Ginny and Duncans Big Adventure

Whale watching on the dunes After saying goodbye to Carol, Andre, the dogs, cat, rabbit, chickens and ducks, we left Swellendam for a 50km drive to De Hoop nature reserve.  The jewel in the Cape Nature crown, it's a 36000 hectare World Heritage Site comprising rich biodiversity and 70km of pristine coastline, and 50km of dirt road to get there (which, in a rental VW Polo Vivo, makes for bouncy drive).  Despite this claim to fame, De Hoop isn't even signposted from the main road, but a contact of Duncan's had suggested we go there and boy was it worth the effort.  The park is huge, filled with wetlands and an incredible coastline, prefaced by enormous sand dunes.  And as the stretch of protected coastline is so large, it's a very popular spot with the whales, making it one of the best land-based places to watch Southern Right whales calve, blow, breach and bellyflop close to the shoreline.  We saw lots. 😀 Lunch at the De Hoop Opstal camp Before bei...

Duncan and 800 years of yellowwood We've been without WiFi for a few days... so get a coffee and settle in... On Sunday evening we arrived at Maradadi House, at the edge of the Goudveld Forest near Knysna.  This was our stop for a couple of nights, a spectacular home belonging to a friend of Paula who , on request, runs it as a B&B.  It's surrounded by ancient cape forest complete with resident leopards and baboons and was lucky to escape the tremendous wild fires that tore through 100s of miles of the Eastern Cape back in June this year.  In fact, much of our Garden Route drive from Plett resembled more of a Charcoal Route.  Our plan was to head out early the following morning to explore the forest but the rain storm not only stopped play temporarily, but kept us up most of the night as it battered on the tin roof!  Thankfully it wasn't long before we could venture out in rain gear (so much for shorts and t-shirts!) through the beautiful wet temper...