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Cape Town Road Trip, Klein Karoo, Karoo & Free State, January & February 2021

May 8, 2021 by 1 Comment
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Cape Town Road Trip, Klein Karoo, Karoo & Free State - January & February 2021

ROAD TRIP ON THE DIAGONAL – PHASE 5

HOME, VIA THE KLEIN KAROO, KAROO AND THE FREE STATE

It has taken me some time to pen the words to this, the final phase of our epic road trip from the Lowveld to Cape Town and back.

The reason is that I lost all the RAW images of the trip and subsequently my mojo for travel writing.  The suspected cause is badly co-ordinated interaction between a pet, myself, my laptop and its recycle bin.

Let me pontificate on this:

  • Ensure regular back-ups of treasured electronic data on your electronic devices;
  • Do not leave your laptop open, on, with a file selected, and leave the room;
  • Do not blindly empty your recycle bin every time you notice something in it, even if you are an OCD, minimalist, perfectionist Virgo.

Anyway, my mojo is back, and I’ll be recovering images from posts on Gesigsboek.  Please excuse the reduced quality of posted pics.

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Camping - Cape Nature Conservation - Cape Winelands - Day Visit - Educational - Restaurant - South Africa - Southern Africa - Table Mountain National Park - Tourist Attraction - Western Cape

Cape Town Road Trip, Cape Town and Winelands, January & February 2021

March 31, 2021 by
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Cape Town Road Trip, Cape Town and Winelands - January & February 2021

ROAD TRIP ON THE DIAGONAL – PHASE 4

CAPE TOWN AND WINELANDS

Heading south from the West Coast area, we were mentally preparing ourselves for the Big City.  We had not been in Cape Town proper for many years, and we were not sure what had changed.

On the N7, the Piekenierskloof Pass and the Swartland offered their own picturesqueness, however there was a large flat piece of rock at the end of the road, getting bigger as we approached – Table Mountain.  Nothing says “Cape Town” more than that iconic piece of granite.

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Camping - Cape Nature Conservation - Cederberg - Farming - Karoo - N1 - Restaurant - South Africa - Southern Africa - Tourist Attraction - Western Cape

Cape Town Road Trip, Karoo to Cederberg January 2021

March 20, 2021 by
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Cape Town Road Trip, Karoo to Cederberg - January 2021

ROAD TRIP ON THE DIAGONAL - PHASE 3 - KAROO TO CEDERBERG

Having waved good-bye to the Karoo National Park, we boarded the N1.  We were heading to the Cape.  Well, not Cape Town directly, we still had a stop in the Cederberg planned, which would mean a little dogleg to the north.

The problem with taking a main route like the N1, is that you know that there is much more to it than the tar ribbon and the dusty road shoulders.  Beyond the scrubland and grass there are things to see, the side roads lead to places full of interesting stuff.  This is what makes travel addictive, there is always more to go back to.  We passed turn-offs to Leeuw-Gamka and Prins Albert and shot through Laingsburg, with its Flood Museum built on the floodplain, and kept adding items to the bucket list.

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Camping - Karoo - N1 - Restaurant - Self Catering - South Africa - Southern Africa - Tourist Attraction - Western Cape

Cape Town Road Trip, Karoo NP January 2021

March 15, 2021 by
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Karoo National Park - January 2021

ROAD TRIP ON THE DIAGONAL - PHASE 2 - MOKALA TO THE KAROO NATIONAL PARK

Bidding a fond farewell to Mokala, we headed down the N12 via Hopetown, Britstown and Victoria West to join the N1 at Drie Susters (Three Sisters), crossing into the Western Cape at that very spot.  Since our home stomping-grounds boasts the Three Rondawels as part of the Blydepoort escarpment, we had to stop and take a photo of their three Karoo-cousins.  We were in the Great Karoo, a much beloved area of South Africa.

THREE SISTERS, WESTERN CAPE

THREE RONDAWELS, MPUMALANGA (KRUGER-NATIONAL-PARK.DE)

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Camping - Gauteng - Mokala National Park - Northern Cape Province - Self Catering - South Africa - Southern Africa - Tourist Attraction

Cape Town Road Trip, Mokala NP January 2021

March 7, 2021 by
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Limpopo to Mokala National Park - January 2021

ROAD TRIP ON THE DIAGONAL - PHASE 1 - LIMPOPO, GAUTENG AND NORTHERN CAPE

COVID-19 hit us in 2020 and hit hard, it did.  Picture the scene, three trips booked for 2020 ….. Marakele National Park, Kruger National Park, Namibia ….. but the virus said NEIN!  STAY AT HOME!  Which we did, stoically.

Luckily, we had only booked camping and accommodation in the South African National Parks by the time COVID-19 gave us the “nein”, so it all went into their credit system, taunting us from afar.

We started seeing light at the end of the tunnel at the start of December 2020, so we rolled out the map and opened the SANParks website.  So much to see!  Diaries were consulted and an end of January, beginning of February 2021 gap in Lecturing Twit’s calendar was found.  We proceeded to plan a doozy of a trip from Hoedspruit to Cape Town and back, trying to fit in visits to as many nature reserves/national parks as possible, the emphasis being on new experiences.  We begged room from friends, activated our credits and threw in two stays at CapeNature reserves, leaving us with a bill of around R800.00 and still some credit in the pot.  The diesel bill will have to take care of itself (yeah, right!).  We were ready, set to go!

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Camping - Educational - Kruger National Park - Limpopo - South Africa - Southern Africa - Tourist Attraction

Thulamela Archaeological Site, Kruger National Park, August 2019

August 19, 2019 by
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19 August 2019

That damn bucket list!  It just gets longer and longer no matter how many fabulous experiences we mark as done.

A major tick was our August 2019 visit to the Thulamela Archaeological Site in the northern Kruger National Park.  A previous attempt ended in a dead end at a closed road on the day before we were due to head south to another camp, which required an early start.

Careful research revealed that we needed a guide and that the tour only takes place if there are four or more participants.  With this information safely stored in the back of our minds we were delighted to make friends with two people with the same item on their bucket list and some free time available to share a trip to the park.

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