Kagga Kamma

2/20

We got up bright and early for the 5 hour bus ride out to the Kagga Kamma Game Reserve, where we will spend the next three days. The day was sunny and beautiful, and the view out the windows changed from urban to suburban to miles and miles of carefully trellised grape vines (wine production for export to Britain is a big industry here). We knew we were truly out of the city when we spied a family of baboons right on the side of the road, and the road turned from pavement, to gravel, and, eventually, to packed dirt.

The Kagga Kamma Reserve is a place where, until very recently (1990s), some of the native Bushmen (Kalahari Bushmen) made their home. The landscape is one of sandy desert with sparse greenery, interrupted by jagged outcroppings of rock. It is in a group of these rocks that our cabins were to be found, disguised to look like the rocks surrounding them. Without the reflective glint of the window, we were hard pressed to see the cabins at all! There is not a tree or any shade to speak of, and the temperature is hot hot hot – over 100 degrees every day, but turning cooler as soon as the sun set.

There were 23 of us, and, after a welcome lunch (where we were joined by a curious baboon who watched us from the rocks above), we cooled off at the pool, then piled into three open jeeps and set off on a game drive. At Kagga Kamma, there are no predators, but plenty of zebra, elands, bontebok, and ostriches, which we saw in abundance. Our guide then drove us to some taller rock formations suitable for scrabbling up, from which we all had a "sundowner" drink and watched a gorgeous sunset.

Supper was held outside, with tables set up around a bonfire (now needed for warmth) and served buffet style from big cauldrons set on the fire. We enjoyed a game pie containing meat from wildebeest, ostrich and eland, which was delicious (I can see Rhonda wrinkling up her nose as I write this!) and no, it did not taste like chicken! Our cabin keys were attached to flashlights so we could find our way back in the dark, and we were warned that the generators would be shut off at 11pm, so there would be no more electricity until morning. Early to bed and early to rise, Jim and I never saw 11pm…

There was a lunar eclipse the next morning at 4:30am, and Jim got up to photograph it. After breakfast (standard fare, unless you want to know what the sausages were made of…) we went back out in the jeeps to see the Bushmen rock paintings. Jim was especially interested in these, and we took lots of pictures. The paintings date back about 27,000 years, although some were more recently made. They show the Bushmen with muscular legs, carrying spears or packs on their backs. The women are depicted with "big caboose", which is considered a sign of desirability and fertility (baby got back??). Some of the more recent paintings depicted Europeans as stick figures with big round bellies and their hands in their pockets, doing nothing! We saw hundreds of depictions of people and animals, and were told there are over 28,000 catalogued in the area. The easiest ones to see are those that were painted under a ledge or out of the direct sun. Our guide, Jacko, told us that if we touched one, he was allowed to shoot us – we were very careful!

We gathered again at 5pm for a two hour hike until sundown, which took us scrabbling up lots more rocks and enabled us to see lots more paintings. Three of the students just had to scale every rock they came to, and separated themselves from the group. Jacko had to go back for them after the sun went down – not a good place to be lost in the dark – but the story ended happily and they got back safely.

After another wonderful supper around the fire, we trooped up to the highest point, where an observatory is set up with a powerful telescope. We located the Southern Cross, Alpha and Beta Centuri, many constellations and looked at the craters of the full moon. A spectacular night!

We got back on the bus the next morning after another fine breakfast for the long ride home. We stopped for lunch at a winery in Stellenbosch, where those of us who can drink wine (that's everybody but me) got to sample different wines and comment on their "nose" and "oakiness" (how silly is that?). South Africans are not big wine drinkers, so most of the wine made here is exported to Britain. All in all, a wonderful trip!