:: Carnet de Voyage ::David

// Nikon D7200 | -32.13374 : 25.62377 |alt. 989m

Away from the garden route and the main touristic destinations, the beautiful Mountain Zebra national park is a well hidden jewel. You can tell no one is going there when you get to the small village next door, pretty empty and desolated, with no backpacker, no hostel, a pub you would not visit, and nothing else to do.

The park itself is lovely, with a few scenic routes overlooking majestuous plains with free roaming wildlife. I made it in the afternoon and I wasn’t expecting to see much (landscapes are much better in the late afternoon light), but you get many opportunities to spot most of the games (no predator obviously), including the mountain zebra (which seems black with white stripes).
The park could be a wonderful place to drive for days, but the goal here is to spot the unspottable : lions, cheetahs, and the elusive leopard.

Time to call it a day, I went back to this shitty town, and found myself a lovely spot in the bush. It was already pitch black, just finishing my diner, when a car came in, and stopped on the only dirt road going to my spot, then the headlights went off….. Why would someone come here ?! And now the only exit is blocked. I prepared the van to take off as quickly as possible, just in case. Needless to say I didn’t sleep very well, but nothing happened.
Next day, I went out very early to see if the car was still blocking the way…… gone ! Ouf, I left an hour before sunrise and went back to the national park. The gate opens at 7am, sunrise is in a few minutes, I’ve got some good chances to spot something new 🙂

Just a 5min drive, and I spotted a rhino, looking beautiful (his tusk was not cut). He looked very shy and scared (very young as well) and quickly ran away. Well, that was the highlight of the park ! Rhino spottings are very rare !
I still had a few 4wd only roads to explore, people spotted a few aardwolves there yesterday. I went to the park ranger office, and the girl told me to forget about those roads, I cannot make it with my vehicle. Alright lady, challenge accepted.

So it went from « baaah I don’t even need 4wd on this road » to « holy shit I’m gonna die ! ». Still made it, amazing mister Fox, but didn’t spot anything ! I went back to the park ranger office, and that’s where I realized I lose my spare wheel cover with the sandtracks inside……shit !

Obviously, I know where to look for….. so here we go, second run on that ugly road…. for nothing, I didn’t find anything ! 🙁
Now, it was time to backtrack the whole journey, I had to find it…… it took a few hours driving around to meet another car flashing his lights : he went on the 4wd road and found my stuff. Good to get this back, but the cover is badly damaged… must have dragged some big stones or something….

  // Nikon D7200 | -32.2685 : 24.52582 | alt. 798m Before jumping to Mountain Zebra national park, I saw some interesting pictures of desolation valley on the west side, and I had to check out this place. In the end, not much to do, the park is fairly small, the main trail being a 20min…

  // Nikon D7200 | -33.51407 : 25.69348 | alt. 49m Short drive to reach the northern gate of Addo elephant park, which like the name suggests, is home of hundreds of elephants. It’s already past noon, but that’s enough time for a first trip inside the park. You can drive on a fairly huge network…

  // Nikon D7200 | -33.9734 : 23.88234 | alt. 232m The problem with bush camping, it’s, well……. forbidden :p so the main rule is to park after sunset and leave before sunrise. It’s winter, so nights are pretty long, but since this is a bit stressful, you don’t really get the best sleep, and it’s never…

  // Nikon D7200 Bush le camping où le,en 2 oceans meet, in Cape Agulhas. This is the most southern point in Africa, most southern point of my trip, and it’s now time to head back home, north !

  // Nikon D7200 | -33.98875 : 18.43453 | alt. 114m After a very expensive night at Imhoff campsite, I first had to find a cheaper place to sleep for the rest of my time here. One night at chapman camp, still too expensive, but nice location with plenty of birds (feels like being in a…

  // Nikon D7200 | -32.55175 : 19.36214 | alt. 621 m After a few days driving on the long and boring main road of Namibia, I made it to Aus, final stop before the border. Here we go, after 200 kms of very good road, I arrived at the Namibian border. The process is…