Bob and I walked over to the restaurant and got a nice breakfast of croissants, cold cuts, cheeses, fruits and decaf coffee. Bob wants to spend one day driving back out of Kagga Kamma a ways as the birds he needs don't occur right here, and the other day hiking around the trail system here at the preserve. As the weather is cloudy and windy today, we thought hiking here would be the better option as birding in the wind is almost impossible.
Two Cape Bulbuls.
There are three trails and we picked the shortest one (3.3 KM) as it has the most rock art of the San (Bushmen). One has to sign in and out if one is hiking alone here so they can keep track of the guests. I didn't realize until later what a good idea that was!
We drove down to the Chalet area where very cute, rustic Cape Dutch houses have been scattered over the landscape for rental or time share. We set off on the trail, well marked by blue painted arrows. We descended into a canyon on a sandy trail surrounded by very jagged, carved rocks. The description of the trail said there would be some rock scrambling involved, but this trail took some real climbing and sliding to maneuver! The write-up also said that the rock art wasn't labeled, that you had to keep a look out to find it. I thought that was a neat idea, except all my concentration had to be on my feet to avoid falling and real injury on the irregular rocks.
Most trails take you the easiest way from point A to B, but the blue arrows sometimes took us through some circuitous routes, I guess to take us near the art work, but most of it was pretty subtle. Bob pointed out some human figures, and later we saw an antelope and some line marks. At one point we had to crawl through a rock tunnel dragging our packs behind us - that seemed a bit much - maybe we're just old but it seemed more than some "rock scrambling"!
Human figures
We finally reached the car after almost 3 hours - it really was a beautiful area, and I'm glad we did it, but... We rewarded ourselves with a real sit-down lunch in the restaurant. We both got Windhoek Drafts and split a open-face beef sandwich (as it contained a 1/2 lb. of steak!). It was delicious and we spent the afternoon relaxing on our porch and walking around looking at the other accommodations, the Caves, that are built into the rock wall with fake but totally believable rock. Pretty amazing place!
A large black cloud passed over with some thunder and lightening, but we only got a sprinkling - we were hoping to wash off our car!
We walked over for dinner - the place seem to have cleared out somewhat - only five tables for dinner - I guess most of their business is Afrikaners from Cape Town? Anyway, much more success this dinner. They know how to grill meat, so we split the trio of lamb chops and an order of stuffed mushrooms, plus a large chef's salad and had a good supper. 








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