Woke up to a perfect morning looking out over a silent, silver sea. (actually a vast lake)! False Bay is vast although we could see the distant shores and the narrow connection to the main lake (still wondering why the name False Bay?) I had enjoyed the spotted hyenas calling during the night. It reminded us that it was really wild here.
We had decided to change the slow punctured front wheel so I had some work to do after breakfast. It all went well taking only about 20 minutes. Then we drove to Lister Point, a headland jutting out into the lake. The huge fever tree Acasia's with their strange pale yellow trunks create a strange scene. Many giant fever trees had blown over. It must have been a helluva storm! We went to the office to pay and then we were on our way again.
The plan for the day was to go through Isimangiliso Western Shores Park towards St Lucia and then to Cape Vidal at the end of the Eastern Shores part. The two sections are not linked and operate independently. First it was a drive out of False Bay and then to the tar to Hluhluwe where we enjoyed coffee at the Fig Tree Cafe at Ilala weavers. The coffee was good and the huge fresh scone delicious - even more so for the price of only R12! It is a lovely place for a coffee break and a favourite with locals as well as tourists. Then we headed for Isimangaliso Western Shores National Park. At the gate Marianne used her ID to get in and the gate girl insisted that she had to do the driving! Dumb burocracy. We were a bit horrified to find the start of the park was all plantation but that gave way to grasslands and sand forests. We intended to first go to Charter's Creek, but a group of elephants in the road stopped us 1.5 km from our destination. Marianne had to make a u-turn but it was only about a five point! Then we went to the eMgadankawu hide, where there was no activity and to the uMthoma aerial boardwalk, which was stunning and where there was lots of birdlife. We got to see two specials, a green coucal and a white eared barbet. We had planned to go to a picnic place for lunch but the one way roads made it impossible to get there from our direction. So we went straight to the Cape Vidal reservoir. There was no nonsense here about who should drive. The first objective was to find a place for lunch. We first tried a viewpoint on the road, but it was much too exposed, and then went to a hide where there was also no shade. It was certainly hot enough for shade to be essential. Then we went to Mission Rocks and found an excellent picnic place about a kilometer before getting to the coast. Lucky we stopped as there wasn't much of an opportunity at coast where there was only a parking area for fishermen. Our next stop was at Catalina Bay, the name coming from the fact that Catalina seaplanes were based there during WW2. Then we drove straight to Cape Vidal. Our plan was to camp there but that changed when we discovered it wasn't R8 as we thought but R560. It also looked a bit scruffy, although there was a fuel station and mini supermarket. I was also worried about all the monkeys at the campsite. So we took the one loop road back. It started off as concrete strips to two lookouts over Lake Bhangazi, then became a nice gravel track. Towards the end there were numbers of buffalo. It was getting dark as we got onto the tar and we almost hit a nyala ewe which ran across the road. Missed us by about 1m!
After leaving the park we drove through town to the Sugar Loaf campsite. Getting in was easy and we paid the security man at the gate. The campsite was very full but we found a place near some French schoolkids on a summer camp. After stopping we quickly walked to the Ski Boat club for supper. It was quite busy but we found a nice table on the stoep and enjoyed Castle draughts with lasagne and fish and chips. On our way back to the camp site we discussed moving the car to a quieter spot. However,fortunately everything quitened down and we stayed put. The French kids were particularly well behaved. Got into bed at about 22h00.

Geschreven door Leartravels