Irenenenene

This is not actually a "leg", because we did things in and around Graaff-Reinet. Firstly, we took a stroll through the beautiful town, I even found an electronics shop open on a Sunday (!), which could sell me a charger for my phone, which I intelligently accidentally left in Cape Town. The Valley of Desolation was spectacular! We then headed off to the Camdeboo National Park, spread over three areas. Yes, we did see a Rhino, but it moved away so fast, that we did not get a proper photo. What? you might ask... Snowfall in Africa? Indeed, though not at the time we were there. I think is was close to 40 Degrees Celsius at the time.   Our travel companion: Antje    K (the cousin) and, yes, a rare picture of me, myself and Irene :)   The beautiful view from the top into the valley. Camdeboo promised these beasties, but we did not see any. We were not sure whether they actually exist in the park.....

Because of all the rain, like I said before all the elephants were on the other side of the park (which we saw when we left the area)   See, a whole herd!!! We then headed towards the Mountain Zebra National Park, where we saw a lot of wildlife. The area was quite dry, as you can see.  It's not called "Zebra" park for nothing:)  My little car had to negotiate some real steep roads in that park. And this was our little room for the first night in Graaff-Reinet. Beautiful little town. Will come back one day, promise!! The rain that night was unbelievable, so much so, that the internet was taken out and the next day being a Sunday, there was no chance that we could get into the net :( bummer

It was raining and pouring the night before, but we were greeted by the most awesome sunshine, so off we went to Addo Elephant Park. Because of the rain, we did not get to see too much of the wildlife, but we got up close and personal with two elephant males. Male nr 1 Please note the other tracks on the ground. It was quite scary, as this part was ransacked by an entire herd and around every corner we were expecting to find them.... no such luck, but this one came straight at us and because the tracks veered, we were ok. This little Opel Corsa was not so lucky and had to duck out of the way. Male nr 2 Some Heffalump tracks.... and various other wildlife we saw on the way. Yes, we did try to yield to these little creatures as far as was possible.   This is what we got home to , after going into Addo to grab some beer (very dodgy bottle store...).  Then we had sundowners on the little deck at the dam, before the Mozzies started eating us....

So, as I said the day we left Knysna was rainy, rainy, rainy, rainy - all the way, up the coast to Port Elizabeth, and even further inland, right up to Addo. The weather report that evening showed ALL of SA covered with cloud, except Cape Town, which we had left behind (and we thought we were fleeing the rain....) We did a quick stop along the way at the world's highest bungy-jump, but no-one dared jump in the wet weather, although the company was rearing to go.  We then continued to PE (port Elizabeth), where we had lunch / dinner and you can see how overcast the day was. The wind was blowing us off our feet and now I know why it's called the windy city. I thought Cape Town was bad.... We then got semi-lost because the road was not indicated clearly and logically, but with a slight detour we reached Addo, and found a lovely spot at the Homestead B&B . We were tired of the rain by then and literally just fell into bed.

We had a good breakfast and then hit the road via Mosselbay to Knysna.  Evenly spaced seagulls in the Mosselbay harbour  Taken by the last ant (think Maya the Bee)  While in Knysna, we did the Tsitsikamma Canopy Tour - ohhhh wow :) Something I wanted to do for a long time. I want to encourage everyone who has the opportunity to experience it for yourself.  All I can say is WOOOOOHOOOOO!!!!! (Scream for your lunch :) ) This was our abode for 3 nights, until the rain started coming down..... and down and down. from Knysna, to Port Elizabeth, right up to Addo Elephant park.

After all the stress of the year and frantic struggle to get things done on time, my cousin KE arrived from Germany. Unfortunately I was still at work and she had to spend three days roaming the streets of Cape Town on her own. She found some gems of coffee shops and curios during that time, and on Friday the 10th, after a very relaxed graduation ceremony (congrats to all the third years!!), we headed off to Boulder's beach and Sundowners at Camps Bay. Next day was another wander through Cape Town and on Sunday we headed to the open road - Cape Agulhas and Arniston. Day one ended with a fantastic dinner (or supper - anyway, the evening meal) at the Arniston Hotel. Oh, yum, those sweet potatoes with ginger *sigh* We did see some critters on walls, but that was all - bigger critters followed :) Yes, that is my hand - I did not dare get any closer *shudder*