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Published: March 23rd 2010
The Valley of Desolation
One of the places you stop on the way up gives you this view of the valley from afar.Last weekend was quite nice because I had a new traveling partner! Bill arrived in Johannesburg on Thursday evening and then in PE on Friday morning (a little late) and after some breakfast we set out on our weekend tour. I took Friday, Monday, and Tuesday off of school and we drove almost 1,000 km around the Eastern Cape Karoo. With Bill as my navigator we headed off Northwest toward Graaff-Reinet. We arrived in the afternoon, hit up the information office, got some maps and checked in to a B&B. Then, about 3:30 we set off up toward the Valley of Desolation in the Camdeboo National Park. You drive in the park and up to the Valley. There are a couple of places on the way up to take beautiful pictures and check out the scenery. Then, once you get to the Valley, you can hike around a bit on this trail. We saw all kinds of cool stuff. There were mountains and plains for as far as you could see. There were some birds on the top of the Valley taking a bath. There were some baboons at the bottom fighting and throwing rocks at each other, it was funny
and scary sounding all at the same time. The echo in the Valley made them sound horrendous! We were taking a hike around the top and came up on some and were considering turning around and going back, Bill didn’t really want to get in a fight with a baboon he said. But we continued our walk and found some stuff they’d been eating and they put on a little show for us on a rock. They eventually got tired of me taking their picture apparently though because they started screaming at me! And we were on the top right at sunset which was beautiful. I know that my pictures are amazing, I’ll be selling them when I return.
We ate dinner at the little hotel in the town and spent the next morning just wandering around the cute little city. Then we headed toward Nieu-Bethesda to see the Owl House. Wow…this woman was a kook! Apparently she was married to a teacher and then after some “betrayal” she was divorced. She reluctantly moved back to this little town to take care of her ailing parents. She supposedly liked her mom alright but after she died she moved her
father into an outside room with no windows and painted the place black. Then when he died she really lost it. She started working with this cement guy and was designing sculptures that he would then create. She also started playing with light and started putting stained glass in her windows and painting the walls and ceilings in yellows, oranges, reds, greens, and blues. She also liked bottles apparently, and covered the walls in tiny pieces of them…very interesting way to add texture I guess. You’ll see some of the statues that were outside, I mean Bill and I could do nothing but be silly cause well, they were. It was very strange. So anyways, that’s apparently what this woman did for the rest of her life until she killed herself. Very interesting, and now her family has made it like a museum. It’s a little creepy. We were thinking we might find ghosts and stuff in the background of our pictures when we looked at them. Maybe someone will see some!
We were also told that we must go have a beer at the 2 Goats Deli and microbrewery. So here we are, literally in the middle of
nowhere, the road to the town wasn’t even paved, and this man had goats, pigs, ducks, chickens, and who knows what else, and makes his own goat cheese and brews his own beer. So we headed down the road toward the place and it was like stepping back in time. The little dirt road was so cute and believe it or not I loved the cheese! There were a couple different kinds and he put different sauces or toppings on each but most were delicious. And we had it with Kudu sausage, which was delicious as well! It was a nice little stop in nowhere Africa.
And the pictures of the clouds might not be as cool in 2D as it was to see but it fascinated me! We drove through the mountains and it was misting and really foggy. As soon as we got on the plains though it was blue skies and sunny! Looking back at the mountains we saw the clouds and it was so weird! It was as if they had gotten stuck on the mountain tops and were just hanging there! We saw them again when we came to the Mountain Zebra National Park
so there are more pictures there. It was just the strangest thing.
From there it was off to Craddock and the Mountain Zebra National Park. This park was started years ago (I don’t remember the exact date) and two farmers in the area who, due to some conservation efforts, were able to provide 11 and 6 mountain zebras. The herd has now grown to about 350. You will not see Mountain Zebras many other places in South Africa besides here. The park has also grown to somewhere around 6,000 hectares (there are about 2.5 acres in a hectare) and a few years ago they were able to introduce cheetah and rhino in to the park. We weren’t lucky enough to see them but apparently one of the females has two cubs right now! I was jealous because I overheard some people at breakfast talking about seeing them. There are a couple of differences between the Mountain Zebra and the Burchell’s Zebra. One of the differences is that the Burchell Zebra’s black stripes are a little farther apart because they have a brown stripe in between the black ones. So the Mountain Zebra’s stripes are closer together and are all
black. The other difference is that the Mountain Zebra’s stripes stop on their belly and their bellies are white. Personally, I think that the Mountain Zebra is a little prettier but they’re both very cool animals.
We arrived, again, right about sunset so I was off to take pictures again, I love the light at this time of day. You’ll see a couple different types of animals, I’ll caption the pictures so you can tell what’s what. We decided to stay at a little chalet in the park, didn’t really know if there would be better accommodations in the town of Craddock, but it was nice. The place was a little big for the two of us, you could sleep at least 4 in the house and it had a little living room and kitchenette, but it was nice being right inside. We had dinner at the restaurant there and Bill had Ostrich and it was delicious! We also laid on our back porch and stargazed before bed because it was so beautiful. Being so far away from city lights does wonders for the sky!
The next morning we got up and had breakfast and drove around the
park. On our way into breakfast we saw about 20 monkeys all playing right outside of the restaurant, they were hilarious! You will see them on the Park’s van, they were running up and down it, throwing each other off the sides and jumping up and down. And then they were swinging from the trees in the front and just playing. I guess the monkeys can be pretty big pests around the place, trying to get food and such, but they were quite entertaining. We saw a baby zebra and some baby springboks, they were so cute. We also put our names down to go on a walk but you had to have three people so we had to wait to see if anyone else was interested. The park also had a camping area and an older man in the camp came to the desk and called us so we got to go on a hike. It must be something about me cause we got lost…a little…but it was fine and a very nice walk along the ridge overlooking the chalets. I kept hoping we would come upon the cheetahs but no such luck.
