spring break part III (de hoop nature reserve)

A few shots from the last leg of our road trip a couple weeks back.

We drove about five hours from Knysna to the De Hoop Nature Reserve, the last hour and a half of which was mostly on dirt roads. We knew we had to get to De Hoop by 6pm, before the park gates close, so we were really sweating as we flew down dirt roads around 5:30pm, not entirely sure where we were in the Afrikaaner farmland.

Lucky folk that we are, we pulled in to the gate at 6:01, signed in, and watched the park ranger shut the gate behind us. We drove down into the valley where the park campsites are situated, and came up on a beautiful display of animals out for their evening graze. We were so excited, of course we had to stop and take pictures. We didn't realize we had the park ranger following us! Thank goodness he was patient, because we got some good shots - and our first picture of a zebra.

De Hoop was a little wild, actually - a troop of baboons ran through camp in the morning, and we heard stories of puffadder snakes (very poisonous) roaming through the camp too. But the food was good, and the views at the ocean over the sand dunes were absolutely incredible. It is billed as one of the best land-based whale-watching sites in the world, and we'd have to agree (not that we're experts). We saw whales everywhere we looked in the water, and they were active! We didn't catch a breach on camera, but we saw quite a lot.

After De Hoop, we drove on to Cape Aghulas, the southernmost point in Africa (not to be confused with Cape Point, near Cape Town, which is the most south-westerly point!). It was kind of cool, but honestly a little windblown and bare. The town was a semi-run down collection of vacation homes, and there weren't a ton of options for eating - we tried to find a coffee in the morning, and drove to a few places before finding one open. We rejoiced, until we realized that coffee they served us was instant!

A rainy day cut short our last day of the trip, so we'll save the Fisherman's Hiking Trail at the Walker Bay Nature Reserve for another day.

View for a few hours of the drive along this beautiful chain of mountains.

First zebra sighting at the De Hoop!

We think it's a bontebok.

We haven't identified these guys yet. They were huge, though! Maybe 8 feet tall.

A baby bontebok

Our campsite was a few hundred feet above this pretty "vlei," or lake. In the morning we walked along it and saw ducks and geese.

Baby ostrich! "Fluff balls"

Bontebok grazing on a sand dune near the water.

Our first view of a whale, basically from the parking lot. This magical place is called Koppie Alleen, and is also the end of a 5-day "Whale Trail" hike along the coast.

The sand dunes at Koppie Alleen. They are hundreds of feet high in places!

Start of a breach!

End of a breach!

We hiked up an hour or so along the Whale Trail and enjoyed swimming in a sheltered beach.

Jim explores the tidal pools.

The next day, we made it to the point of Cape Aghulas!

This is as far south as it gets, folks.

spring break part II: house boat (knysna)

The second part of our spring break road trip was pretty darn relaxing. We splurged on a house boat in the estuary at a town called Knysna.

 Jim spent a lot of time fishing, and I made the drinks :) We cooked dinner on the boat, watched the stars come out from the roof, and slept on the boat. It was a really unique couple of days, made very fun by the amazing weather!

Captain Jim enjoying a sunset with some comped bubbly and cheese! (Cheese tastes great after a few days of camping food with no fridge).

The estuary's entrance is marked by these two large stone cliffs, called The Heads. We weren't able to go close to them on an outgoing tide as the boat could get swept out to sea.

It felt good to be in the sun (Jim writing here)

Next morning, Jim is already fishing!  To no avail! (Jim)

The water was an amazing green-blue color in the mornings.

 

Out for a morning snorkel. He thought the water was deeper.  I did not think the water was deeper, I just knew the water was cold, ha ha.

Out on the river - we had to time our passage under this bridge - we could only fit during low tide! We slept above the bridge on our second night on the water.

Jim had been itching to try his luck at digging for bait. Fisherman in the area use small shrimp that live in u-shaped holes in the sand and mud flats in the estuary. He didn't have the right equipment, but found that a kitchen glass and some muscle to dig a foot or so into the mud worked out. He caught four shrimp!

