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.