Noupoort

Today we are leaving Cape Town and heading to Noupoort. We had a such a wonderful time and enjoyed Cape Town very much.

See you later Table Mountain!

We headed through the Swartberg Mountains which are over 2000m high and are the tallest mountain range in Western Cape.

Wine, Glorious Wine!


It was a stunning drive.

We stopped in Worcester for fuel and Padkos that Lauren had very kindly made for us. We were very spoilt!


We saw Baboons climbing the rocks.

We went past Ceres which is where the famous juice is made! We always had Ceres on the yachts I worked on so it was nice to see where it came from.

Most of the way today, was through the Karoo. Long, straight roads, with nothing but desert on either side. There was the road, the railway and power lines going along next to each other for miles and miles. The land was incredibly dry and we saw nothing apart from a few cows and sheep. Even farmers houses were scarce (or not visible from the road).
When we got to Beaufort West we were amazed at how many hotels and B&B's there were. It was as if it was a very touristy town but we couldn't figure out why, as there was nothing there. I can only think that people driving long distance must stop for a night then carry on as we couldn't see anything else to do there! If anyone knows of something else in the area, please let me know!
One thing I did notice was the ridiculously huge round-about...it was so big, there was even a building in the middle of it.

We saw many termite hills, some with big chunks missing where the aardvarks had taken a bite. And we saw Springboks! I got to take some pics this time:


Eventually we made it to Noupoort! We are staying at Mark's workmate's house, even though he is at work. His wife was incredibly hospitable and made us feel very welcome. They have 7 dogs, including 2 great danes, 4 cats, meerkats, ground squirels, birds, pet crows, chickens...

So I was in my element playing with all these furry creatures!