I used the same method Dad used with the snow crabs down in Hilton Head.  As long as you can keep your finger in the hole you'll know you found the crab/shrimp when it pinches you.  These didn't have much in the way of pinchers though :). 

The bait.

Still fishing....

Jim's first African fish! We identified it as a red steenbras (we think). It eats those shrimp Jim was digging earlier by sticking its mouth on one side of the hole and blowing water through it, popping the shrimp out the other side. It then quickly eats the shrimp!

A beaut. We threw it back.

Jim also saw a lot of nibble action from these guys - cuttlefish! Actually a type of squid, they would come up and eat his bait right off the hook.

Cruising back on our last morning, gearing up for the next leg of the road trip.

spring break road trip! part one (tsitsikamma national park)

Jim has already had his first school holiday! For "spring break" last week, we took a road trip up the eastern coast of South Africa to a region called the Garden Route. I tried a little spontaneity, and only planned out the first half of the trip. We had a great time exploring, hiking, camping, whale-watching, and even spent a couple of nights on a houseboat.

Here's the first leg of the trip: the Tsitsikamma (pronounced "tit - see - comma") National Forest. We camped in a national park campsite, and spent our days hiking and seeing the ocean and views. On the first day, we did a hike through the jungle at Nature's Valley. It was a pretty trail, but didn't seem to get a lot of use (we only saw one other person, and it was in the last 30 minutes or so). We felt a little spooked walking under thick canopy of trees, and got especially scared by some eyes we saw under a bush, reflecting out at us. We've been googling "eye shine" to try and figure out what it was - Jim's vote is jaguar, which makes me very glad I didn't let him go poke around and try and take a picture of it.

After a safe end to our hike, we had a happy hour on the beach. The next day we drove over to the other side of the park, to see the Storm's River Mouth, where a big river goes into the ocean.

Then we took a beautiful morning walk on the beach at Nature's Valley before driving on to our houseboat at Knysna, on a big estuary.

Me displaying a leaf from a giant yellowwood tree (I think)

Forest canopy

Top of the hike! Beautiful views. We could see whales spouting from here.

Looking away from the water, back into the Tsitsikamma Mountains. The gorges in the area were incredible - really steep and deep.

A bright and sunny beach for sunset

Jim had a few good finds in the tide pools. This one is a sea anemone (I think)

A tiny starfish!

Next morning, we drove up the mountain pass from the beach and along the road for about 40 minutes to get to Storm's River Mouth.

View over the lagoon at Nature's Valley. Our campsite was just beyond where the small river meets the larger estuary on the right. We enjoyed having coffee on the riverbank each morning.

The rocks at Storm's River Mouth.

Me looking down at the dark river flowing out into the ocean. The river has cut an enormous gorge through the hills. This area has two types of stone: very hard Table Mountain Quartzite, and softer sandstone. The rivers cut through the sandstone sections and create these beautiful gorges that define the landscape.

Looking up the gorge.

The suspension bridge! I felt great about walking on it until I saw the sign giving its history: it had been rebuilt 4 times, and could only support 25 people at once. But we made it across and back with no problems!

A wide-angle lens view up the river gorge.

We took a hike along the coast to a waterfall. Much of the hike was a beautiful ocean view.

We made it to the waterfall! What a beautiful spot, with a waterfall in front of you and the ocean behind.

Drying a few items in the parking lot after a post-hike swim :)

So many great pictures to share!! Back to Nature's Valley; the next morning, we took our coffees down to the water and walked between the lagoon and the ocean. Beautiful!

Jim enjoys his biscuits and coffee. It wasn't til the second morning that we discovered the kitchen, complete with fridge, hotplate, and sink, at the campsite. We had been building fires to cook our dinners and heat our water for coffee!

Jim always manages to get his shorts wet.