After a morning with WiFi access September 25th at our Cape Town, S.A. hotel to initiate our Southern Africa BLog, we drove up to Table Mountain NP, above Cape Town. The cable car waiting line snaked for a kilometer and so we took in the high mountain views from the roadway. As we ate our pic-nic lunch, we decided we didn't need to get the tip-top view down from Table Mountain. We would have hiked the final ascent, but had been advised to only do so with a group, and not just the two of us. At dinner we learned that the cable car line-ups were due to a S.A. National day of celebration, Heritage Day, and National Braai ("BBQ") day, and locals could visit National sites for no fee.
In the afternoon we visited Cape of Good Hope NP, which is not the southern most tip of the African Continent (the tip is 150Kms S.E. of Cape Town, at Cape Agulhas NP). On-line we purchased a South Africa National Park Wild Card (SANPark Wild Card), as our current purpose in S.A. is to National Park hop to about 10 locations, birding. [We also can use the Wild Card at Kruger NP with the birding group before we travel home to Victoria.]
We spent most of the day September 26 completing our BLog of the Namibia and Okavango birding trip (Sep 9-24), as we weren't sure of WiFi access again until October 13.
On Friday, September 27, we left Cape Town and drove to the seaside village of Hermanus to take in the start of their annual
Whale Festival. We walked to the scenic Hermanus waterfront to see the festivities getting underway Friday afternoon, and again Saturday morning. There were many permanent public art pieces installed on the waterfront and in town, and on one alley art wall we read, "Art is a dirty job, but someone has to do it." In addition to watching Right Whales on the bay, and the Whale Festival activities to draw the crowds, there was an environmental awareness-raising tent with displays, interactive components and a children's art table. We read in the news the next evening that there was also to have been a Racism Awareness-raising Walk into the Whale Festival area from the town edge for Friday afternoon. We read that the Walk did not happen, as there was insufficient police support for the walkers due to the police duties at the Festival.
It's always a joy of Yolanda's when we are able to take in a Saturday community market, and we did on our way out of Hermanus! We parked a bit out of town due to the busy Whale Festival parking in town and then walked into artful Hermanus (in part so Bob could purchase a camera monopod).
We intended to then walk to the market, but discovered it was further out of town than we had understood from our b&b hostess. It was late morning by the time we reached the market so we picked up picnic lunch items (and, of course, hand-made crafts). In the middle of the market there was a busy picnic table area with beer and wine flowing and plates piled with braai (bbq) and biltong (jerky). It appeared as if most people who had finished in the picnic area were headed out a gate to the rugby, soccer and cricket fields for many blocks surrounding the market. We had seen the teams in jerseys skirmishing as we drove to the market and more were gathered as we drove away.
En route inland to Swellendam near Bontebok NP we detoured to windy Cape Agulhas NP to take in the southern most tip of the African continent.
(Click to see Yolanda's video of the meeting of the Indian and Atlantic Oceans posted to YouTube.) We also had our first sightings of Blue Cranes, and Bob caught photos of the male dancing for his sweetie!
We arrived at The View b&b in Swellendam in time to walk to a late dinner. Dylan, the son of the proprietor Peter, is a licensed guide in a few SANParks, but not locally, so he and Bob had a birding chat. He was home in the off-season to help dad, as mom was unwell. They recommended a super restaurant, Field to Fork, which served a wonderful fresh set meal with local ingredients.
Our Sunday, September 29th near Swellendam included a game/birding drive in Bontebok; a rainy, brief visit to hills of the Marloth Nature Reserve (where we had intended to hike, but a raincoat clad parks staff person asked, "you're not going to hike, are you?", with a screwed-up face that made us answer "no"); through the Tradouw Pass; to the town of Barrydale, where we came across Mud Cafe and Barrydale Hand Weavers studio (both closed, as by then it was after 3pm).
We'd be passing through Barrydale again two weeks later on Sunday, October 13 in the late morning, so hopefully the handweaving studio would be open, and we planned to have lunch at Mud Cafe.
