Friday(De Hoop NR)

Today was a lovely relaxing day in De Hoop Nature Reserve seeing Bontebok, Ostriches, Baboons, Cape Mountain Zebra, and Whales. The nature reserve trip was booked with Alex at the backpackers for 300R which seemed very reasonable considering it was one guide for the two of us, and included a really nice DIY lunch and included quite a long drive along a dirt road which must take it toll on any vehicles which use it. On the drive there saw eight of the national bird, they blue (grey???) crane sitting on a rock, they are stunning birds, with really elegant necks and long legs, later on we passed a field with Ostriches in, happily with them behind a fence, so didn’t have to worry about being kicked by one, especially as they are strong enough to be happily ridden by an adult. Later on when we were inside the reserve saw Bontebok, and later walked towards a Dazzle of Zebras, Cape Mountain Zebras, which are smaller and apparently less aggressive than ‘normal’ Burchil Zebra, it was also fun, due to the head, looking at them though binoculars you could see them shimmer. After lunch we saw baboons running over the top of one of the buildings in the park, and went down to the sea, you could see a whale and every so often there was the curious sight of a huge plumb of water in the air, or a flipper, sadly the whale wasn’t deep enough to breach the water, jump. If I was going to do the trip again I’d be tempted to take a plane flight (300R?) over the coast to get a better view.


The beach was nice and relaxing, and played quite a lot of Frisbee and almost managed to get a decent reverse throw. Swimming for the first time in the sea on this trip was pleasantly warm, also the beach had really exciting jagged rocks, made of vicious looking Swiss cheese like rock, with a very nasty death if you happened to be ship wrecked near by and were washed on to the rocks. There were some nice stones on the beach with a line of quartz crystal running through. On the way back passing the glimmering white sand dunes, which reminded me very strongly of snow cropped mountains,
I ran up it and then rolled down, but not all the way as I wanted to avoid the plants at the bottom.
In the evening some of us from the hostel and I had a few Milk Stouts