Day 186: Mountain Zebra National Park – Camdeboo National Park

Another little detour through the park. And lo and behold: For the first time, we see eland in all its glory. Amazing with their carved horns. Probably the inspiration for one or two Disney unicorns.

By the way: In German, eland is the hartebeest, while red hartebeest is the roan antelope. Now we've had them both and will never confuse them again :-)

Then we continue west. Mountains and plains. Straight, quiet roads. It reminds Brigitte a bit of the USA. We can hardly get enough of the landscape.

We'll be staying in Camdeboo National Park near Graaff-Reinet for the next two nights.

The town is the fourth oldest (colonial) town in South Africa, and there are still some old buildings. Quite nice, with mostly single-story buildings.

A delicious lunch, a good coffee shop, fresh bread, pastries. The avocados, which are currently simply amazing. And some farm cheese... a land of plenty.

The city is surrounded by the small, "only" 16,000 square kilometer national park, whose main attraction is the view from the mountains onto the "Valley of Desolation," the Karoo.

And of course, we'll drive up to the viewpoint today, enjoy the fabulous views into the distance, trot from one viewpoint to the next, shiver in the wind, and be completely reconciled with our alternative plans, now that the Wild Coast has been drenched in rain.