Today we were headed for the Mountain Zebra National Park, but there was no need to rush to get there early and we were more interested in the scenic beauty of the park than animal sightings. After breakfast we spent some time chatting to our fellow campers. They had also planned a trip to East Africa and been kept at home by Covid. Their rather new Hilux was well fitted out - even with an electrically operated roof top tent. From Cradock they were heading for the West Coast so we could give them lots of info. After getting their Facebook address so we could keep in touch we said goodbye (and promptly forgot what it was). A quiet drive through Cradock took us to the N10 and then we almost immediately turned onto the R61 which soon took us to the turnoff to the park - so soon that I almost missed it! Just passed the gate we saw a board indicating the graves of 15 unknown Anglo Boer war soldiers. Neither of us remembered seeing it before.
We had decided to get the wild card that would give us free entry to National Parks for the next year. Quite a lot of money, but we would be motivated to go to a lot of parks, quite useful if international travel remained impossible into next year. We had hoped to camp in the park, but it was fully booked. So we set off to find a morning coffee stop. The picnic spots are very close to the HQ so going to them would be too early. But one of the 4x4 routes would take us to isolated high ground where getting out should not be a problem. The Juriesdam route was a bit rougher than we remembered, but we found an isolated spot from which we could see forever - both lions and rangers. So we got out and enjoyed our morning coffee. Then it was down the rather steep track to the entrance road and on to the campsite for an early lunch. The campsite was jam packed with fancy off-road caravans and trailers. It looked much too crowded for us. After a quick lunch on one of the vacant perimeter sites we set off for the Kranskop Loop passing both picnic spots which we turned into just to have a look. There were a few cars at the swimming pool, but Weltevrede Kloof was deserted. The loop must be one of the most spectacular drives in the country, hugging the course of the Wilgerboomrivier and then climbing steeply up a long ridge to high point with wonderful views of the 1957m Bakenkop to the east and the Karoo fading into the distance to the west. We stopped at the lookout point where it is legal to leave one's vehicle and made coffee - this time using the stove. From there we dropped down to Rooiplaat where we made a lucky mistake, ending up at the Link road instead of the Kranskop downhill. After turning back Marianne suggested that we go to the Rooiplaat dam, where there were no animals, but we did get to see four lions on a rocky outcrop above the dam! There were very few animals on Rooiplaat and we still wanted to do the Umngeni 4x4 route. So we went down the steep tarred downhill to the entry road and then turned left on to the 8 km 4x4 route. It started off flat and easy, but then went up some very steep and quite rough uphills to get up the escarpment. Going directly into the sun didn't help much. We were lucky not to cut a tyre. On top we went back to the Link road and followed it down. Animals were starting to move and Marianne managed to get some good pictures of zebras for Susannah. We had got the co-ordinates of the aardvark hole from our friends of the night before and drove there only to find the position already occupied by watchers. There was no sign of activity so we decided that maybe the position wasn't correct so took the Ubejanie Loop, not seeing much until getting to the entrance road where there was quite a lot of activity. At the gate the ranger wanted our exit permit which we did not have as we had only been given the receipt for our wild card. Luckily it was getting late and he obviously didn't want to hang around after closing time so he decided to let us out. It was a short and uneventful drive back to "Onder Peperboom". Back in our old site, we had a visitor from the next door chalet. It was a farmer from Oudshoorn who was looking for a cellphone charger. He was in Cradock to select 155 boerbokke. Fortunately it was the same as Marianne's Huawei, but when she took it to him, Koot van der Merwe had managed to find his so Marianne's wasn't needed. We did not braai rather having a meal brought from home, which was ideal (and planned) as it was now much too late to braai. We went for a short walk after supper. It was very dark with absolutely no moon - headlights are sometimes very necessary! The sky was studded with stars and the Milky Way was very clear. It had been a lovely relaxed day in the spectacular Mountain Zebra Park.

Geschreven door Leartravels