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Zuid-Afrika 2022

November - December 2022
Rondreis van een maand door de West en Oostkaap. Read more
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  • TravelerZuid-Afrika 2022
    2
    Day 9

    Witelsbos -> Addo Elephant Park

    December 5, 2022 in South Africa ⋅ 🌧 18 °C

    This morning we left our accommodation in Witelsbos en started driving towards Addo. We arrived in Addo at the beginning of the afternoon and were a bit too early to check in at the accommodation so we first went to the national park where we already after a few minutes saw the first elephant and later more animals.Read more

  • TravelerZuid-Afrika 2022
    Day 10

    Addo Elephant Park

    December 6, 2022 in South Africa ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    Today we had an entire day in the park and saw again a lot of elephants, hartebeest, kudu, zebra's and jackals. With some of them we had really close encounters. It was a really great experience!

  • TravelerZuid-Afrika 2022
    223
    Day 11

    Addo -> Fort Beaufort

    December 7, 2022 in South Africa ⋅ ☀️ 33 °C

    This morning we left our accommodation in Addo in time to drive a few hours through the national park first to leave the park at t he South Gate close to Colchester. From there we drove to Fort Beaufort where we walked to Spar to get a few groceries and so that Matthew could show me the town a bit. It is a small town but it was still nice to get an impression of what it looks like instead of only hearing about it. After that I tried to bond with all the animals a bit while we waited for Eve (Matthew's mother) to come back home from work. As soon as she got home I got introduced and immediately felt at home and we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening chatting and she polished my nails and made me my favourite South African dish I had been craving for this entire trip, real homemade bobotie which was really delicious! Since it was full moon we also just played a bit with the settings on my camera and managed to take a really detailed picture of the full moon during loadshedding when there was barely any light pollution.Read more

  • TravelerZuid-Afrika 2022
    Day 12

    Hogsback

    December 8, 2022 in South Africa ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C

    This morning we slept a little bit longer because the drive from Fort Beaufort to Hogsback is a relatively short distance. After packing the laundry that we did yesterday we left to the beautiful forests of Hogsback. As soon as we came closer and were on the road up the mountain I got quiet from the beauty of this place. Very dense forest and just one road that circles up the mountain which is densely packed with trees. When we got to our accommodation our host offered us a free upgrade to the entire house instead of the studio apartment that I booked because we were the only guests. Of course we didn't decline that offer and after unpacking the car we walked down the road to the start of a short hike to the Californian Redwood trees where we admired the size and beauty of these trees. After that we walked to the supermarket and got things for the braai that evening. It was quite a long way back to the accommodation because it was a steep walk uphill. When we got back we decided to pretty much immediately start with the braai. I feel so blessed having Matthew tell me to sit down while he is busy with the braai and cooks me a delicious meal.Read more

  • TravelerZuid-Afrika 2022
    Day 13

    Hogsback day 2

    December 9, 2022 in South Africa ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    This morning we decided to again leave the car at the accommodation and walk to several places. First we walked to "the Edge". This really is on the edge of the valley with the most amazing view! We just sat there for a while to enjoy the view and afterwards enjoyed icecream and a cold beer and the Edge Mountain Retreat. We then decided to walk from there to Hobbiton, it was a really beautiful and very heavy hike despite the weather changing from being really hot and sunny to dark, rainy clouds. Hobbiton seemed a bit abandoned and looked different compared to what Matthew remembered from the last time he had been there but the hike was definitely still worth it because of the beautiful surroundings. On our way back to our accommodation we made a quick stop at the supermarket for that nights dinner after which we started a long hike up the mountain again. Eventually we came back covered in sweat and with terribly aching feet, that was almost 18 km of hiking in the heat of which a big part was quite steep uphill.
    That evening after we had eaten we really wanted to take a shower but because of the lightning storm that just started that wasn't the safest thing to do so we wanted to wait for the lightning to stop but instead of stop it got really worse and we kind of got a bit scared because we were really trapped in the middle of it high on the mountain. Luckily everything went fine and we just watched the lightning until it eventually started to calm down a bit and we fell asleep.    Read more

  • TravelerZuid-Afrika 2022
    Day 14

    Hogsback -> Fort Beaufort -> Cradock

    December 10, 2022 in South Africa ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C

    This morning we first went to the Saturday market at the edge to just look around and afterwards we parked at the start of a short but steep hike to the Madonna & Child waterfall. We were lucky that it rained quite a bit during the night so there was enough water coming down. What a beautiful waterfall is this! After that hike we had to leave the beautiful Hogsback because before continuing our journey towards Cradock we wanted to have another stop for a cup of tea/coffee in Fort Beaufort first. After a nice cup of coffee and tea and we got take away chicken and fries from Champs for the evening and then left towards Cradock. We arrived there just after dusk so we had to search a bit for the correct turnoff but after a bit of a detour we found it and were welcomed by our host Andre and several cute cats. One of the cats immediately decided that she liked us and made herself comfortable in our apartment. Two cat lovers like us could only welcome her with open arms of course so she slept on the bed with us and only left the room when we were leaving. We made a new friend in the few minutes after we arrived 😻Read more

