KwaZulu-Natal. June to October 2019.
2. Southern KZN. Scottburgh, Happy Wanderers and Oribi Gorge.
Scottburgh.
We've been to this campsite a few times as it's only a 90 minute drive from Richmond. The site was quite full, primarily with older couples from the Johannesburg and Pretoria area staying for 3+ months over the winter. It can be very windy at this time of the year but the forecast was OK so we decided to risk a site overlooking the sea.
It was only a couple of months after Kevin's operation on his hand but, between us we managed OK with 3 hands setting the van up.
Mid winter - lovely to be able to sit outside in the evening and have a braai.
We were lucky enough to see pods of dolphins swimming past on a couple of occasions.
One morning we watched several surfers
Happy Wanderers.
6 of us from Richmond (Geoff & Paula, Terry & Ingrid and us) decided we needed a long weekend away at the beach. Terry and Ingrid keep their caravan at Happy Wanderers, which is a bit further south of Scottburgh, so that was the location sorted.
In the mornings we did our own thing - ambling along the beach, shopping, relaxing - and in the afternoon/evening got together for a braai.
Geoff, Kevin and me on the beach.
Geoff has his own special way of lighting the fire by building up layers of wood over the coals.
Skillful cooking on 3 different levels!
Oribi Gorge.
We'd spent at day at Oribi many years ago and decided to have a few days there. We booked the campsite at the KZN Parks site but when we got there found that the site was very small, uneven and got very little sun (fine in the summer but not in the middle of winter).
We drove further inland to Oribi Gorge Nature Reserve and booked in for 3 nights. We drove down to the campsite beside Lake Eland. We were the only people there on Thursday but by Friday evening the site was almost full.
Our campsite next to Lake Eland.
As we drove around the Reserve we saw impala, wildebeest, zebra, giraffe and blesbok.
We were lucky enough to see a giraffe with a youngster close to us.
Saturday was a beautiful day with sunshine and very little wind so we walked around the lake.
From the campsite we drove to the top of the gorge , stopping from time to time to look at the view. We walked across the suspension bridge from where we were able to get a great view of the gorge with the river far below.
From the top of the gorge we could see the campsite down by the lake.
Despite the dry conditions we did see some flowers.
Oribi Gorge has the longest zip line tour in Africa. It consists of 14 zip lines which start at the top of the gorge. There was no way Kevin could do it as his hand was still healing - we'll have to back another time!
Last updated: November 2020