.: MENU visits the Karoo and the Garden Route 12. The Mountain Zebra National Park and Cradock

The next overnight stop on our journey was to be Cradock. It is only 2½ hours from Nieu Bethesda, on the N9 and N10. They are very good National Roads, so we could happily purr along at 120Km/h. We were now on the Highveld, about 1500 metres above sea level. Sheep became scarce; there was more dry grass, golden in colour, and it began to look more like the Pampas in South America, studded with cattle farms. The flat-topped mountains and kopjes were straight out of Pierneef paintings, with his same soft light and soft colours of greys, blues and mauves. And the geology changed; no more uplift, more erosion. Then, slowly, we started to descend and our ears kept popping. There were many huge juggernauts headed south to Port Elizabeth

The road was long and straight, marked with really interesting rock and mountain formations, like this Mesa

Just outside Cradock, at 3.30, we saw a sign similar to this and remembered that we had the Mountain Zebra National Park on our list of essential places to see. It is only 14Km out of town. We had said that we would check in between 5 and 6 at our next accommodation in Cradock and we had time to visit the park, so we headed straight there

Because we would be in and out of Addo and intend visiting other National Parks in the next year,
we bought the Wild Card, a season ticket which gives access for a year to all National Parks for South African residents,
and set off to explore the park

Day tickets cost a reasonable R60 for local adults and R30 for children

The Mountain Zebra National Park is not just for zebras; it has a wide range of animals, some that surprised even us
Our first sighting was grazing Mountain Zebras (Equus zebra zebra), standing in the hot Eastern Cape sun

They have stronger black stripes and do not have the Burchell's zebra's shadow stripe

The Mountain Zebra Park is dry, like most places in the Eastern Cape, but we saw lots of wild flowers

The park is very good but, because there is almost no water, the animals are quite widely spaced

A resting Blesbok (Damaliscus pygargus phillipsi)

Then a herd of Blesbok

Two baby Springbok lying low in the grass near their mothers
There are predators like cheetah, lion and hyenas

A young Springbok (Antidorcas marsupialis)

Cape mountain zebra with very impressive stripes, almost a licorice allsorts pattern

Red hartebeest (Alcelaphus buselaphus caama)

The park is set on several hills, so there are wonderful views as you drive around

We didn’t get out and, sadly, we didn’t see any lions

But we did see the interesting range of hills stretching to the horizon

A very good view of South African Karoo veld. The drive up to the top of the kopje is wonderful
and you have views of “miles and miles of bloody Africa”, to paraphrase some author, from the top

From this viewpoint you can see some of the park's roads and waterholes,
now mostly just round concrete dams with windmills pumping, because of the long drought
There are animals in front but they are well camouflaged

We hoped to see the lions. Sadly, we didn’t;
we saw the handsome zebras, lots of different antelopes, baboons and a few ostriches

And then on the way out, we stopped in shock as we turned a corner, something so rare. There, right close to the road, was a pair of black or hook-lipped rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis)! The information leaflet we had been given made no mention of them at all. It appears they have been there a while. They are quite different from the much less endangered white rhino we have seen in Kruger. Our Cradock landlord was pea green with envy; he goes often to the park and had never seen them

You don’t mess with Rhino, she is giving us a good stare

Then it was time to check into our accommodation, which was a huge disappointment as, frankly, was Cradock. It did not live up to the Booking.com description at all and was so cramped and small, dusty and uncared for. The towels and sheets were grey. We had to use the bed as a table to open our computers to read mail, save the day’s photographs and write the daily diary. Sometimes photographs on accommodation websites do not give the real picture

The only food preparation facility in the room was a simple microwave, a tiny fridge and a kettle, so we decided to make cheese and ham toasties on the braai! We had been promised a garden view (there was none from our room) and seating outside our room. The seating was one rusted steel chair with a tiny, round, rusted wire-topped table. So we moved out into the large garden on the other side of the large house. There was only one other guest. A few small twigs and branches gave John just enough fire to make respectable toasted sandwiches; what we really fancied after all the huge meals we had been eating. We were road weary and just fancied something light. Banting has definitely reduced our intake, but it is impossible to do it religiously when travelling like this. Salads and vegetables do not seem to be a regular Karoo menu feature. We would be self catering at Addo, so we would be able to cook better balanced food there. After the toasties and two cold beers, we went early to bed to read our books

Cradock is shockingly run down. The potholes are huge, the roads bad, and there are so many poor and unemployed on every street. It was not the highlight of our trip and we cannot recommend it. We needed to find a place for breakfast and friends had recommended The Shed, which turned out to offer a good, filling breakfast

We sat on the covered terrace and had to listen to a group of women at the other end
having a loud religious meeting for the entire time we were there