Addo to Graaff Reinet, South Africa

22 - 24 Nov 07

Historical town surrounded by mountains

After breakfast, we drove to the charming Karoo town of Graaff-Reinet. It’s the fourth-oldest European town in South Africa and has more than 220 buildings designated as national monuments. We checked into the Drostdy Hotel and had a light lunch in their garden. The hotel was the old “Drostdy” or magistrate’s house and we stayed in one of the restored mid-19th century cottages, originally built for freed slaves.
We spent the afternoon exploring the town and visiting some of the interesting museums, including Reinet House built in the early 19th century and a beautiful example of Cape Dutch architecture.
23 November. After breakfast we went for the 14 km long Eerstefontein hike in the Camdeboo National Park. Near the start of the walk, Flemming almost stepped on the second snake we’ve seen since arriving in Africa. Beige in colour, it was probably a younger cape cobra than the yellow one we saw in the Kalahari. Later we came across a herd of mountain zebra that seemed just as curious about us as we were about them. On the way back to our car, there was a large tortoise on the side of the path. They turned out to be quite common as we saw several more by the side of the road.
Then we drove up to the stunning viewpoint above the Valley of Desolation with its dolerite columns set against the backdrop of the Karoo plains. To round the day off, we drove to the wildlife-viewing area. The landscape was quite dramatic in the late afternoon sunlight, and in the short hour we spent there we saw lots of eland, ostrich, gemsbok (oryx), wildebeest and blesbuck as well as our first blue cranes.
We dined on juicy, tender springbok at the cosy Kliphuis restaurant in Graaff-Reinet.