On our way back through Tradouw Pass to our Swellendam accommodation, we stopped by the legendary Oak Tree to fill our water bottles at a stream out-spout, as Dylan had recommended.
The clouds lifted by late morning on September 30th as we drove to Wilderness, SA, on the edge of Wilderness NP.
We were thrilled to arrive at our cabin on stilts overlooking the marsh at one side of Wilderness NP. We arrived in time to put away our three days of groceries and go for an enjoyable birding/nature walk along the marsh until sunset.
October 1st we booked for a canoe for the following day and did two long walks and visited bird hides. One walk took us over a hill to the beach, along the beach, past the Wilderness town site, and then back through the marsh to our accommodation.
On route we saw our first Long-claw, a gorgeous pipit-like bird with a day-glo orange throat, and a Red-necked Spurfowl.
Our canoe paddle was from 8am - 3pm for about $32 (Canadian dollar equivalent). Normally the half-day rate is closer to $50cad, but spring is shoulder season, and they weren't too busy, so told us to be out as long as we wanted, but to be back in by 3:30pm. We were alone on the Touwsriver for the first hour, and then it was busier until 11am, when we switched to Serpentine River, meandering through the marsh where we had been walking the previous two days. The outfitters smirked when the Canadians asked for canoe paddles (instead of their standard kayak paddles). We motioned the canoe paddle stroke and they said, "Oh, Canadian paddles, yes we have a few in the shed."
In the afternoon after canoeing, we drove to Goukamma Nature Reserve and
the community nearby and discovered their mosaic tradition.
We dropped our laundry at the Wilderness laundromat at 8am October 3rd and headed for a hike along the Touwsriver until 11am.
We saw many new-to-us birds, including a few lovely little Paradise Flycatcher, and a pair of Narina Trogon. A birder we met on the hike, Gerard, said we were fortunate to see both these species, as they are in the area for a brief few weeks, and that we were especially fortunate to see the elusive female Narina Trogon.
We again saw the Knysna Turaco and Olive Woodpecker. Yolanda says the birds simply can't resist Bob's whistles calling them out!
Before leaving Wilderness NP, we did a walk called Brown-hooded Kingfisher Trail to hopefully spot a Half-collared Kingfisher. We saw interesting bugs and locust, but not the Half-collared Kingfisher, even though the rocky stream habitat was perfect.
Having seen four out of five Kingfisher in the areas of Wilderness NP is still excellent: (Top) Pied Kingfisher, (Bottom left to right) Giant Kingfisher, Malachite Kingfisher and Brown-hooded Kingfisher. We'd return to Wilderness NP again. We'd also stay at Just For Two accommodation again! We saw a lot and loved our stilted cabin overlooking the marsh.
Another drive through a mix of country side and small towns (some looking like ghost towns, with abandoned buildings and forgotten infrastructure, but full of people) took us to Storms River. For dinner in Storms River we tried and enjoyed a local specialty, Ostrich Bobotti (similar to Mousaka) and a glass of local white wine.
On October 4th we transitioned to Addo Elephant National Park via Tsitsikamma NP, which looks like a great place to tent camp by the ocean - next time.
We hiked to the suspension bridges, birding along the way.
It was a great place to stretch our legs prior to the day's drive to our accommodation near Addo Elephant National Park.
In the next three days, we drove to the Addo Elephant NP game drive gate at opening, and left just before closing. We hadn't intended to stay so long the first day, October 5th, so bought lunch at the cafe near the registration office. We also mailed postcards and letters home, which we hope arrive before we do! The next two days we brought picnic lunches.
We saw our first dung beetles! They are very large (about the size of a small chicken egg), and work diligently to move their balls of dung to safety.
(Click to see Yolanda's Dung Beetle video on YouTube.) We also saw tortoise and quite a few elephant family groups. (Scroll to end of this BLog to link to Yolanda's elephant videos on-line at YouTube.)
