Category: Nature and wildlife, some history and beaches
Recommended length of stay: between 3 - 6 days
Currency: Rand
Timezone: GMT +1
Perfect for: Nature, beaches, History, Hikers and Animal lovers
Target Group: Couples, 50+, Nature lovers, History buffs, backpackers
In my last blog about South-Africa, that you can find by following this link, I finished our journey in Oudtshoorn. So in todays post I want to pick up where I left off and take you south from Oudtshoorn to Mossel Bay, then on to Swellendam and then to the southern tip of the African continent, before heading to Hermanus and finish my post there with a nice glas of Amarula! That will then provide a nice opening for the wine-country and the outskirts of Cape Town in my next post(s).
Bontebok National Park, very peaceful and quiet. We stopped here at a restcamp where they also have lodges
Oudtshoorn was fantastic and maybe because of that experience and the depressing weather that we encountered once we'd crossed the Ruitersbos Nature Reserve, our opinion of Mossel Bay was more sobre. By all means Mossel Bay is a nice town with a lot of history and the Dias Museum is a must to visit, but I guess the depressing weather gave everything a bit of a gloomy feel.
the Dias Museum
For those who are into history and maybe more particular collonial history, this is definately worth a visit. The museum is situated on the grounds where the Portugese and later the Dutch came to land to restock on supplies. I'm not sure whether the buildings are the original ones, but there are a few must visit attractions on these grounds:
- First and foremost a copy of the caravel that Bartolomeu Dias used when he first came to shore on these grounds
- the famous 500 year old Post office Tree
- A small botanical garden
the famous 500 year old Post office Tree
the replica of the caravel that Bartolomeu Dias used when he first came Mossel Bay
If you're into nature, then you can use either Mossel Boy or Swellendam as your base to visit some reserves in the area. The biggest one is de Hoop Nature Reserve, which also stretches out into the sea. I would like to focus on the smaller Bontebok National Park.
From Mossel Bay we drove straight to Swellendam, this by itself was about 160 kilometers. Swellendam is a really nice and rural town. Fantastic buildings, beautiful nature, very central and quiet. For us another nice town to remember and the people were very hospitable. We actually ended up staying there twice. They have nice B&B's there and both times we also ate fantastic. The Bontebok National Park is located just outside Swellendam.
Swellendam, just one of its stunning historical buildings
Bontebok National Park
The BNP (no I'm not going to discuss politics) is part of the SANparks portfolio, so if you have acquired one of these, you don't have to pay to this park. The BNP is small as it is solely dedicated to the preservation of the rare Bontebok. The good thing about this park is that there aren't any large predators here, so you can explore the park on foot. It is also small enough that going round on foot and seeing it all is very manageable. I'm not sure if this is the smallest park in the country, but it surely classifies for one of the smallest.
Another reason why we wanted to visit it, is that apparently you can see the Springbok here as well. The Springbok is a national animal of South-Africa and is named after the way it jumps. There are some funny YouTube videos about this, which I can recommend you to have a look at. We were not lucky enough to encounter the Sprinbok in the park, but the moment we exited the park there was a herd of them grazing on a farm next to the park, so we did get to see them eventually.
the Bontebok
Springboks grazing outside the Bontebok Park
Cape Agulhas
Next on our stop (yes we skipped de Hoop Nature Reserve) was Cape Agulhas, or Agulhas National Park. This is where we geographically draw a line between the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean and this is also the southermost point on the African-continent.
It was a nice change from what we'd seen the previous days. A different kind of vegetation, different animals and also the Ocean(s) (well, you only see one water, but apparently it's 2 oceans 😉). I particularly enjoyed going up the lighthouse and enjoy the views from above.
Some pictures are just obligatory
The lighthouse at Cape Agulhas
From here, we were so exhausted that we took the dirt roads straight to Hermanus. This is such a fantastic village that I want to start my next post about it, instead of ending it here.
the road to Hermanus was a rough one as we were thin on both asphalt and patience
Thanks and until the next one.
!steemitworldmap --34.0657165 lat 20.4686431,20 long Bontebok National Park, South-Africa D3SCR
Doron