About a week ago, we completed our first big cross country trip. We drove from Pretoria down to what is called the “Garden Route” a beautiful slice of coastline almost at the southernmost tip of the continent. The trip was a total of 13 days or so; all camping and all fun. This post is just an overview of the trip, and more details will follow.

Our first night was spent in Colesburg which is kind of half way between Pretoria and the coast. It is a small, sheep-dominated town. We ate at a great little restaurant and sampled the local lamb. I had a lamb shank on a bed of samp. Samp is a South African staple- it’s basically corn kernels that have been dried and then cooked again. It was good food.

The next day we drove to a town called Colchester, where we stayed at Pearson Park resort. Initially, we were quire unimpressed with this campground where we would have to spend 3 nights. Eventually, however, we discovered that despite the fact that it was a bit run down, it bordered Addo Elephant National Park and the Indian Ocean. So we got to spend the days viewing elephants and swimming in the Indian Ocean. Not bad.

We then headed for Tsitsikama National Park, where we spent 5 nights. Again we were initially unimpressed with this campground, although certainly not because of the location, but because it was so cramped. Eventually, when nearby campers realized that they were camped near a family of 8, most of them moved to other parts of the campground and we had quite a bit of privacy and great views. It was sort of like getting to camp on the Pebble Beach golf course in Monterrey, California. We slept each night with the constant sound of crashing surf in the background and got to watch the same thing whenever we were in the camp.

In reality, we were rarely in the campsite. We spent one day at Monkeyland and Birds of Eden. Birds of Eden was an especially impressive aviary- the largest in the world- that had some very impressive birds. Our favorites were the Louries and the Knysna Lourie in particular. The next day was spent hiking in Tsitsikama National Park itself, mainly in the Storms River Gorge. The day after this, we drove to George, South Africa, and took a train ride to and from Mossel Bay, where we explored the history and adventures of Bartholomew Diaz, the Portuguese explorer who was the first westerner to discover the Cape of Good Hope. The last day at this campsite was spent in Wilderness National Park hiking, canoeing, and swimming along the rivers and wetlands of the coastal area. Prior to leaving Tsitsikama we hiked along the rocky coast to a cave and waterfall. It was a very strenuous hike and Ezekiel walked the whole thing.

We then drove to Outschoorn, which is the ostrich farming capital of the world. Here we spent two nights at a great hostel and explored the previously mentioned cave, rode camels, rode a zip-line across a pond, and finally on the last day took a tour of a running ostrich farm.
The drive home featured the beautiful canyons and red-rock formations of the deserts of South Africa followed by a one night pit-stop at the famous diamond mining town of Kimberly, which we plan to re-visit in the future.

Amy and the kids will tell some of the specific stories and experiences we had. We were just grateful that the car ran well and that we made such a long and complicated journey without problems or difficulties. So look for the kids blogs on these topics later.