Christmas in South-African National Parks

 January 2017

Turn of the year 2016-2017

During the African summer holidays over Christmas and New Years the national parks and campsites in South Africa and Namibia are packed. The South Africans book their favourite camping spots up to one year in advance. Campsites are thus mostly booked out.
We acted anti-cyclically and spent one months on our home spot Camping Country Park in Johannesburg. 

The Swiss Schami and Rita ...

with their Landy www.niggs.ch, whom we met for the first time in Windhoek in September, also arrived there just before Christmas. They are travelling the world in stages. 

On the 19th December both Schami and I celebrated our birthday.  The festive days flew by with our get-together. At the beginning of January we had to bid farewell and wished us both many positive travel experiences in 2017.

Golden Gate National Park

Scenic rocky landscapes of colourful sand stone and mountains covered in green invited for a stroll. Heavy rains and the many different species of grass (Edy reacted with a strong hay fever...) made us continue earlier than planned. 

Oberammergau Camping spot

On route from Harrismith to Bloemfontein we found a classy campsite in Senekal. After a good nights’ sleep we were able to continue our journey towards the Cape

Camdeboo National Park

This national park in the Karoo – a semi-dessert landscape - only exists since 2005.  There is not much sense in visiting this park because of its wildlife, but the Valley of Desolation with its impressive rock formations invites to walks and leaves the wanderer in awe.  

Wilderness National Park along the Garden Route

Lagoons, lakes, ponds, rivers, the ocean, long dream beaches, dunes, lots of tourists, lots of emigrants, good restaurants, lots of sun, lots of wind. 

In the centre of the Garden Route we found a superb Ebb & Flow campsite within the National Park directly at the Tow River.
After three days, we were eventually able to pay by credit card. The receptionist explained: the fibre optic cables in the National Park headquarters had been stolen. Her colleague asked us where we were from. We replied that we were from Switzerland. The lady reacted that that was very far away – just outside South Africa.  

A German couple in a VW camper left the campsite. That same day they met „Mantocos“ and told them about us. We immediately received an e-mail and decided to meet the day after tomorrow.

Conny and Tommy on the road with their MAN Action Mobil

Finally it worked out and we got to meet the two likable globe trotters. The two of them have travelled from Europe along the African west coast and are planning to continue via the east coast in 2018. Their travel experiences can be followed on: www.mantoco.com

 Robertson winelands

Breede River Valley – valley of vines and roses – stands for good wines and a well-known and successful horse breeding farm. More than 50 cellars can be visited. We didn’t make all of them! In the afternoon, we recovered from all the fine wine tasting close to Robertson, directly at the river.

We visited the little town of Montagu on a day trip. The region is known for fruit cultivation and its production of dried fruit. Here we replenished our snack stock.

Photos