After recharging our batteries at Hardy and Steffi’s and sending our Donkey to the next service appointment at Toyota Stellenbosch, we headed towards Kagga Kamma Nature Reserve. We drove via Worcester to spend another night at Dwarsberg Trout. This fantastic place is located in the middle of nowhere near Rawsonville, not far from Worcester and offers impressive campsites (and cottages) in a gorge. For us, it was the perfect place to celebrate the 1st of August. As proper Swiss should, we got ourselves a raclette pan, raclette cheese, and let Switzerland shine! Happy Birthday Homeland – may many more independent years follow.
Kagga Kamma Nature Reserve
This small Nature Reserve is located on the edge of the Cederberg Mountains and, in addition to solitude, offers the possibility of spending the night in caves. Sonja was so fascinated by the thought that she expressed the desire to spend a night in a cave. It should be mentioned that the caves are equipped with all imaginable comforts and are rather marketing, since the caves have doors and windows, have tiled floors and air conditioning (which can also heat), as well as a fridge and a full and well-equipped bathroom.
Off into nature
The approach is via the R355 from the direction of Ceres. About 40 km before you reach the Tankwa Karoo, you turn left into the north and are on the road for another hour with between 10 and 40 km/h. This approach is not worth it for an overnight stay. We decide to spend another night on a lonely campsite without any facilities before starting our caving adventure. Arriving at the reception, we book ourselves into Bobbejaankrans Kamp. This is by far the most remote and lonelier than lonely. No one is guaranteed to pass by here. What follows is a wonderful day and a quiet night in the nowhere of Kagga Kamma Nature Reserve. If you love to be alone and experience pure nature, this is the place for you. We enjoyed the day between huge rocks and felt very comfortable.
The cave adventure
The next day, we relaxed until noon and headed to the reception around 1:00 pm. An hour later we reached the heart of the resort, could check in and less than 15 minutes later we were standing in our cave. Actually, it is a room that is built into the rock. It is very nicely done and includes everything you would want. The air con heated the room up to a nice 23°C and we visibly enjoyed not freezing in the morning. Small anecdote on the side: in the parking lot, to our surprise, there was a black Bentley next to all the 4×4 vehicles. Yes, read correctly. The owner of the Bentley – or his son – a young black South African knew no mercy and beat the luxury sedan over hill and dale to the reserve. As we learned later, the car did not survive this adventure unscathed.
Continue to Tankwa Tented Camp
We left Kagga Kamma Nature Reserve after two nights totally relaxed and satisfied and headed for the Tankwa Karoo. This desert landscape is not far from the Kagga Kamma NR. Directly neighboring – but outside the actual national park – is the Tankwa Tented Camp on Stonehenge Farm. This camp is legendary, as it was the organizer of the, American Burning Man oriented, AfrikaBurn event from 2007 to 2019. Since 2022, the event has been held at a new location, about 30 km from Stonehenge. There are still creative remnants to see at Tankwa Tented Camp. Bike burnouts on the bar counter are legendary. The place is really crazy and it was fun to explore it all and imagine what it’s like to have 10,000+ people partying and sleeping on the farm! At the end we could even sail into the sunset 🙂
