The Southern Tip of Africa is a great pace to be during the summertime and when the winter days are warm and sunny.  But when the North West Wind blows and the rains come down it can be extremely chilly!   Such a cold spell hit us earlier this month so on 4 July we hitched up the caravan and went in search of warmer spots!

One of my favourite break-away spots is Warmwaterberg – situated on the R62 between Barrydale and Ladysmith and in spite of it being school holidays we were able to get a site for three nights.   Not only were the warm spring waters soothing to the soul but the days were warm and sunny and we enjoyed some lovely walks and bird watching too.

White-throated Canary

From there we went to The Rural Family in Plettenberg Bay where we spent a delightful weekend.  Other relatives were visiting from Kokstad so it was lovely catching up with them too.

Our granddaughter, Shan, was having an adventure of her own.  A young man had invited her to his matric dance in East London.  This necessitated his parents collecting her from Plett, having her stay with them for a few days in Queenstown and then taking the young couple to the event that weekend.   Afterward, they would need to bring her back. Quite a mission but this is what it takes when you live in the back of beyond!   To save them some of the distance we offered to meet them in Colesberg – midway between Queenstown and Plett and then take Shan and Simon with us to Addo Elephant Park.  It all worked out perfectly.

We spent three days in the park with the kids, enjoyed brilliant weather and had wonderful sightings. We were last in Addo with these two in January and as luck would have it we got the exact same caravan site this time too.

The kids and I took control of the three cameras in the car and had great fun recording our experiences.