Sanbona - Barrydale - Tradouw Pass - Bredasdorp

Last morning hunt with Jason, then it's time to pack up and get ready to leave.

At 05:15 we met in the main house with Guido, Susanne, and Jason and went on our last morning safari. The plan was to look for cave paintings and lions.

We left the lodge and briefly checked the nearby waterhole, but besides a few kudus near the accommodation, we didn't spot anything. We continued over the small pass towards the Gondwana settlement and the caves, when suddenly on a loading ramp, I saw the cheetah that had kept us on our toes for the past two days and always eluded us. He stretched, stood up, and slowly but grandly walked past us. Jason reported it so that the other rangers could also benefit from our sighting.

After this random sighting, we drove towards the caves where we wanted to see the paintings. The journey was long, and the climb was steep, but the paintings that are up to 3000 years old were worth the effort. This area has been inhabited by humans for over 250,000 years.

Back in the steppe, we parked and went on a little exploration on foot. Suddenly, we saw the cheetah from this morning coming towards us (distance about 100m), he didn't slow down, didn't see us as a threat, and passed us at a distance of less than 10 meters. We gave him space and didn't follow him. After we got back on, we saw a large herd of elands not far away. Radio telemetry told us that the cheetah wasn't far away. Suddenly, we saw him sneaking up on the eland herd. We observed the scene for a while, but it seemed like the cheetah gave up on hunting the herd.

After returning to the camp, it was time to freshen up, pack, and have breakfast. After checking out, we headed to Barrydale through the main gate. We refueled and visited Hardy's Memories of Afrika. The route then took us over the Tradouw Pass to Swellendam and further to Bredasdorp. Here, we visited the Kapula factory shop, which produces ceramics and candles. It got cooler and started raining after Swellendam on the way to Bredasdorp.

After checking in at Bredasdorp Country Manor, we warmed up with a cup of tea and edited a few pictures for the blog. Around 18:00, we went to Flames and had dinner because a 2.5-hour load shedding (power outage) was announced from 20:00.