After our walk and sitting
and talking to the man and his wife for a bit, we were off to Grahamstown to stay for the night before we had to be at Kariega for our game drive the next day. We set out a little late and this was my first time driving at night. It was a little nerveracking because for two hours we saw NO other cars on the road and there were potholes every-so-often and we were warned to watch for animals! And not just any animals but cows and such that came to sleep on the roads cause they were warmer!! I was definitely glad when it was over! The little Kia we rented would have been no match for a cow!
We stayed at the Lantern Hill B&B and had a very nice breakfast the next morning. I will say that the food this weekend beats the other two months I’ve been here, no contest!! We wandered around Grahamstown for a couple hours in the morning before heading to Kariega for our game drives. This (Grahamstown) is apparently one of the places that the British settled first and they have a nice museum and a little display on this
More rocks
This was actually another rocky area along the hike. big hill of the canons and wall I guess that the British first built in the city.
Check in was around noon at Kariega so we headed there mid morning. When we started getting close we started seeing zebras and giraffes on the side of the road. I mean they were fenced in, there were obviously a few game reserves in the area, but it was still kind of neat just driving down the road and checking out the zebras. We checked in to Kariega a little early and checked out the bar and lounge and then laid by the pool until lunch at 12:45. The main lodge, that we stayed at, holds up to 80 people but there were only us and 5 other people this day. They were supposed to get closer to full later in the week but there weren’t many people around when we were there, which I guess was lucky cause this was about the 5th place we called trying to get reservations. The place was really really nice, but it also didn’t feel much like you were in Africa. We had a very nice lunch and then our first game drive was at
4pm. When we went to pick up some of the other guests, we pulled up to their cabin and there were some Impala just grazing in the yard, much like deer at home, it was so cute. Kariega is somewhere around 20,000 acres and they have all kinds of animals. Apparently one of the lionesses has 4 cubs right now but we didn’t see her because she has taken them down to hide them in the valley. We came across the two males and they had supposedly just eaten cause they were just sleeping lazily under a tree. Four Kudu walked up within 50 yds of them and they didn’t even lift their heads…guess they were full. Our guide, Liana, kept saying that if we stepped out of the vehicle or stood up that they would definitely take notice, I tried to volunteer but she wouldn’t let me. All of the game reserves around here also boast that they have Leopards, but you never see them. They stay deep in the trees and I imagine if you ever get close enough to see one you might not live to tell the tale.
Next we went off in search of
the elephants. These guys were pretty cute cause the youngsters were very playful. You could also hear some elephants off in the bush and we saw the matriarch as well. She is always the one who leads the way and at one point she decided they were going to move on. She came out of the bush from eating and the way she wanted to go was blocked by one of the trucks on the drive. Well…she was not happy about that! She started trumpeting to the others and we were hoping she would just lift her trunk and smash it right on their hood. Unfortunately, after a little chatting with the others she turned through the side and decided to continue on through the bush. Liana said that actually, the guide should have backed his truck up and let her go where she pleased but I guess he wasn’t on top of things. But we sat and watched the little youngsters playing and wrapping their trunks around each other and pushing each other around. And the moms just continued eating, reaching their trunks way up in the tree and picking certain branches and munching away. Bill was busy trying
to figure out how they picked which limb they wanted to eat but I’m not sure he came to any particular conclusions.
On the way back to the lodge we came upon some giraffes and then stopped for some wine and beers. It was quite nice, in the dark, middle of the bush, and having a nice glass of wine…ha. Dinner was scrumptious, I had the ostrich this time and Bill had King Klip, which was delicious! All of us that were on the truck sat and chatted with each other and our guide and then we all headed to bed. There was a couple on holiday from Ireland and then a mother and her son and daughter from England, they were all very nice. I guess the flights here from Europe are pretty cheap because I have met a number of people from there since I got here. And I found out later it’s only a two hours difference in time so that makes it nice as well.
Our morning drive started at 6 am with a wake up call at 5:30…nice and early. But I guess that they do this because lots of the animals are
up early and coming out to eat. That morning we saw a couple of the 17 rhino that they have at Kariega and one of the 5 buffalo. The rhino was in pretty tall grass though so I don’t have great pictures of her. The buffalo was quite content standing in one spot with her stick, that was standing straight out of the ground, as her scratching post. We also jumped some hippos and I just caught a glimpse of the three of their tooshes as they ran back into the bush and water, apparently they don’t like people too much.
We went on a boat ride down the Kariega river as well. We saw a couple Giant Kingphishers, and if you remember pictures from the Canoe Safari, these look much like the little one I saw then but much bigger. Apparently there are 7 (or 12, I can’t remember) different types of Kingphishers. We also watched two male baboons chasing each other back and forth across these rocks on top of the shore of the river. They ran back and forth chasing and screaming at each other and the picture we have was once one finally had sat
still and was literally just “hanging out”.
We then got breakfast and it was time to leave. Everyone checked out and it was back to PE for Bill and me. It didn’t take us but a little over an hour and we got checked in to Bill’s bed and breakfast. We also braaied with the girls that night. So far it’s been great, I think that Bill is having a lot of fun here, but I wish that his time wasn’t so short. Everyone keeps asking how long he’s staying and they are flabbergasted when he says one week! All that way for such little time but we’ve had a great time so far. Hopefully we’ll come back again sometime soon. And there will be a couple more pictures from later in his trip to follow...they're pretty exciting!
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katiealice
Katie Mara
so nice!
I'm sure you are so excited to have Bill there with you! It's always nice to travel with someone you love and to show off how much you know about your new country.