Day 112 Lagoon Beach Hotel, Cape Town

After much discussion and phone calls to Safari Drive in South Africa, it was decided that we really had to get to Cape Town whilst the clutch was still functioning.  We certainly did not want to risk getting stuck and not being able to meet Greg on Wednesday.  So we decamped for the last time and headed to Cape Town - we had had our last night camping in the Landy!!  

As long as we were moving the clutch behaved but we were extremely conscious that once we got to Cape Town it would be much more tricky.  We had some lovely views of the Cederberg mountains on the way out. 

However, we managed to get all the way to the Lagoon Beach Hotel, which Safari Drive had managed to book for us, and had no issues until we got to the hotel car park.   

So our journey from Arusha to Cape Town was complete – we had made it in one piece but had managed to go through 2 Landrovers in the process and we would have to say goodbye to Attenborough!

It was a shame that we had missed out on two days camping and hiking in the Cederberg Mountains but it gives us an excuse to come back.  The fantastic views of Cape Town and Table Mountain soon lifted our spirits - we now have have 2 weeks to enjoy Cape Town.

Day 111 Jamaka Campsite, Cederberg Mountains

Our plan was to continue driving down the coast on a deep sand 4x4 track to Lutzville past the lighthouse.

However, 5 km down to track we had a major issue with the clutch and gear box.  We were completely unable to get into any gear and for a while thought that we were actually stuck.  In the end Ian managed to get into first gear by rocking the Landrover forwards and back.  We had been having a few issues and the gears had been making some weird noises over the last few days so we were not too surprised and decided we had better be sensible and turn round, and head to Cederberg on the main road.  Once off the 4x4 track the gears seemed to be behaving again and we had no further issues until we reached Clan William where we stopped to restock for the next couple of days.  Unfortunately we had not left the Landy in gear and once again we were stuck for 15 minutes without being able to get it into gear.  This time we finally resolved it by getting it into low gear and getting it moving forwards enough to open the gear gate.  We managed to nurse it to the campsite and parked up leaving it in gear to help ensure we would be able to get back out!

The campsite was in a lovely location by a river with the mountains above us.  The camp was a favourite location of SA families and we were surrounded by young children cycling and running back and forth into the river – not the solitude we have been used to!  The evening’s entertainment was the discovery of two very large spiders on the back of the door in the ladies shower.  I didn’t actually see them but I heard the screams and lots of women and children running away (I had showered in there about 10 minutes earlier).  Ian did the macho thing and got them out – he did say they were very big (the size of your spread palm), black and hairy!  I checked behind the doors after that.

Day 110 Delwerskamp Campsite No 1, Namaqua Coastal Park

A whole day to enjoy the coastal views.  

We wondered up the coast to a beautiful little beach and sat on the rocks watching the humpback whales in the distance.  In the afternoon we also got to watch  our resident mouse plus Heaviside dolphins – I was amused as my Mum’s family are Heavisides!!

Yet again we had a beautiful African sunset to end the day.

Day 109 Delwerskamp Campsite No 1, Namaqua Coastal Park

 Our next campsite is on the coast about 150 km further south. We headed off along the coastal 4x4 route, first passing Kleinsee, and then a gravel road down to a tired little diamond mining town, Koingnaas.  The coast here is known as the diamond coast with lots of evidence of previous mining operations and the land on both sides fenced off.  On the positive side it has meant that the majority of the landscape has remained unscathed and has been left in its natural state with a myriad of succulent plants growing in the sandy gravel terrain.

Somehow we managed to find the Caracal 4x4 route which winds its way through the Namaqua National Park down to the Coastal Park.  Quite a lots of succulents and plants were in flower so we can only imagine how amazing the landscape must look like if you come in flower season (July/August). 

  On entering the Namaqua Coastal Park, we managed to get a useful map of the area (we have not got a guidebook for SA!) and realised that there were lots of highlights that we could easily have missed.  The guys at the gate told us it would take 2 hours to reach our campsite but if we hadn’t arrived in 3 hours (6.50 pm), someone would come to find us in case we were stuck in deep sand.  Our map indicated there was a seal colony but it wasn’t clear exactly where the colony was so we spent a good half an hour heading down sandy tracks in search of them – lots of fab views of the Atlantic but no seals.  Finally we had given up and were heading back to the main drag when we smelt the definitive smell of a colony of seals – having been to Cape Cross a few years ago in Namibia we knew the smell!!  The colony was not a large as at Cape Cross but was still pretty sizeable and lots of pups.

We were now late and in danger of having a rescue mission sent out for us and we still had miles of deep sand to drive through.  For once we actually let the tyres down as the last thing we needed was to get stuck and have the embarrassment of being towed out.  We eventually arrived at 7 pm and a couple of minutes later the ranger came past in his truck (with a large tow rope on the back – so clearly he does frequently have to tow folk out) so any later we would have had the ranger looking for us.

Our campsite is set on the rocks above the Atlantic with the sound of the rollers breaking on the rocks below – another stunning location to camp and fab views of the stars again.

