We are on the road again! We rented this Toyota Hilux with two rooftop tents for the next ten weeks, planning to take it around South Africa, into Botswana, and Namibia, if all goes according to our plan obviously.
Myron and I are responsible for putting up and taking down the tents as we really do not want John to injure his shoulder again. Everything about these tents is above your head ;)
We are ready for our new adventure!
We drove along the Garden Route eastward. We have no definite plan and are enjoying the freedom.
As a Dutch and English speaker, South Africa is an interesting country to be in. All the signs are in English and Afrikaans, and Afrikaans is easy to read for us. We are picking up some Afrikaans words as well and use them when we can. When we speak slowly Dutch and they speak slowly Afrikaans, we usually can have good conversations with the locals here.
We spent some time in Mossel Bay. Dolphins played in the bay every day and all kind of birds visited us at our campsite.
While we were there, the city put up their Christmas decorations. A Christmas Shrimp, anyone?!
It is spring here and everything is in bloom. The feeling that Christmas is around the corner is a hard thing to grasp with our northern-hemisphere-wired-brains ;)
We drove just north of Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth) toward Addo Elephant Park.
The night before we entered the park, we camped in this beautiful spot.
We are excited for our first game drives and wildlife encounters!
Addo Elephant National Park was absolutely amazing! We thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it.
We camped inside the park and heard the hyena's call at night.
It is allowed to drive your own car through the park and so we did a number of game drives.
The best times to be out were early in the morning and later in the afternoon. We sometimes left at 5am, having breakfast somewhere along the road at a picknick site.
It was such a great time for all of us. We cannot wait for more to explore!
Near East London we spent a few nights at this beautiful campsite along the Kwelera tidal river. We fed the bunnies some carrot peels and Myron shot this great picture of one munching on them. Raija stood eye-to-eye with a leopard tortoise, which passed our site.
On our way inland, we found this small famer's campsite. The little calf Roberta had been abandoned by the mom as she was the weaker of the twins. The farmers tried to raise it themselves and Myron was allowed to feed it in the morning!
We have not met a lot of other travelers yet. We are often the only ones at a campsite which makes for private pools and quiet nights, but also is a bit a pity. Fellow travelers can be a great source of information.
Locals tend to pretend this (lack of tourists) is the normal here but others tell us they are thankful we visited, as tourists did not return to South Africa after the Covid period as they hoped they would. Hopefully this will improve for them, and a bit for us too.
Comments