Yolanda has completely fallen for the elephants in Africa! Elephants seem to be like whales on land, so have similarly complex social structures that are caring and loving and also practical. African elephants are huge and at the same time dexterous and agile. It is lovely to watch them move, bath, eat, and care tenderly for their young. Their trunks are versatile for picking leaves; siphoning and squirting water, mud and dust; scratching itches; and signaling with gestures and sounds. We think a bull elephant swinging his trunk up and to the right while be looks back at you means "back off" (we saw a papa bull do this to a teenager bull, a mamma bull do this to a bull, and a papa bull do this to us, just before he reared and pretended to charge the car). It takes a baby elephant a few years to master how to use their trunk and it is so sweet to watch the little ones swing theirs about, and use it ineffectively to spray water, and flick dust. We spent three days in Addo Elephant National Park and can't wait to return. We're smitten!
Our SA National Park (SANPark) hopping in a rental car has been relatively easy. We bought an International Couple,
National Parks Pass ("Wild Card") and will have visited over 10NPs by the time we are done! The accommodations are great and economical in shoulder season, and groceries and eating out are about half the cost of home groceries and eating out. Tenting is clearly a safe option, and Bob thinks we would have been fine to camp at the NPs; Yolanda thinks that, as much as she loves camping in the out-of-doors, we may as well be inside a cabin (chalet, as it is called at the NPs), instead of tenting right next to people in chalets! We focus on getting to our self-catering accommodation with groceries and then drive the gravel game roads from opening (6am) to closing (7pm). It is a formula that works! If we arrive by 3pm, then we also do a late afternoon/ early evening birding drive..
We have enjoyed interacting with the SANParks staff, all of whom are indigenous and apparently San or Zulu. Also at the accommodations, cafes, petrol stations, and grocery stores most people we interact with are indigenous. They have all been kind, gracious and most speak many languages. Only our birding guide in Namibia and owners at the few b&bs where we've stayed are colonial offspring, and, again, they are kind, gracious and speak many languages. Except for one b&b, all the employees at the b&bs are indigenous: gardeners, maintenance and construction workers, cleaners and cooks. We have seen great disparity between the races on the town edges, and throughout some towns where buildings seem to be vacated and general infrastructure not maintained, but with seemingly thousands of indigenous people living in the town. In some places, the tin, plywood, and cardboard shantytowns are being disassembled, and replaced by rows of tiny houses a ways away. Our GPS inadvertently took us through the car-less streets of one re-organized shantytown and the children were playing, and people were hanging out laundry, walking to and fro, or doing home construction projects. One cluster of boys had made pull-toys out of gravel-filled plastic water bottles. The geographic area of S.A. is about 20% greater than B.C., but there are approximately 54 million people in S.A. versus about 5 million in B.C. About 44 million S.Africans are indigenous, 4 million are colonial descendants or expatriates, and about 6 million are indigenous from countries neighbouring S.A. or from Asia. We've read that the unemployment rate is recently announced at about 29% for S.A., and so there is pressure against people migrating from countries north of S.A. (called the foreign nationalists) and from Asia. The horrific, recent colonial apartheid history seems to veil the landscape and has apparently left a trail of violent reactiveness that has the foreign nationalists seeking asylum in Johannesburg. The evidence of lack of water in Namibia was devastating, and we see evidence and have been told it is getting worse in S.A. As much as we are enjoying the NPs, and that is the purpose for us being in Southern Africa, there is so much more to think about while we're here.
After Addo Elephant NP we travelled to Mountain Zebra NP. En route we passed through a few more urban and rural areas. In the five to seven kilometers on routes out of towns in South Africa we've seen yeild signs asking drivers to be cautious, as people will be walking on the shoulders. The request is because vehicles frequently drive on the road shoulders, to allow faster moving vehicles to pass. Shoulder driving to let others pass seems customary, and important to think about, as items are sometimes jettisoned as a car speeds by when you forget this passing etiquette. So, near towns and cities, where there can be 30 or more locals from the suburbs walking on the road shoulder it is important to only go onto the shoulder to offer a ride.
We have not yet helped with a hitchhiker ride, for a few reasons, mostly related to the hitchhiking culture. We are unsure if it is okay to only help a few of the people at the stop, or if it customary to decline the ZAR being held out as an offer by the hitch-hiker. Minivans run along the routes, seemingly without a schedule, to pick up those who didn't attract a ride. Or, people walk the distance, sometimes carrying a lot.
