Day 5 Mountain Zebra 16 April

Early morning game drive, a lifetime first for us was to see a Brown Hyaena in the wild, to quick for a photograph, it was in a culvert under the road on the Rooiplaat loop, so we will be back tomorrow to see if it will return. Also a first and a mega tick for us was the Barrows Korhaan (bird number 233). We also ticked off Red Hartebeest,Springbok,Mountain Zebra,Black Wildebeest,Kudu,Vervet Monkey,Ground Squirel,Steenbok,Ostrich,Blesbok,Black Backed Jackal,
Did some shopping in Cradock to keep us going for a week. Set up the Satelite dish for DSTV for the weekend sport, seems to be a problem with the TV as it is not receiving the signal, so off to Cradock again tomorrow to see if it can be fixed. ( I spent hours studying, how to align the dish before leaving, you will remember my stories in the bar at Mowbray, well I got it spot on first time, only to find there is a problem with the LCD.)

Some canvas up

View from our Campsite

BB Jackal

Red HartebeestCaravan our home for 3 months

 

Day 4 Moutain Zebra National Park 15 April

Up steadies at 08h30 on a coolish morning, travelled through Port Elizabeth towards Colechester picking up the N10 towards Paterson to take the turnoff to Addo.
First surprise of trip, decided to phone ahead and check availability at Addo, "nothing until Thursday 22 April". Before we left we checked weekly to see if there was caravan sites available and it consistantly showed circa 10 available. We did not want to book ahead ,as we did not want to commit to dates, if we liked or disliked a place we could stay longer or leave early. Lesson learnt.
This forced us to move on to our next stop, Mountain Zebra National Park, ahead of schedule which means we have to stay somewhere longer than planned, to use up time, but hey who cares time I've got plenty. A pity to miss Addo.
Steadies down at 14h00 after an unplanned drive of 452 Km (Rule broken 2 out of 2 by driving more than 400 km in a day). At this rate we will be in Kruger next week.
Great camp site, grassed, shaded, spotless ablutions.
Put up some canvas as rain threatens, had a grear braai with Pap (polenta for my English freinds).
Game drive tomorrow to find the Cheetah which Johann and Lala told us about.

Co-Ordinates  32.22493S   25.47859E   Elevation 1212m  (follow us on Google Earth)

Day 3 Storms River Tsitsikamma 14 April

Woke to an overcast morning with a cool breeze off the sea, spent day at caravan reading and finishing this blog. Supper consisted of chicken pasta. Plan to leave tommorow.

Day 2 Storms River Tsitsikamma 13 April

Woke early to a beautiful sunrise, rusks and cereals for breakfast, have to get through circa 600 rusks which we baked and brought with. did some shopping and then did quite a strenuous hike to the suspension bridge, wonderful sight. G and T for sun downers and a magnificent rump steak on the braai for din dins.

View from our site 32

Andrew on Suspension bridge

Lettie crossing bridge

view of storms river mouth

Sunset looking towards Plett

Day 1 Travel day 12 April

We broke our rules the very first day, at the outset we said that we would not travel more than 400 Km per day, today we travelled 600 km to Tsitsikamma National Park, Storms River Mouth.
Steadies up was at 09h30, a perfect day for travelling, no wind to blow the caravan around, we stopped in Swellendam for brunch and decided to take advantage of the conditions and push on to Tsitsikamma where we intend to stay for a few days. Steadies down was just after 17h00 and have a beautiful site in front of the pool with the sea metres away. We did not put any canvas up and had a braai under a cloudless sky, no wind. not sure how I will sleep as the waves crashing on the rocks are making a noise.

Co-ordinares S34.02300 E23.88749

Day 0 One more Sleep 11 April

The day opened with a mild barbie thanks to a wonderful dinner evening with Patrick and Diane

The day was spent packing and getting the caravan ready for the long trip.

Quintin, Celeste, the boys and girls came for tea and bid us farewell. Kim and Peter also came to say goodbye and fetch Gucci our special Staffie who will be staying with Kim. We love you and will miss all of you.

Check lists were gone over and over.... TV, Decoder, Fridge, groceries, clothes, medicines, satelite dish, toilet chemicals, cameras, binoculars, booze, golf clubs and so on and so on.....