Tuesday 05 Nov 2013

L: So, I was up early again and off on my search for horses, birds, buck or anything that moved.......In the meantime, poor Steve was still trying to sleep, but that was not to be – the hadeda ibises collectively walked and flew past the tent and set off a cacophony of noise, waking him instantly. After they died down, the office workers arrived and started hooting their hooters to call each other – this all before 6am!!

As soon as we were away from the protective netting of the tent, those awful horse flies started biting us – we had now had enough of Anysberg!! It didn't take us long to decide to pack up and head off to our next destination – Montagu........

S: We only had about 80km to do today and the road out of the reserve was not too bad. The people staying at one of the cottages had done the trip a few days ago and they said it took three hours. We did it in about two hours and we were taking our time. I think it must be that I have the tyres deflated to 1.8 bar as well as the air springs which make the ride a lot more comfortable. A lot of the uninitiated don't know to deflate their tyres when travelling off the tar roads as it makes the ride more comfortable and a lot safer.

On the way out of the reserve we saw some Gemsbok again but it seemed like the same herd we had seen the previous day. There were also some Springbok and a few ostrich. The reserve advertises zebra but we did not spot any in our time here.

At a junction where we turned off for Montagu there were the remains of an old railway line. The rails are long gone but the cutting and remains of the railway bridge are still there. It would be interesting to find out the history of this. I know that we had read earlier that in the early days of the Addo elephant park the ranger used old railway line rails and old lift cables to construct a fence to keep the animals in the area, especially the elephants who were destroying the farmer's lands.

We exited the reserve through the grand looking south gate and continued to Montagu through the Ouberg Pass. As we were heading to a lower altitude we only went down the pass but I can imagine what it would be like coming up the pass in the wet. The road up is very steep and the gravel would soon turn to mud. There are also no bridges along the road once out of the pass, only causeways, so once the water starts running out of the mountains after rain there are plenty of places to practice river crossings. L: Yes, Steve and you sure need lots of practice.....

S: The gravel road outside the reserve is extremely well maintained, so it did not take us long to reach Montagu. We only made one stop in the town which was at the Montagu Fruit and Nut Farm Stall. It has a dried fruit and nut shop, restaurant and wine shop. After having paid a visit to all three we headed off to the Montagu Guano Cave farm for the night. I must say that the restaurant was the first place that we did not have to pay for wi-fi access, at a place that had it, while trying to upload our blog. All the time up to now I have used my phone to connect except in Knysna where we used our friend's PC.

We have camped at this farm before and really enjoyed it here which is why we are back. The farm gets its name from the large cave up in the mountain from which guano was collected in the late nineteenth century. The upper cavern of the cave is said to stretch back a kilometer into the mountain. There is a tractor pulling some small carriages which, at a price, you can take to get to the cave. They also have a lovely picnic spot with four small pools ranging from cold to hot. The camping area has lots of shade but there are only a couple of sites with grass. That is to be expected as grass does not grow well in the shade. Instead the whole area is covered in broken nut shells. There are also a lot of animals which is nice for kids as you are allowed to pet some of them. Some unusual animals here are Alpacas and emus.

As can be expected during the week and out of school holidays the place is rather empty which is just the way we like it. We were told we could stay on our site till lunch time and we only had to be off the farm by 17H00 which suits us as our next stop is only 30km away and we can not arrive there too early.

On our way to the camp site we were escorted by a gaggle of geese with five tiny goslings trying to keep up at the rear. Rather funny to watch.

We spent the rest of the day doing the normal camping things, swimming, reading, braaiing and sleeping.