Hiking at Bontebok National Park

The agenda for today was a visit to Bontebok National park, just 5 kilometres away from the backpackers. The park was created just to increase the population numbers of the Bontebok and these animals could be seen grazing around even as we drove into the park. Stephanie drove 4 of us into the park and to the main office where we paid for the conservation charges and collected a brochure of the park. There were a few hiking routes and Patrick and me did a shorter route before deciding on the much longer one. We made arrangements with the backpackers to pick us up around 2 pm and so had plenty of time.

The first loop we did was a short one as mentioned but offered nice views of the surrounding landscape.

 The camping ground overlooked a pond and the surrounding mountains. The vegetation and shrubs were different from what I had been accustomed to and we stopped by several of these to take a shot. It was a relatively hot day but a good day to hike.Along the way, we came across a tortoise walking and eating and stopped by to take pictures. It was however sad that it had a fishing line snared onto it and the line seemed to be coming through its mouth so we presumed there was a hook embedded there. It was wandering rather close to the camping grounds so it made sense that it had swallowed a hook.

As it was too big for us to carry we had to leave it where it was but took pictures to inform the park officials later on. Reaching the tortoise was the end of the first loop and we moved on to try a slightly longer one, ending at a supposed coffee place.

The paths were pretty easy to follow and the routes clearly shown on a board map. As we made our way to the coffee place, I was stung by some insect. Apparently a hive had been disturbed and it was just unfortunate that I got stung. Moreover the fact that I was allergic to stings and did not have my medication with me made things worse. Luckily Patrick spoke to some other hikers who agreed to drop me off at the backpackers and I could take my anti-histamine tablets. That was the end of the hike for me.



Meeting up with Patrick a few hours later at the backpackers, I still had some swelling but was otherwise fine. The medication had not completely worn off and I was still feeling sleepy and dazed. It was a good lesson to carry my first aid kit wherever I went to and this would come in very handy several times over in this trip.

It was our last night at Swellendam and we decided to head to Matheson's once more. This time Patrick chose to have salad while I decided on a meat dish. Dinner was awesome and we had a last walk back down the quiet roads that had been our walk-way the past few days.

It was time to move on.