Busy Doing Nothing...

To help us cope with the stress of 3 months on holiday in SA, we decided we needed a little time to relax so last week we headed north to the Cederberg - 230km to Clanwilliam and another 65km including about 45km of dirt road to Oudrif .

Completely off grid here - the only power is solar, the water is pumped up from the river and the nearest cellphone signal is about 7km away. A great place to leave the world and its worries - including Brexit - behind us.

There are only 5 cabins - just ourselves and a German couple while we were there. Despite the heat the cabins - which are built from straw bales coated in mud and cement - stayed pleasantly cool. We were advised to keep the cabin closed up during the day and then open all the doors and windows at night. While there was evidence of  Leopards in the area, we were told that if a Leopard came into the cabin at night the most important thing was to make sure we got a good photo!

The food was excellent - our hosts were both vegetarian and served us with an impressive variety of veggie dishes but gave us steak, chops and boerewors sausage from the braai at dinner time. They also provided a selection of local wines. All in all, it was a lovely place to spend a few days - I can only imagine how restful it would be for someone who was working in a stressful job since this is now beyond my memory.

Our German friends had used a travel agent to book their entire trip and it was clear that the agents had not considered the seasonal changes when they had recommended Oudrif as an ideal white-water rafting venue. While this is true during the winter months, there was not much rafting to be done on the Doring River when we were there.

Doring River bed

There were some deep pools - ideal for swimming and water extraction, but not much more.

We managed a hike for a couple of hours one morning to see the local rock art and took a trip the following day to investigate the Rooibos tea-making process - along with a little birdwatching. Other than that we did little more than sit in the shade and relax - with one of the dogs as our constant companion. As we loaded the car to head off, we were instructed to shut him inside the cabin so he wouldn't follow us home!

My sort of hiking?

Through our yoga classes, we met another Pearl Valley resident who introduced us the PV hiking group who had a hike planned for Thursday – a public holiday here for Human Rights Day.  Eighteen of us met in the carpark at 8.15 and headed off to the Mont Rochelle reserve at the top of the Franschhoek Pass.

Theewaterskloof Dam

We hiked to Dutoitskloof and then on the lookout point – only about 9km but a bit of a climb – and back again – about 3 ¹/₂ hours in total. This was only one of the trail options so definitely a place to remember for future visits. From the lookout point you could see the Theewaterskloof Dam to the south and the Wemmershoek Dam to the north.

Wemmershoek Dam

Once we got back to the car park, someone suggested a drink on the way home and we headed for Hey Joe - a new micro-brewery at Franschoek. Impressive place with some excellent beers and wine for those that preferred. Spent almost as long sitting in the sun drinking as we had hiklng – glad that I didn’t have to drive home.

We’re now signed up to the Whatsapp group so there may be another hike before we leave.

We also saw...

Waterbuck - with their toilet seat bums:

Wildebeest, trying to look agressive:

Elephants showing off their parenting skills,

and Vervet Monkeys, which were everywhere in the camp

There were a few birds as well

We added about 8 new bird species while we were at Umlani although not all of them waited around to be photographed. 

European Roller

Orange-breasted Bush Shrike

Lilac-breasted Roller

However we did see a number of Orange-breasted Bush Shrikes and Woodland Kingfishers along with thousands of Red-billed Quilleas and their nests, European and Lilac Breasted Rollers, Wahlberg, Martial, Bateleur and Tawny Eagles and of course lots of White-backed Vultures.

Red-billed Queleas in their nests

White-backed Vultures waiting for a meal

For Maggie and Rohit

On the last morning game drive before Maggie and Rohit left, we chased across the reserve to catch up with the other truck which had found a young female leopard with a new kill and had followed her to a sheltered spot where she ate her fill. Unfortunately we had a puncture and by the time we got there she had finished eating and was sloping off into deep cover to sleep it off. We got a good view of her before she disappeared without posing long enough for a photo.

Maggie was very disappointed that she hadn't seen lions and reckoned that we would see them as soon as she had left and she was right.

As we started on the afternoon drive, heading for the spot where we had left the young Leopard sleeping, Shaddy picked up the tracks of a couple of Lionesses with cubs. Leaving us in the truck with Ephraim, he headed off on foot with a tracker from another camp to see if he could find them.

Within a short time they came face to face with one of the lionesses and then the second and then two 9-month old cubs, luckily, they were more interested in finding somewhere to snooze than in a meal of a guide or a tracker. Although Shaddy explained that he felt quite safe because the tracker was older and slower than him!

By the time we caught up with them in a dry riverbed, one Lioness was sleeping in the long grass while the mother and her cubs were trying to sleep out in the open and not really interested in us.

While the mother appeared to be sleeping, she was still alert to any new noise around her:

We spent a bit of time in their company until it was time to give up our spot to the other truck and we headed off for our sundowners.

Sunsets and sunrises

Being out on game drives  at dawn and dusk meant that we saw a few spectactular sunrises:

 and sunsets - particularly with the cloudy weather on the second day:

The night sky was also impressive but the moon was almost full, so very bright in the sky.

On Safari - More Animals

Before we started our third drive, we found this Nyala with half a dozen others relaxing in the shade by our hut.

As we left the camp, Shaddy found fresh Rhino tracks and after a short drive through the bush we came upon a family group of three who were happy to pose for the camera for a short while - until they were disturbed by another truck approaching from the other side.

As they disappeared from view and we headed back to the track, we came upon another group and followed them for a little while. 

Of course not all the creatures we saw were as large as the Rhinos. We came upon this Leopard tortoise sitting on the road and stood guard over him until he got up and continued his journey to safety