Gone Camping

So, I went camping this weekend. And it was a blast. Haha. Didn't get too drenched by the rain at all! Thank goodness :)

So after work on Friday, @scottjorton came to pick me up, we fetched @ClaudeTschepen, met up with some more of their friends and then we were on our way. Off to Mountain Sanctuary Park for what I expected to be a very muddy weekend (Thankfully I was wrong!).

We arrived long after dark, but the Disco (common term for their new Landrover Discovery) was awesome and Breedts Nek Pass was pretty insane in some places! But all part of the adventure, right :)

I didn't even have to set up my own tent (the best!), and as soon as I was setting my bed up inside it, I was reminded of The Lares Trek last year, but at least I wasn't sharing my tent and it was no where near as cold!

We did nothing on the first night but have a very late braai for dinner, and get complained at for the noise levels - haha.

Saturday was very cool, we started the day with a long walk. Seriously, the place is stunning and the rock formations are so cool! We were super lucky to see just about every animal they had available there ... Baboons, Klipspringer (which we watched for ages!), Vervet monkeys and Warthogs (surprisingly no Dassies tho?). Thank goodness we packed lunch :) Wish I'd taken the camera, but it really looked like it might pour when we left the campsite, so there are not very many photos from the weekend at all :(

In the afternoon we went to put the Disco & the Hilux thru their paces and stirred up a fair amount of mud, good fun :)

Then it was back to the campsite for another braai, lots to drink and another noise-warning :) After which the 3 of us headed off into the mountain (@ClaudeTschepen without shoes!!). Crazy things we do, gorgeous view of the lights tho ... reminded me of looking across Lake Titicaca. Oh, and we saw loads of *awesome* shooting stars this weekend as well! Might've been some meteors tho, cause they lasted for ages and apparently there was a meteor shower last week (This annual celestial event is active from January 1st through January 10th and peaks on January 4th). Eventually when we got back to camp we decided to ditch the tents and sleep under the clouds/stars. It was actually awesome :) And it didn't rain and we didn't get blown away (apparently that's a real concern around 2am at this place!) - haha!

Sadly, I didn't get much sleep on either night due to complete discomfort :( Am so not accustomed to sleeping on a 0.5cm thick yoga mat :P But I did enjoy my sleeping bag more than in Peru, I think because I didn't feel frozen at all! Oh, and the showers at this places are so much better than I was expecting for a campsite (better than most Peruvian hotels, to be honest! Haha), good pressure and hothothot :)

Sunday was a very lazy morning, but we cooked up a full egg & bacon breakfast on the skottel and then we headed out to have a look at a cave we'd seen from the road the day before. Was pretty cool, got to see bats :)

We ended the weekend with a delish lunch at Van Gaalen Cheese Farm. By this time it was pouring with rain and I slept in the back the rest of the way home :)

An awesome weekend.