Departure very early in the morning, the day is long and interesting, proceed to Mossel Bay and then head to Swellendam from where we will have to travel the 50 kilometers of unsealed road that separate us from the nature reserve of De Hoop. We stop at a supermarket to do a little shopping, the cottage that we have booked has the kitchen, but there are not many grocery stores in the reserve (indeed no one). We follow the unpaved road considering that ultimately it is much better than our paved roads. We arrive at the entrance to the reserve where we stop to pay the admission ticket. We continue the journey and the road gets a little narrower and in worse conditions but we still arrive at the reception of the De Hoop Collection resort at an acceptable hour. We unload the luggage, the cottage is one of those with two bedrooms, the table in the middle of the living room-kitchen is elegantly laid with red tablecloth and napkins, the refrigerator is huge and we fill it with our groceries and veggies (including some bottles of excellent South African wine) We go back to the car and drive straight towards the sea, at the reception they told us that the whales have arrived with their cubs, we drive along a long and narrow unsealed road, close by the Fynbos and the very high sand’s dunes, under control of ostrichs, Bontebok, Monkeys, guinea fowls, Eland, Herons, Pelicans, Vultures. We climb a huge sand dune and when we are at the top, in front of us, the show of the Indian Ocean, slightly choppy and in the waves a few meters from the shore the blow of the Southern Whales, our dream has come true and we can go back to the cottage because now it is dark. Tomorrow we will melt our cameras.
A nice dinner with spaghetti, meat, salad and an excellent Shiraz
