12 November 2017 – Visit to Letaba and Tropic of Capricorn Loop

Today we decided to do a trip to Letaba Rest Camp and back taking the river loops along the way. By 6:30 we were ready to leave.

First to greet us this morning was a wildebeest. (Erich, if you’re reading this – we gave him your regards 🙂 )

Our most exciting sighting of the morning was when we stopped at view point to get a closer view of the river. Looking down we were delighted to find a grey heron, a hamerkop, two pied kingfishers, two fish eagles and two saddle bill storks fishing in a shallow pond. We spent a while there enjoying the scene and taking photographs.

Female Saddle-billed Stork

Fish Eagle

The Bug and Mean – oh sorry The Mug and Bean have been a resounding failure in some of the camps and Letaba is one where the restaurant is closed till further notice. However, there is temporary arrangement in the form of The Rustic Kitchen operating an open air or under canvas restaurant. What a stunning idea – so much better than the Bug! You sit at a simple wooden table and your food is cooked in the rustic kitchen and served on tin plates. Coffee is also served in a tin mug. It was fun and we enjoyed our fried eggs, venison sausage and grilled tomato!

The highlight on our return trip was just as we approached the Tsendse bridge we noted a stationary car with his lights flashing. He’s seen something we thought as he indicated to the car in front of us to stop. Said car ignored and overtook him. Then I spotted them lying flat on the river bed. There were five of them. They were so well camouflaged but then one got up and moved his position – wild dog. We watched them sleeping for a few minutes and when we saw they were not going to do anything for the rest of the afternoon we left them in peace.

Back in camp we had a cup of tea and I started downloading photos and The Earl pottered about sorting out technical stuff to do with the car fridge. A few hours later we went for another game drive.

On our afternoon drive we found the usual zebra, giraffe, buffalo, elephants, waterbuck etc. We took the Tropic of Capricorn Loop which produced some lovely sightings. Sometimes there are stretches of nothing and one can lose concentration as I obviously did at one point. Omiword – The Earl slammed on breaks. Did you see that. I looked back and saw a bird of prey on a tree but he flew off. Darn we missed him and he was on your side – why didn’t you see him. Maybe because he was so small? Not that wasn’t it – I’m usually on the lookout for small raptors. Just a lapse in concentration I’m afraid.

The Earl wanted to carry on but I persuaded him to go back to see if we could find him again – and we did. He led us a bit of a dance flitting from one tree to another but in the end we got a nice shot of him and were thrilled to identify him as a Gabar Goshawk.

Other sightings that we enjoyed were the following:

Tsessebe having a rest

The Iconic Lilac-breasted Roller

Heaviest flying bird – the kori bustard

Sadly it was our last night in Tsendze but we really loved this camp and will certainly be back.

The Earl and I needed to see our accountant in Stellenbosch last Friday. Not wanting to do an overnighter we set off bright and early on the two and half hour drive that would get us our appointment on time. As luck would have it the Rapport Holiday Show started in Stellenbosch that day too. We’re having a caravan built by Gecko in Haenertsburg and as they had a stand at the show we thought it might be a good idea to check it out and see if there was anything else we needed while there.

It was almost midday by the time we got to the show and all we’d consumed was a good cup of coffee offered to us by the accountant. We chatted to Keith and Alison, took some measurements, ordered an aircon and a storage bag and then headed off to look for food. Well foolishly we’d come without cash and the food vendors didn’t have card facilities so we decided to head back home with the intention of stopping in Franschoek for lunch.

This is what I caravan kitchen will look like

Did I mention it was a beautiful day and the drive there and back over the mountain passes was stunning.

Franschhoek is an hour’s drive from Stellenbosch and we were listening to Pippa Hudson on Cape Talk as we drove. I was getting hungrier and hungrier and then she interviewed Pieter de Villiers – a local chocolate maker! Pippa – please – I was drooling! I had never heard of de Villiers chocolate and it is only available from certain Woolworths outlets or his own chocolate cafes. Living in Struisbaai I would not have easy access to this delicious sounding chocolate – Probably just as well as I am a Banter and only occasionally eat 70% dark chocolate – But ooh I was dying for some as I listened to this mouth watering interview.

Pieter only uses UTZ certified cocoa beans grown in Africa. UTZ certified stands for sustainable farming and better opportunities for farmers, their families and our planet.

Everything is made from scratch – from sourcing and roasting their own cocoa and coffee beans, to making their own ice cream and a wide selection of confections. His wrappers are also very special and have an African look.

We were five minutes away from Franschhoek when the interview ended and we’d discovered that there just happened to be a De Villiers Chocolate cafe in town!

I said to Earl, “I’m having lunch at De Villiers Chocolate Café.”

“You can’t!” he said “You’re banting.”

“So what,” I said “This is serendipitous. I am meant to have chocolate today. I need chocolate today. Why else would I hear this interview just as I’m entering a place where that cafe is calling to me.”

Well of course I didn’t exactly have lunch at the café – we first dined at MC, googled the address of the café and then went there for coffee. My two favourite things in life – coffee and chocolate. Preferably together.

Lunch at MC for Earl was springbok pie and Eggs Benedict for me – the Banting version.

Franschoek is the prettiest town in South Africa and has wonderful eateries

The cafe where you can taste before you buy

The patio area

Coffee for me, ice cream for The Earl, and all the ‘lekkergoed’ we bought

The coffee was excellent, the ice cream delicious and I walked away with a packet of drinking chocolate, three slabs of 70% chocolate – the cinnamon and chili is to die for – and two bars of chocolate nougat.

Yes I was certainly in exactly the right place at the right time.

De Villiers Chocolate