We had French Toast and poached eggs at 7:30 so we could make a reasonably early getaway to our next destination. 
Said a fond farewell to our very comfortable room and Francois and took off south through the park. We stopped for a bit at the first bird hide, but didn't see the elusive Chestnut-banded Plover that RR has been looking for. We passed a long queue of cars lined up to enter the park and were very glad that we had been here on a weekday. We're less than 100 miles from Cape Town (or Kapstaad in Afrikaans as all the signs say) and most of the new construction in Langebaan is second homes.
We stopped by a tiny nature reserve - just a field left wild among sheep pastures, called the Tienie Versveld Reserve. I spotted a flock of ostriches across the street and walked over to the fence and immediately the birds all came running over waving their plumy wings! They must be well taken care of to be so tame and unafraid of humans.
We walked into the reserve and Bob spotted a Cape Longclaw, a new life bird that resembles a meadowlark with a brilliant metallic-orange throat. Unfortunately I didn't manage to get a photo of it. The reserve is known for its flowers, but there has been very little rain here and, after what we have seen, it wasn't particularly impressive. We walked through long grass and so far have found six ticks crawling on us as we drove along!
Wild Calla Lilies
We continued east and crossed N7 at Malmesbury thus completing our loop and starting the lower half of our figure eight. We passed through familiar towns that we had explored when we were in Paarl so long ago! Bob drove into Ceres, the fruit juice capital, and saw another Pick 'n' Pay, went in and found six bags of our favorite very thin, well-cooked pretzels! We topped off our gas tank and drove out of Ceres, past huge piles of fruit packing crates, through miles of espalier fruit trees. The groves continued up into the mountains with little company towns scattered among them.
Ceres Valley
We finally turned off onto a dirt road and drove up into the mountains to 4200'. The vegetation is quite different, very dry and deserty, with different plants and some proteas that I hope to explore tomorrow.
We finally arrived at our destination, Kagga Kamma Nature Reserve. It had been getting cloudier and then started to rain as we walked into the reception area. It soon stopped but I don't know what the weather will be like tomorrow. We were given glasses of wine and then drove over to our hut #3 - which resembled the thatched hut at Naires. This hut was far less artistic, but much more practical and comfortable than our former one. There is a small sofa to sit on and a desk! Also the heating system is very good which is nice as it's going to be chilly tonight.
We settled in and sat on our porch looking at the wilderness. At 6:30 we walked over to the bar which was quite full of rugby fans and had beer and gin & tonic. I would have thought that a place like this would attract a more international crowd, but most of the people there were speaking Afrikaans. We went into dinner and had the first disappointment of the trip: the food was pretty mediocre. Bob had pasta carbonara which was more bacon and no garlic and I had stuffed chicken breast which was cooked perfectly but covered with white sauce and accompanied by over-cooked veggies. We'll have to order more wisely tomorrow - simple steak or chops!
No comments:
Post a Comment