Ebb and Flow, Wilderness

 Thursday 26/10/21

Unfortunately our broadband signal let us down in the valley in Wilderness so this post is a little late.

The campsite along the river

We were always due to leave Addo on Wednesday and move to a campsite in the Wilderness, but forecast of rain made us nervous of tenting in our 'colander' so we upgraded to a small rondavel.  

The campsite lies along the bank of the Touws river in a nature reserve and is absolutely lovely. The weather was terrible with thunder, lightning, strong winds and rain at times, but we managed to hike the trail to the waterfall.  Although we could hear plenty of bird-life, the weather seemed to keep them largely out of sight. We spotted a few, including a pair of Knysna Louries in the campsite.

The self-manned, pontoon crossing added an extra level of interest

Crossing the river on the pontoon

The waterfall at the end of the hike

Spotted dove

I had a whistling competition with this Robin Chat

Although this reserve lacks the large game of Addo, there were enough smaller wild things to keep us on our toes: a scorpion and giant millipede in the shower, monkeys in the forest and a plague of locusts on the lawn outside.  

There were even tent-thieves in the area, look how innocent he looks!

The usually unflappable Toni wasn't keen on these critter - and they were everywhere.

After two nights in the camp we have arrived back in Stilbaai to spend some time with family before our next adventure.

Addo

 Tuesday 26/10/21

He has automatic right of way, best to select reverse gear.

We have had a lovely time in Addo and can't believe it is almost time to leave again, we'll definitely be back.

We saw loads of scrub hare in the mornings

It's not all hard work here, there is some lying about in the sun.

Sometimes getting a drink takes effort

We spotted this gigantic earthworm in the middle of the road so moved it to
avoid it getting run over.  It was huge, and squishy!

The drought is still very much in evidence here and game is not very prolific but the sightings we have had have been fantastic.  We have had many close encounters with elephant, either at water holes or driving down the narrow roads.  There are a few old bulls who wander down the roads when the bush is too thick and, if you are in front of them you need to reverse, if you are behind them you follow at their pace, and treat them with respect.  It's a wonderful way to slow down and observe their behaviour. That said, they were all very calm here and we saw no signs of aggression.

We slowly followed this ellie for miles as it refused to budge from the road; the car in front had to reverse, and eventually turned around.

This lot must have walked far, they were so excited to reach the water, they sprinted the last bit.

We did have the misfortune of having our tent raided by vervet monkeys and learned a few lessons.  Don't leave food anywhere, not even in your tent; they have no respect for fly screens.  We lost all our mielies (corn on the cob), apples, rusks and had to throw away dried fruit they had rifled through before being chased off by helpful neighbours.  Very frustrating but we are in their territory, after all.

Monkeys 1 : Tent 0

Little monsters!

At least some of the more 'valuable' food was locked away...

Bonus video:

Elephant arriving at Hapoor dam.

Some birds of Addo

 Monday 25/10/21

We are struck by the sheer number of birds in SA, the sights and sounds are amazing. So different to what we find in Europe.

Here in Addo it is no different and we are finding it quite difficult to keep up. Here are some of the better photos, we haven't managed to ID them all and would appreciate any help or corrections.

Cape Robin

Cape Weaver

Cape White-eye

Fiscal Shrike

Fork-tailed Drongo

Greater Cormorant

Grey Heron

Malachite sunbird query

Query

Bush Blackcap query

Query Drongo

Query

Pied Starling query

Sunbird query

Speckled Mousebird - The Don King of birds

Any non-birders who made it this far, well done!

Addo Elephant Park

 Saturday 23/10/21

This magnificent aloe is in the camp area

We arrived in Addo yesterday afternoon and had a quick look around the camping site.  We had booked one of the larger caravan pitches as we had read that the tenting pitches were quite small but could only get a booking for three nights.  We found that we would fit onto one of the open tent pitches so quickly changed our booking to five nights, which suits us better.

It's not called 'Addo Elephant Park' for nothing!

We decided to set up our camp immediately as we have never done a full install of the tent so weren't sure how long it would take.  It was a good decision as it started raining as soon as we had the fly sheet on, so we took shelter inside.  It soon became apparent that the tent was anything but watertight and her performance earned her the nick-name 'colander'.  

We've had a few showers and we think it might be that a lack of use has dried the material out and it needs to 'swell the fibres' to settle down, but we  travelled to a local agent in PE today to get some sealer. We'll apply it as soon as we have a really hot day which should sort the problem out.

Toni spotted this beauty, we think it's a Cape Cobra.

On the way back we entered the park through the southern gate and had a lovely drive up to the camp which took us most of the day, as all the photo's show. We're settling down to the pace of park life and getting used to tent-camping so looking forward to the rest of our stay.

Uniondale

 Thursday 21/10/21

We've left Stilbaai for a short camping trip and are heading inland.  We made a short stop-off in George and then, rather than drive through the modern route over the Outeniqua pass, we opted to go through the much older Montagu pass.  This gravel route was built between 1844 and 1847 and offered an alternative to the original Cradock pass which took three days to cross in those times.

This beats a tar highway over the mountains every time!

It was a fantastic drive, fortunately we only had to deal with one car from the other side and we could stop along the way to enjoy the sights and smells of the mountains and the sounds of the streams in the valleys.  We even spotted a mongoose fighting a large snake next to the road (but couldn't get a photo in time).

The Montagu in the foreground with the modern Outeniqua cutting across the background.

The Protea flowers were so big we saw them from the opposite side of the valley so
had to stop and photograph them in the valley below.

The rough roads were no match for Bakkie, Bokkie's smaller brother!

We are staying overnight in a self catered cottage in Uniondale, a dusty village in the Klein Karoo.  We've found there is no water in town at the moment as the water main has burst but we're hoping they can get it fixed at some point.

Tomorrow we head on to Addo Elephant Park to try and remember how to camp in a tent - how we miss Bokkie already!   

Bonus video:

We have been treated by the mating dances of a male pin-tiled Whydah who has been battling for the attentions of an apparently oblivious female who keeps dodging his advances.  He keeps tapping on our glass door - an attempt to convince her that he is fighting other males off, but she's having none of it.