SA Road Trip: Hermanus and Cape Town

The next stop on our SA road trip was the Western Cape.  Our time was spread between Cape Town, still one of our favourite cities in the world, and Hermanus.  

It was great catching up with friends and family, but as usual we just didn't have enough time to see everybody and could easily have spent another 2 weeks here.  

Some of the highlights of our time here included:

- a trip up Table Mountain for Bronwen's birthday - free for South African citizens on their birthday :)

- picnic in Kirstenbosch.  Perhaps we are biased, but there does not seem to be another botanic garden anywhere in the world that competes with the beauty of these gardens.
- meeting Isla and Nathan.  Our nephew and niece were born in the time since our last visit, and meeting them was extremely special.
- exploring the beautiful surroundings of Hermanus, and especially the nearby Hemel-en-Aarde valley.

Table Mountain

Kirstenbosch 

Hermanus

Hemel-en-Aarde Valley

SA Road Trip: Addo Elephant Park

The next stop on our road trip was St Francis Bay.  Our last trip here was in July 2015, and we had included a day trip to Addo Elephant National Park.  There had been a fair amount of rainfall in this part of the Eastern Cape, and so there were areas throughout the park for the elephants to find water.  Whilst that was great for the elephants, it did mean that finding the elephants was more tricky and we ended up only seeing a handful of elephants on that trip. 

This time round we arrived ahead of the seasonal rainfall.  This meant that the elephants had fewer waterholes to choose from, and also that larger numbers of elephant congregated at the waterholes that were available.  This time round we saw lots of elephant!

These are some of the pictures from our latest trip to Addo.  Enjoy!

Secretary Bird

One of the first elephants we saw was this one which came right alongside our car

We thought we were quite fortunate to see a herd of about 9 elephants together, and then we arrived at a waterhole where there were about 20!

This waterhole was quite small, and these elephants were not about to share it with the warthogs.  Every now and then one of the braver warthogs would try and get close to the waterhole, only to be chased away by one of the juvenile elephants.  This involved flapping of ears and trumpeting and a stomping little elephant chasing a much quicker warthog.  Very entertaining!

Eventually the elephants did move on, and the impatient warthogs and the more patient zebra did get their chance to drink at the waterhole.

A bit further down the road we arrived at what would be the highlight of the day:  A waterhole with over 100 elephant.  Some were drinking, some were bathing, and others were just standing off in the distance waiting their turn.  

Every now and then some of the males (well, we assumed it was the males) would get into a pushing competition.  

We also saw lots of dung beetles!

More warthogs

Red Hartebeest

Kudu

Burchell's Zebra

SA Road Trip: Wild Coast Waterfalls

The Wild Coast. This is definitely a part of the world that we would love to come back and spend more time exploring.  This part of the South Africa is already well known for the pristine coastline and natural attractions such as Hole in the Wall, but this blog post is about some of the lessor know attractions: the Wild Coast waterfalls. 

A quick Google search (wild coast waterfalls) reveals that there are various waterfalls along the Wild Coast, but that most are relatively unknown due to not being easily accessible.  Whilst visiting some very good friends of ours on the Natal South Coast, they took us to visit one of these relatively unknown waterfalls.  

The waterfall that we visited will remain nameless.  Partly because I can't remember the name of this waterfall, and also because part of the beauty of this waterfall is it's remoteness and that it is not on the tourist route.    

There are actually two waterfalls at this location.  The larger and impressive main waterfall, and the cascading cousin.  We used the cascading waterfall as our route down to the bottom of these two waterfalls.  Once at the bottom, we had the place to ourselves... almost.  We had arrived at the waterfalls at the same time as another vehicle, and found out that they had been coming to this waterfall for over 15 years.  They were equally surprised to see us at the waterfall, and we all left agreeing to keep the location of this waterfall under wraps.  So I hope you enjoy some photos of the waterfall that we had (almost) to ourselves for a whole day, and that if you ever leave the beaten track along the Wild Coast that you have the same amazing experience. 

Bronwen, and our very good friends Everett and Frances

Update 21-04-2018:  Some photos taken by Ev :)