Happy New Year, everyone!
We kicked off 2021 by spending time with the most adorable family of Bat-eared Foxes here at Mountain Zebra National Park. We have lots more photos of the 3 cute pups and the 4 adults watching over them to share when we’re back home.
This morning it was a sad farewell to Marilize’s parents who joined us for the 4 nights we spent at Addo Elephant National Park. They headed home to Jeffreys Bay while we travelled in the opposite direction to the final stop of our 2020 summertide ramble – the beautiful Mountain Zebra National Park (please click on the image for a clearer view).
We spent a lot of time today at the various waterholes in the Addo Elephant National Park. Thanks to the summer heat they were all occupied by herds of elephants, whose antics are always fun to watch!
During our drive through the Addo Elephant Park this morning we were fortunate to encounter this confrontation between an elephant bull and two spotted hyenas who were trying to hide the remains of their prey in a water trough.
With it being a rather hot day in the Addo Elephant National Park today another of the Park’s star attractions – the Addo Flightless Dung Beetle – were out in their numbers gathering food for their progeny.
After three wonderful days lazing around Jeffreys Bay we’re back to our 2020 summertide ramble through some of our favourite national parks. Today, we arrived at the Addo Elephant National Park and already had incredible encounters with the grey behemoths.
I think it’s more the inclement weather than the government-imposed restriction on beach-going in the Garden Route (an attempt at limiting crowds to curb the spread of COVID-19) that caused the beach at Nature’s Valley to be this deserted today.
We’ll be spending the next few days with close family in Jeffreys Bay but we’ll resume our summertide rambles through two of the Eastern Cape national parks on the 27th.
As the sun sets this evening we’re enjoying the serenity of the next destination of our 2020 summertide ramble: Nature’s Valley in the Garden Route National Park. From our chalet we have a beautiful view of the Groot River and the Tsitsikamma forest and mountains beyond – who could ask for more?
A rainy day here on South Africa’s Garden Route today – always welcome in a dry country such as ours – so we took a short hike in the Woodville Indigenous Forest, where an 800 year old Outeniqua Yellowwood that towers above the canopy is the star attraction. There’s just something so magical about the smells in a rain-soaked forest.
It’s the fifth day of our 2020 Summertide Ramble, and we’ve moved again – this time about 200km due east to the Wilderness section of the Garden Route National Park, where our cosy log cottage in the Ebb-and-Flow Rest Camp has a lovely (if overcast and rather chilly at the moment) view over the wetlands of the Serpentine River just before its confluence with the Touw River.
