The Tankwa Karoo National Park

This morning we were up at 6:30am. It was moving day and what with all our awning sides and various other bits we had left out we had no idea how long it would take to pack up.
It didn’t take anywhere near aslong as we thought and we were ready to leave at 9am, an hour earlier than I thought.
We had a mega drive ahead of us today all of it off-road.
Our first stop was 35 miles away at the beginning of the R533, the longest dirt road in South Africa with no towns, or petrol stations. The Tankwa Padstal, this place is world famous as the best and only stop in the R533 and is really quirky. It has a huge UFO planted into the ground outside with a couple of concrete aliens next to it, the Padstal itself has a shop of emergency things and sweets and then there is the restaurant and bar.
We decided to stop for breakfast and whilevEllie was boring and had a cheese toastie I had a full babalas. I had no idea what that was until I asked and what u got for breakfast was a culinary delight of chips in a bowl topped with bacon and sausage, then a beef Pattie and a fried egg topped off with grated cheese. It was tasty but heavy going.
We left the Padstal at 11am and we weren’t sure if the temperature but it was seriously hot.
I set the sat nav for our next camp, the Tankwa Karoo National park. The drive was unbelievable. The landscape is just totally baron but it’s apparently full of life. How we just don’t know.
The temperature outside just kept climbing and Ellie jumped out of the car twice to take pictures and burnt her feet. This is the most remote we have ever been, you can easily see how you could die out here. It’s hot, there is nothing for miles and miles, our next closest town is over 100 miles away. Even from the park entrance it was another 25 miles to the reception area and from there another 5 to our campsite.
We are staying at the Perdkloof Camp and it really is remote and totally off grid, and considering we have only travelled 70 miles as the crow flies the temperatures have doubled at it is 44.5°c in the sun and 34.5°c in the shade. We have no idea what the temperatures will be tonight.
On the way to camp we saw springbok, and steenbok, and a red antelope we hadn’t seen before. At camp we have 2 Franklin grouse for company and we did have a mongoose come ti visit at 3pm.
We spent the rest of the day trying to shelter from the sun under the awning.
At 4:30pm it suddenly came over very grey snd the wind really got up so we thought we’d better head back to reception to do a weather check and that’s when we realised it wasn’t going to rain we were experiencing a dust storm. From out of nowhere we had gusts of 40mph and the sun totally disappeared and when it did the temperature dropped.
We headed back to camp and lit the Braai while Ellie made salad and I cooked the Wors and Braai rolls, by the time we came to eat the wind had dropped off and the sun was setting.Leer más