Southern Africa Safari 2017 – Day 24

My lovely lady on a cold morning in the Tankwa Karoo

'In the desert you have time to look everywhere, to theorise on the choreography of
all things around you.’

Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient

The day starts with temperature around 6 degrees, which I am told is quite warm for this time of the year. We needed to get some more firewood as the stock was low and the stockpile that was there was cut so big it did not fit into the donkey and from our experience yesterday we needed to get the hot water fire on latest by 16h00 if we wanted a hot shower that evening, forget about a morning shower unless you get up at 04h00 and continually load wood into the donkey.

We explore most of the Tankwa and Denise drives the Gannaga Pass which is described on Safari Now as follows:-

 “The Gannaga Pass is one of those passes that you should simply do at least once in your life. This is a driving experience that you'll never forget.

At the summit (1600 m above sea level) you'll feel like you've arrived at a place of peace. The Gannaga Pass connects the Ceres Karoo farms and villages atop the Roggeveld Plato. Most of the pass resides within the Tankwa Karoo National Park, where you'll find a wealth of birds such as the black eagle.

Denise driving up the Gannaga Pass in the Tankwa Karoo

It is steep and very twisty gravel road where you hope and trust that you will not meet another vehicle coming in the other direction, we have coffee at the Gannaga Lodge and head back down. It is unfortunately a misty, rainy day so the views were not as spectacular as we are sure they are on a clear day.

Metal art at the Gannaga Lodge

The Tankwa Karoo has limited wildlife and that which is there is in small numbers and you have to have a keen spotter like Denise if you are to see anything and we saw:-

Cape mountain zebra, oryx, red hartebeest, springbok, eland, baboon scattered around the park there are no predators, if there were they would go hungry, but it is the scenery the quietness and remoteness that has appeal, we had two days of no phones, TV, radio and definitely no newspapers.

Eland on the Gannaga Pass

There is quite a bit of birdlife and these are some of the ones you could see, some endemic to the Karoo, if we saw them we did not identify them as such:

I am a sucker for Sunrises and Sunsets this is Sunset in the Tankwa

One of the many dry river beds in the Karoo maybe they do run sometime

Karoo Korhaan, Karoo Lark,
Southern Grey Tit, Tractrac Chat, Layard’s Titbabbler,
Karoo Eremomela,
Cinnamon-breasted Warbler,
Namaqua Warbler, Pririt Batis,
Fairy Flycatcher,
Black-headed and
Protea Canaries.

Our cottage, De Zyfer built in the early 1900's and still largely original

That evening we had another braai, hot water a roaring fire and an early night.