Bridge To Nowhere

I awoke early on Monday morning to the squawking of African birds and the rustling of my uncomfortable tent mates (I was the only one in possession of a thermarest, resulting in enviously superior sleeps at night). We ate breakfast at a delightful little café in Knysna called Le Petit Pain, checked out a few of the shops along the waterfront, then continued driving west. We passed through the Knysna townships – some of the most incredible in the country, where some shanties are built on stilts on precarious inclines.

By noon we had officially reached the middle of nowhere – we stopped at a liquor store surrounded by barren fields, where Alex purchased a few dusty bottles of mysterious honey liquor. We continued driving until we reached a manual ferry that would take us across the Breerivier to Malagas, and closer to our destination for the night, the De Hoop Nature Reserve.

We stood around for about 10 minutes at the water’s edge, staring at the ferry on the other side – a rickety wooden creation that we were unsure could support a vehicle packed full of gear. Finally two men ambled down the riverbank and began laboriously pulling the ferry across the river towards us. We loaded the car on, and immediately offered to help them with the return trip – so we were outfitted with the rudimental arm straps and chains that hooked us in and allowed us to tug ourselves across the ferry. We all found it extremely entertaining!

Safely across on dry land, we drove further westward to De Hoop. When we reached the park, we found it was a large, barren, tundra-like area. We drove towards the coast and spent a few hours on an exhausting dune walk, climbing peak after peak trying to reach the shore before eventually giving up and just playing around in the magnificent white sand until the sun began to set.

Later that night after enjoying a braai, Chida and I headed off to shower. We were extremely impressed by De Hoop’s seemingly high class shower facilities when all of a sudden I heard Chida scream – a swallow had swooped down dangerously close to her head, and we looked up to see a massive nest on the ceiling. We smiled – we were still in South Africa after all!