The temperature dropped over night and when we got up just after 6am it was only 6 degrees C. Breakfast is included in the accommodation price so we went to breakfast at 7am so that we could go on a drive after that. By the time we left for the drive is had warmed up to about 10 degrees C but on the drive a few hours later, my car temperature was measuring 28 degrees C. It is amazing how quickly the temperature both falls and rises here.

There is a circular drive that heads out west from rest camp and that is what we took. It goes up a mountain and then descends onto the plains. There is lion in the park and some of us heard it roaring this am before breakfast but unfortunately we never spotted any lion. We did see zebra, gemsbok (oryx), springbok, klipspringer (the drive is actually called Klipspringer drive), grey rheebok, steenbok, hartebees, baboons & eland.

There are beautiful view spots at the top of the mountain before you descend. At one of the spots, O spotted a Verreaux’s Eagle sitting in a nest on the side of the cliff. A lovely sighting and worthy of raising her position in the blog stakes. There were some other good bird sightings on the route including a lifer for me – Nicholson’s Pipit – and 5 for H. All of us have seen slightly differing birds but it seems the majority of us are over 50 now.

We got back in time for lunch and had a few hours downtime. B messaged to say he was keen to do the 4×4 route – which we thought of doing this am but discovered it was locked and you had to book at reception. A & I decided we would join B in his car and so we headed out at 3pm while the ladies decided to stay in rest camp. Just before leaving I read the guide in the chalet which said ‘the route is challenging and is not for beginners’. B was confident he wasn’t a beginner and replied ‘You only get experience by trying’. He might now regret those words. The giveaway might have been the fact (also in the guide) that said it took 10 years to create the road.

As with most 4×4 routes, the start lulls you into a false sense of security. It was just over 7 km long route which takes you up the mountains and onto the middle plateau. About 3km into the route, things started getting challenging. There was a sheer drop off the right and the left was sheer rock that had been cut away to make the road. Throw into the mix that the road was loose shale rock, it made for quite a challenging drive. At one point I had a fleeting thought to myself of ‘I am glad I am in the passenger seat’. For anyone that knows me you will know that isn’t something I think often (or ever). When we got to the top, B stopped the car and said ‘I need to take a photo but more importantly I need to calm down and take a breather.’ It is hard to take photos that give you any sense of the challenge. I said to B, how would have S coped with that and he said ‘she would have been in tears.’ He then proceeded to tell us, what you don’t know is that at times I couldn’t see because the sun was in my eyes and didn’t realise how much the rocks were sticking out on the left! You’re not meant to get out of your car except at designated spots but we had to get out take some photos.

At one point on the way up, A said ‘I think you might have left a part of your car behind’ but fortunately that wasn’t the case and it was just the rocks spitting out behind the car. B said that the scariest time was when he turned the wheel to direct the car away from the sheer drop only to get no response at all from the car as it had no traction. Fortunately we didn’t have to go down the same route and could take the standard tourist route back to the rest camp. The ladies had no idea. My watch told me that I just climbed 65 sets of stairs. I suspect that was the combination of my heart rate and the vibrations on the way up!

We got back to the camp to find the ladies on route to the bird hide and so we joined them. At the hide, there was the start of some gloating because they thought they had seen a bird that would have been a lifer for me while we were 4x4ing. As it turns out, I had actually seen the bird previously though the last time was in 2010 so it would have been a good one to see. They saw it near the caravan section and so we headed back to see if we could find it but we never did.

Back to our accommodation for the mandatory braai for dinner followed by some Olympic watching (there is satellite TV in the chalet) and shortly off to bed.

Until tomorrow

B (he deserves it for that drive), P, H, A (he made a good fire tonight), O (despite the gloating she deserves the promotion for the Verreaux’s Eagle on it’s nest) & S (she actually got a great spot of a Karoo Korhaan today so should be higher but just unfortunate because it was a high standard day).