Little Karoo

We have travelled the N2 between the Cape Town area and Port Elizabeth so many times - back and forth. However, Gordon has always had a desire to go further inland and north and travel through the Karoo regions instead. I have been a bit reluctant, as I know that, the further away from the sea you go at this time of year, the hotter it gets. But this time we did it. We set off north and west from Addo and followed roads, sort of parallel with the N2 and the sea, but much further inland. And it was a very a different landscape and yes . . . hotter. But hardly anything on the roads. 

The Karoo is what is described as the warm, dry heart of South Africa and we were going through the southern section - Klein (Little) Karoo. Rainfall is low and much of it is semi-desert, yet it is a highly productive arid zone with mineral rich soils and  a massive range of plants, many of which grow nowhere else in the world. It was a wonderful experience travelling through it. I have yet to find out what this plant is, but it was everywhere and growing to a great height. The background gives an idea of the kind of landscape we were going through.

We are now on the outskirts of Oudtshoon in a wonderful country guest house. Hard to describe the sheer luxury of the place, with its huge apartment-like rooms, pool, verandahs, gardens. A greater contrast with our rondavel at Addo is hard to imagine. But then that’s what we like. You can’t appreciate a massive bathroom unless you’ve experienced a tiny one!


Thank you for the response to my elephant blip - it is such a privilege to watch these wonderful creatures and I’m glad I was able to share it with others. 

And then in this wonderful place - we had a power outage. This is a back blip . . . my third ever.