As we started in the Kgalagadi desert with -2 Celsius at 7am and got 37 Celsius in the afternoon! The nights are still cold.
For a $150 we bought a tent, air matrasses + 12v pump, pots and pans, a mini Camping gas stove (only with the wrong gas bottle)2 knifes, 2 forks and a small coolbag.
So lets give it a try!
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