Tsitsikama

Moved on to the Tsitsikama National Park. On booking in we were allocated a campsite which always makes us a little nervous as you are never sure where you will be put. Driving down towards the camp we saw a lot of caravans right on the front which brought visions of strong winds - the wind is the enemy of the camper because as long as you can keep the tent up then you can stay dry, but once the wind has blown it down you have no hope. As suspected, our site was right on the front, again just metres from the waves, absolutely beautiful if the weather behaves itself.

First we decided to take the trail to the river mouth over the suspension bridge only to be stopped by signs saying that it was closed due to the fire that had been there recently! It seemed that everywhere we tried to go this holiday was closed or blocked. We did manage a walk part of the way.

We then took another short trail through the forest, I think it was 2kms although it definitely seemed a lot longer and what the sign didn't say was that most of it was mountaineering. The ground was soaked and muddy and we heard a lot of birds but didn't see very much in the way of wildlife.

Back at camp just in time for it to start pouring again. That evening we had to admit defeat and drove to the restaurant just before they closed and ate there, there was no way in the wind and rain that we would be able to light a fire and cook.

The weather was awful in the night and I kept waking up and looking at the gazebo which amazingly was still standing and was thankful that we were dry and safe in the truck. However, at 4am the gazebo finally gave up and collapsed again. There were several other tents that hadn't survived the night either so we didn't feel too bad.

The next day it we set off several times on walks, we wanted to do the beach one, but each time as we got to the start of the trail it started raining so we gave up. It did eventually stop and we managed to dry everything out and the evening was lovely and we were able to have a fire again.

The place was absolutely beautiful and the fact that you are right on the seafront as far as views goes is marvellous, but with the wind that they get in that part of the coutnry it does make it a bit dodgy for camping. We noticed that the majority of the tents or caravans that were there had huge storm straps to keep them grounded, they'd obviously been there before!

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