Thursday 11th April 2013

L:  That was a freezing cold night.  We were given only a single duvet each, but we took our double bed sleeping bag into the tent with us last night.  We pushed the beds together and tried to keep warm, but the tent that they had given us, did not zip up at the bottom and with a gale force wind blowing, there was no way of keeping warm.

We showered, but also did not have much success there as the showers were gas and the regulator allowed either boiling hot or cold.  We had breakfast and set off on a long drive to Elands Bay.

We drove along the coast and most of it was sand driving which was quite a bit of concentration, but pleasant enough and the views were really great, sea and sand dunes with lots of birds on such a clear day.

Shortly after we had entered the Namaqua Park we saw our first springbok as well as quite a few steenbokkies. 

A little further we were privileged to see not one but two birds of prey, both perched a few telephone poles apart.

S:  We have spent a bit of time along this coast before. There is a ‘main’ sand road and then there are ring roads which you can take to explore closer to the sea amongst the beaches, bays and coves. However as we did not have much time, don’t know why I was rushing this late in our holiday, we stayed on the main road except for a few waypoints we had missed on our last trip which Lesley explains below.

L: Steve had found a place on the GPS that said fountain or spring, but although the section was very green, with reeds, we were not able to see the source of the water. S: There was a second place called ‘Fountain and kraal’ on the T4A (Tracks for Africa) map which we also stopped at. There seemed to be remnants of a wall and a sort of depression in the ground which could have been a spring.

L: Then he surprised me by stopping at the seal colony!!  I have always loved seals, calling them “feddies” as a child, why, I can’t tell you……

We walked on to the beach towards all the seals, scores of them and within a few metres, came across two baby seals basking in the sun.  They never heard us for quite a while so we were able to get really close and then they rolled over, whimpered and clambered up the rocks, with the adult seals calling to them.

That was just the beginning.  Seems a few of the adult seals stay on the beach to look out for the babies while most of the parents are out swimming or doing what seals do.  There were some babies, sleeping on the rocks or playing in pairs and groups while the rest were in the nursery pools, learning how to swim, float and climb in and out of the rock pools.  It was too adorable, I could have spent a full day just watching them and photographing them.  They are the most amazing creatures to watch, so graceful in the water yet still able to climb rocks and scamper along the sand. 

We had time restraints, so reluctantly left the seals and headed off to Groenrivier, where we signed out and headed to the N7 because we were on our way to visit the parents of a friend of ours, in Vredendal.

Just as we were leaving Groenrivier we saw a few emus on a farm next to the road.

Once we had got onto the N7 and after seeing the sign stating that there were roadworks for 87kms and experiencing the first stop-go roadblock, we decided to turn off at Nuwerus and go via Lutzville. We arrived in Vredendal at 3 pm and spent an hour and a half having tea, rusks and cake with a lovely couple.

We refueled, popped in at the Spar for some meat and got back on to the road.  On the way back to Lutzville we passed under the magnificent railway bridge that was built across the valley for the iron ore train that transports iron ore to Saldanha Bay and around the country.

We drove for another 2 hours to Elands Bay along the Spoornet private toll road and although we had to pay R30 for the first part and R25 for the second part, it was well worth it as the gravel road is well graded and comfortable to drive on.  Ha ha, as opposed to all the strange tracks we have been on.

I jumped out of the car as soon as we got to Vensterklip as the sun was setting and I did not want to miss the sunset.  It did not disappoint.

We set up camp, once again, finding that the campsite here has gone down a bit too, with the private toilet and shower room not being in tip top condition as with the under shelter braai area.   A great pity to let things go.

We braaied and went to bed as soon as possible after a long day on the road.