  • TravelerZuid-Afrika 2022
    Day 15

    Mountain Zebra National Park

    December 11, 2022 in South Africa ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    Today we spent the entire day in Mountain Zebra National park. This park is smaller in size and has a little less variety in animals than Addo but still quite a lot of species we could look out for. We saw multiple mountain zebra, baboons, springbok, rhebuck and a big lizard of which we think it was a monitor lizard.Read more

  • TravelerZuid-Afrika 2022
    Day 16

    Nieu Bethesda

    December 12, 2022 in South Africa ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    During the night we heard a lion roaring from the direction of mountain Zebra park so this morning we first went into the park again trying to find those lions. We couldn't find any lions but again quite some other animals amongst which some rhebuck which we hadn't seen so far. We left the park shortly after noon because we also didn't want to arrive in Nieu Bethesda too late. After a long straight road we arrived in the very small town Nieu Bethesda where we first went to "die winkel", the small local grocery store to get a few things for breakfast and afterwards we checked in at our accommodation and met Rohan, our host. After unpacking the car we decided to find a place where we could get something to eat and ended up at a restaurant at a sports club that surprisingly enough made the most delicious pizzas in their outside pizza oven. We won't forget that place because for one of the sauces/toppings for the pizza a very hot chilli pepper had been used so this was heaven for Matthew since he loves spicy food so much. We even talked to the owner to find out the name of the chilli which turned out to be the Moruga scorpion chilli which was the hottest he ever tasted before. While we were eating we already heard thunder getting closer and it started to rain a bit so once we finished our pizzas we walked straight back to our accommodation and just relaxed a bit. Not too long after that the clouds really broke and rain started pouring down heavily. Within minutes the street and yard turned into a flowing river and while we kept checking if the car wasn't getting washed away with all that water we saw that our host Rohan had the door of his house open and was busy sweeping water out of his house because his entire house was full with water. We could stay dry because we were staying in a tower and our bedroom was on the first floor so we only had to go outside to get to the bathroom. But when we saw all that water in Rohan's house we decided to go help him with getting the water out of his house. Together we sweeped and mopped for quite a few hours and meanwhile got to know our host a bit better and shared stories together. Eventually the rain stopped and slowly but surely we could see the water levels going down. We felt so sorry for Rohan because all his furniture and carpet etc. were standing in a layer of water. He felt bad that his guests were helping him but we assured him multiple times that we really wanted to help because we are not the type of people to just watch someone fighting against a flooding alone. And even during this flooding he kept his guests in mind and offered us coffee and tea and even pizza. When most of the water was out of the house and it stopped raining we could eventually get a few hours of sleep.Read more

  • TravelerZuid-Afrika 2022
    Day 17

    Nieu Bethesda -> Addo

    December 13, 2022 in South Africa ⋅ ☀️ 35 °C

    This morning we woke up after quite a short night because we had a long drive back towards Addo ahead and we wanted to make a stop at Camdeboo National Park first to visit the Valley of Desolation. So after saying goodbye to Rohan and wishing him lots of strength with all the damage that the floodings had caused we left the town of Nieu Bethesda and saw at multiple places what the floodings had caused, it was so sad to see a small, poor town like this having to deal with so much damage. Once we left the town we drove to the viewpoint over the valley of Desolation which gave a truly stunning view over the valley. After that we continued our way towards Addo. This was such an amazing experience that after I decided to extend the trip we decided to go back to Addo before heading further back towards Cape Town. It was a long drive and when we arrived around 3 in the afternoon we first rested for a little bit and then I still really wanted to go into the national park for about 2 hours but the weather was changing rapidly and just before we arrived at the park we decided to turn around to get a few groceries and tried to be back at the accommodation before the worst of the storm would start. On our way back from Spar the rain really started and once we got home and opened the doors of the car the wind blew the rain immediately in the car and within the few seconds it took to run from the car to the room we were completely soaked. That really was a lot of rain in a short amount of time. I was feeling a bit sick again that day and struggled with a fever so with also the weather being like that it was a good choice to be at the accommodation a bit early and just rest so we could enjoy the national park the next day.Read more

  • TravelerZuid-Afrika 2022
    Day 18

    Addo Elephant Park

    December 14, 2022 in South Africa ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    This morning we went back to Addo Elephant Park. This was the first time that we drove through the park for multiple hours before spotting the first Elephant. All the animals seemed to be really hard to spot since the first animal we saw was a Kudu only around noon so maybe the animals were still less active or hiding in the bush after the heavy rainstorm of the day before. Later in the afternoon we did see some more animals under which multiple elephants, jackal and cape cobra.Read more

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