People also walk in towns, and to work, if it is close enough. Carpool or pick-up-truck-cargo-box-share is another way locals from the suburbs get to and from work or town. We have seen up to a dozen blue-overall clad people standing in a pick-up cargo box on their way to a jobsite. Most people from the suburbs seem to get around without vehicles of their own. In our time here, we have seen two mopeds, where in India, Indonesia or Malaysia we'd be seeing tens of thousands of mopeds, piled with local people headed to work, family gatherings, school or town. We've seen about six bicycles.
We don't know about the custom of ride share, hitchhiking for work, or simply getting around anyway possible on an uncertain timeline. If we walk, it is a choice. We don't need to hitchhike, so we don't know what it feels like to need to do so. Moving around for us is a predictable option. We can therefore keep time and meet time sensitive expectations. Being mindful of not being in touch with others experiences is a conscious act that we remind ourselves of every day. As much as we'd like to "walk a mile" in the shoes of some of the locals we have met or seen, we have no way to know some of the subtleties of their lived experiences. So, we have few rights whatsoever but to listen and help if assistance within our capacity is requested.
As it is close to Canadian Thanksgiving, we have been receiving seasonal well-wishes from family and pals, while it is springtime in South Africa.
We are also reminded that October is the month for breast cancer awareness, with pink ribbons tied to trees in Mountain Zebra NP.
We arrived at Mountain Zebra NP in time to go on a drive in the late afternoon and before sunset. We were impressed with the rock formations and the many new-to-us species of animals, including the Mountain Zebra (with striped legs, no intermediate brown body lines, small stature, short mane and orange nose), and Black Wildebeest (with their fancy white tails).
After an early morning drive on October 8th, we went from 9am-noon together with a Park guide (Richard) to see San rock painting below cliffs in two locations.
It was breathtaking to see the paintings and to hear Richard talk about the San with pride. It was a rigorous hike over unstable, rocky ground down to the second painting location, and we were relieved when Richard offered that we climb straight up the rock face on the way back up. While it took more effort, it seemed more reliable than going across the scree again.
Yolanda got ahead of Richard due to her longer legs, so he asked if he could pass up the game rifle to her so he could use both his hands to climb the rocks. At the top, Yolanda commented that rifles are much heavier than one might expect.
After our lunch break at our chalet and putting our laundry to dry in
the sun, we went for an afternoon and early evening birding drive.
At
one point, about half-way into the drive we stopped to photograph yet
another ostrich. Bob commented that we hadn't seen many other birds that
day, and started the car off the shoulder onto the gravel road.
Suddenly, up from the adjacent valley onto the gravel road directly in front of the car walked a large male cheetah, with back legs as long as Yolanda's. The cheetah walked down the road a bit and then walked along the upper bank for a few hundred meters before he went into tree cover. We felt fortunate to coincidentally be in the right spot at the right time to see "Mabula" (Richard excitedly told us the cheetah's name that evening).
(Click to see Yolanda's Cheetah video on YouTube.)
Prior to departing Mountain Zebra NP, we went for one more 6am birding/game drive.
In particular, we were treated to a sighting of a Golden-breasted Bunting and a Karoo Long-billed Lark.
Karoo NP was under cloud cover when we arrived October 9th, which made for a spectacular sun-set as we were leaving, complete with double rainbow.
We had checked into our 17-on-Bird accommodation at about 2:30pm, so had
time for a birding drive before the 7pm closing of the Karoo NP gate.
To get back into our accommodation, we were given a fob for the electrified security gate. This had become standard for us by then, as all our SA accommodations, whether hotels with gate guards, NP compounds with guards and strict access processes, or private gated b&bs provided us with access via security gates.
The Karoo is a rocky, dry stepped plateau landscape with scrub vegetation and an occasional small oasis near a spring. A few times, we saw Klipspringer (a diminutive species of antelope).
