It didn’t take us long to realise that the school holidays had started once we had left De Aar and ventured into the Western Cape. Our next stop was due to be a night in the Karoo National Park just outside Beaufort West, but when we arrived there was no room at the inn, the park was full and not even a space for a wee tiny two man tent!

The traffic on the roads had also increased significantly with almost every car (majority it seemed from Gauteng province) towing a trailer, a caravan, a boat, or at the very least loaded with holiday gear. We managed to find a private camp site (Steenbokkie) at the other side of town which was fine for the night. It was at this stage that we realised we were going to have to do some forward planning and decided that another week on the road would be enough. The forward planning was a great idea in theory, but when we came to actually book ahead we were far from early enough; many places were already fully booked.

Scenic Drive to Wilderness

We had a stunning drive from Beaufort West to Oudtshoorn and on to Wilderness, but didn’t have too much spare time to stop and enjoy. We did have a quick stop at the Meringspoort Pass to stretch our legs and walk to a very scenic waterfall, plus we stopped at the Cango Caves where we did the adventure tour with only 2 others – squeezing through some very small openings. The standard tour was the crowded one.

The next 4 days we spent on the edge of Wilderness National Park where the primary activity was paragliding for Dave, and fetching him for Sharon. One very windy day meant no flying so we did a lovely forest walk for a few hours and after not a lot of exercise in the last two months we certainly felt the effects! We also bumped into two other VSA volunteers camping at the same site – we had seen the Macpac tent and thought oh they must be Kiwis, and when they had seen our Fairydown tent they had thought the same! Small world…

Tsitsikamma National Park

From Wilderness we headed up the coast to Knysa, which was unrecognisable to Sharon from her first visit there 15 years ago. After a quick lunch at 34◦South, a highly recommended stop at a brilliant shop/emporium/restaurant type place on the waterfront, we headed on to the Tsitsikamma National Park – stunning. We had time for a picnic lunch at Nature’s Valley followed by a beautiful walk through forest, river and beach combined with a swim.

When we had tried booking for the Storms River rest camp in Tsitsikamma it was full, but as we were driving past the entrance we thought we would try our luck. Hallelujah we were in luck and booked in for 3 nights on one of the most stunning coastal camp sites we have ever had the good fortune of pitching on. 20 metres from the sea and just after pitching up a pod of dolphins swam through! This was the ideal spot to end our ‘holiday’ on a high note! We spent three glorious days walking, swimming/snorkelling, reading, relaxing and one half day swinging through the trees on a canopy tour with Storms River Adventures (Fair Trade in Tourism Accredited).

And then it was time to go back to East London and to what will be our new home for the next two years.