Day 108 McDougall’s Bay Campsite, Port Nolloth,

Watched a large group preparing for their 4-day rafting trip.  When they finally set off we realised that maybe we had paddled quite fast yesterday as they were all over the place and seemed to have no idea about timing or direction.

For once we had no idea of where we would camp for the night.  Initially we had planned to stay in the Richtersveld Park but on reflection we thought it was perhaps better to head further south and camp somewhere on the coast.  The first part of the drive took us through the Richtersveld World Heritage Reserve where we passed some large rocks with San painting (and graffiti!) and a field of more recent rock sculptures (pile after pile of rocks balanced on top of each other).  We added our own pathetic little attempts but were interrupted from making bigger ones by a car needing to get past us. 

The colours of the plants we beautiful with red and mauve succulents as well as lots of plants in flower.  We stopped at Eksteenfontein briefly to pay for our concession pass and then headed deeper into the reserve  The views of the Richtersveld mountains were very stark and barren and the road seemed to go up endlessly with always another summit ahead of us.  Finally we decided that we had perhaps better head back and found the views going down were much more impressive!

We drove to Port Nolloth on the Atlantic Coast and were surprised to find a thriving tourist hub with hundreds of South African’s descending for Christmas.  We found a campsite a few miles further south right next to the beach.  The South African’s idea of camping is slightly different to ours – we were surrounded by camps with Christmas lights, car ports, wind breaks, mobile washing machines, whirly gigs and one family even had a full size fridge freezer!!  We put up our roof tent and sat by our little table in the wind to potje our lamb shanks watching the antics of the SAs in their vast camps.

Day 107 The Growcery, Vioolsdrift

A day rafting down the Orange River is scheduled so we were expecting to be on the water early.  We had booked a light breakfast at the camp bar to save us having to unpack our gear.  The light breakfast initially seemed to be very light as it appeared to consist of a bowl of cereal and cup of tea for 160 Rand.  Thankfully half an hour later one of the staff shouted across to us that the rest of our breakfast was now ready – a plate of 2 slices of toast and some cooked ham rolled around home grown herbs had appeared (much better value for our money!).

We hung around for an hour trying to be “cool” and finally at 10 am our guide appeared and we were driven 12 km back up river to the start of our day’s rafting.  We had a two man inflatable raft with a large cool box which Ian had filled with beer (and water) – not sure how long he thought we were going for!  Paddling down the river was beautiful and gave us a different view having driven both sides of it the previous day. 

We stopped for a fab lunch of pasta salad which G created in front of us – we will have to try to recreate it as it was delicious and neither of us normally like pasta salad.  I tried to go for a swim but found the water was actually too shallow so gave up for now (tiny speck in the distance in the photo).

We also spent an amusing half hour skimming stones whilst Ian went “diamond” hunting.  Our guide was an interesting guy who plans to kayak around the whole of the African coast starting next July – we were fascinated by the concept.

We arrived back at camp at 3 o’clock – we were not sure if we had paddled faster than normal or whether this was a normal day but it seemed a little short for a full day paddling on the river.  We chose to put the unexpected time to good use by swimming across the river to Namibia and back again!

By the evening the day’s exertion on top of severely dodgy tum had taken its toll and I was feeling pretty ropey so decided to take the local charcoal remedy which had been offered by the guys at the bar – kill or cure!  I went to bed to try to sleep off the bugs leaving Ian to frequent the bar for the night.

Day 106 The Growcery, Vioolsdrift, South Africa

Woke to the delights of a bout of food poisoning – not ideal for a long day’s drive and meant for a late start on the road.  The road south to Rosh Pinah is alongside the diamond mining area which is out of bounds but the mines are out of sight so it is not possible to see the impact on the landscape.  Ian’s collection of “diamonds” continues to grow – it is a strange assortment of rocks but I am sure none is a diamond which is just as well as the rules around collecting diamonds is pretty strict! 

Rosh Pinah is at the heart of mining country with the Skorpion zinc mine just to the north and the town itself has a large mine with huge slag heaps all around.  The town has not changed much since we were here four years ago except there is some efforts ongoing now to reinstate plants on the slag heaps – it will take years to hide the enormous grey mounds though.

Ian really wanted to cross into South Africa on the pontoon and drive through the Richterveld National Park but we eventually decided that we really didn’t have enough time so we headed through the Al-Ais Transfrontier Park towards the border.  

This road hugs the Orange river for a large part of the journey and goes through the middle of stunning mountain scenery on both the Namibian and South African sides of the river.  

As we exited the gorge we were surprised to find ourselves surrounded by vineyards and passed a gigantic shanty town made of straw huts housing the seasonal grape pickers – the first harvest has apparently just happened.

The border crossing was really smooth and we soon found ourselves heading back along the Orange River but this time on the South African side for 12 km to the Growcery Campsite.  The guys running the campsite seemed to be trying a bit too hard to be “cool” but we were directed to a grassy spot on the banks of the river.  

Our space did have a car already parked in it but someone who had left it in the shade (without permission) when they went on their 4 day rafting trip – Ian spent the evening considering various ways of moving it with the help of our landrover!