DAY 11 : 9 MARCH 2011 : ADDO ELEPHANT PARK TO BAVIAANSKLOOF – 216km

During the night we had one thunderstorm after another and it poured with rain.   According to Radio Algoa, Addo Elephant Park had 14mm – it certainly felt much more, but then it always does when you are in a tent.   We wondered how we were going to pack up in the rain, and discussed this in great detail before we decided to get up.   Much to our delight, the rain stopped, so instead of our normal coffee and rusks before breaking camp, we rushed to get the tent packed away.   Everything was very wet and the ground sheet and tent pegs very muddy, but we got it all packed away and managed to shower before the rain started again.   What luck!!!   It took one hour – best to date!

The trip to Baviaanskloof was very interesting, even though it was very overcast and rained at times.   We went through Uitenhage, Loerie, Hankey and Patensie, the latter three are in the Gamtoos Valley which has acres and acres of irrigated citrus.    The entrance gate to Baviaanskloof is at Komdomo where there is a campsite complete with flush toilets, electricity, etc.  But this was not to be – the Kewleys booked at the ‘exclusive campsite’ at Rooihoek which was 22km further on.   This 22km took us over 3 hours, 

Protea Repens

but I must confess that we stopped many times for photos to be 

Erica spp

taken of the spectacular scenery, a coffee break on the top of the mountain at Bergplaas, and the going was rough and very slow.    However the fynbos on the top was out of this world. 

Road en route to Rooihoek

En route to Rooihoek

The receptionist at Komdomo intimated that we were lucky to get a campsite at Rooihoek, but the first night we had the campsite (6 in all) all to our bar a troop of baboons and several vervets.   You would think, after living in Zululand, that we knew all about monkey business, but we were taken and lost a huge chunk out of a brand new loaf of bread, and a big stick of biltong.   Doggy hastily unpacked his catapult and filled his pockets with suitable ammunition which was plentiful.   No more troubles thereafter!

There was no ablution or water other than the river, so there were many skinny dips.   It was wonderful to have the whole place to ourselves – but also quite scary at night.