In
Karoo NP we stopped at one spring oasis with our picnic lunch. In
general, the picnic areas in the NPs are surrounded by security fencing
and many picnic areas are drive-in, through the security gate.
At the
Karoo NP picnic site, there is a hair-raising few steps between the car
park and the picnic area gate.
We were thrilled to see a few new-to-us
birds in the picnic area, in particular, Fairy Flycatcher and Southern
Tchagra.
On our way out of the park, we again saw Klipspringer, and a Karoo Korhan.
October 11th we drove through an area of the Karoo that we call "Cinnamon Bun Pass", a World Heritage Site,
Swartberg Pass.
Bob commented that the Swartberg Pass is the most spectacular piece of landscape through which we have driven, and recalled the Moki Dugway in Utah and Grossglokner Pass in Austria.
What is unique about the Swartberg Pass is how close to the rocks we drove. The roadway, we were told by our Red Stone Hills Farmstay host, was constructed by hand in the 1880s with shovel and pick.
While the Swartberg Pass is only 27 kilometers long, there are many single-vehicle width sections and some steep sections over rocks. It took us about three hours to get through, including a few birding stops.
We arrived at our Red Stone Hills accommodation about 3:30pm to check into our charming thatched-roof farm cottage, and learn a bit about the cottage history and construction (the thatch's insulating qualities keeps the cottage cool in summer and warm in winter; outside is s water tank heated by solar power with a back-up electrical hot-water-on-demand unit, that is turned off as it is rarely used). After checking in, we drove 15 minutes to the town of Calitzdorp for groceries. When we came out from the shop, a boy told us he had been watching our car to keep it safe. We had read that this might happen at some point, so we knew to thank him with a cash payment, without incident. We drove back to the cottage and while Yolanda worked on preparing dinner Bob read in the cottage binder about the wonderful farmhouse breakfast option and delivered-to-your-cottage dinner options from the farmhouse - oh well, next time, as we now had three days of groceries. Bob remembered reading on-line about the braai baskets (kit for making a bbq meal) but we're not confident with outdoor wood-fire bbqs, so decided to self-cater. Also in the cottage binder are genealogical farm occupation stories, geological descriptions, maps of walks and extensive birding charts. The proprietress told us later in the evening that, over time, farm guests had created the binder content. As Bob had said he was a birder, she highlighted the work of birder Robin Martin, a many-time guest who has recently passed. Robin's lists include hints of where to walk to see each bird, and a chart of what birds can be found in different months.
We've a peaceful day of gratitude October 12th, our first sleep-in of the trip (7:30am). Sunday we drive to Cape Town airport to return our rental car by 5:30pm. Our mid-day stop on Sunday is to be in Barrydale to try out Mud Cafe, and visit the handweaving shop we saw two weeks earlier.
On Monday we start our second birding group trip (six people, including Bob and I, plus the bird guide, Ethan). It will be an intensive two weeks of "birding hours: dawn to dusk", ending with five days in Kruger National Park. We're not sure how many new birds Bob will have photographed by Oct 27. He has taken photos of about 350 bird species already! That is out of about 900 bird species in southern Africa. Yolanda's role is spotting - for some reason she is very good at picking up slight movement when she looks out into nature - Bob calls her his Marlin Perkins. Yolanda also likes to compare the photos with pictures in the field guides to figure out the bird nomenclature, so is actually able to identify and name many species (or at least knows where to turn to in the field guides!).
List of Yolanda's elephant videos on-line at YouTube:
(Approximately 12.5 minutes of video)
- 1.75min family group with baby at their feet and papa of the family group waving us away with his trunk
Elephant family Addo Elephant NP 2019 10 07
- 2.5min siblings playing
Sibling Elephants tussle Addo Elephant NP 2019 10 07
- 4.5min mamma and baby
Baby Elephant Addo Elephant NP 2019 10 07
- 2min female elephant bathing
Female Elephant bath Addo Elephant NP 2019 10 07
- 1.75min papa indicating to teenager that its time to leave; teenager dusting papa
Bull Elephant dusted by Teen Elephant 2019 10 07
