Millers Point Caravan Park.

We have always wanted to go to Millers Point Caravan Park, near Simonstown as it must be one of the most spectacular settings of any campsite anywhere. We belong to the Trekkers Outdoor Recreation Club, who go and camp monthly and Millers Point is one of their regular venues. However, on every previous camp that they have been there we have either had another commitment or the weather forecast was not good for camping. Anyway when they announced a while ago that October's camp would be there, we decided to take a chance on the weather and go for it.

We arrived on the Friday before lunch with a fresh North Westerly wind blowing and set up camp along with another few early arrivals. Our club had booked the whole of the centre section of the campsite. It is not a very large campsite, there being only 14 sites in total.

The campsite is run by the Cape Town Municipality and although the ablution facilities are somewhat dated, they are spotlessly clean and well maintained. Cape Town is in the middle of a severe drought and they have removed most of the taps from the basins in the ablutions and scullery area to cut down on water wastage. Another possible problem there are the local baboon troops that sometimes visit the campsite to steal food. We did not have this problem but it does occur from time to time, so be prepared at all times. Do not leave any foodstuffs lying around.

Saturday dawned a beautiful day and we enjoyed watching the many fishing boats launching and then coming in with their catches as the slipway in front of the campsite. 

Here are a couple of photo's I took from the air with my drone.

On Sunday we were greeted by a fresh South Easterly wind in the morning. This is the usual direction of the wind in summer in the area and can be very strong and unpleasant. However we were fairly sheltered where we had set up camp so it was not too much of a problem. However we decided to pack up and left just before lunch time.

It is a really lovely setting and we will definitely be back. here is a video that I made  of the weekend.

 

Die Watergat Rawsonville.

Our club, The Trekkers Outdoor Recreation Club, Laarger 8 had booked to spend the weekend at Die Watergat, Rawsonville, somewhere they had not been before and also somewhere that we had not previously camped. We did pop in there over a year ago to have a look and it did look nice. We decided to take a chance on the weather and confirmed our booking. In fact we went 2 days early to set up camp as it was forecast to rain a bit on the Friday and our Skipper is no fun to erect in the rain.



We arrived on the Wednesday, a beautiful sunny and warm day and set everything up by lunch time and then relaxed and soaked up our surroundings. A very beautiful setting.

Thursday morning dawned and it was much cooler and quite windy, a sign that the weather was changing, but we had no rain and spent the day relaxing and went for a walk around the farm. In the early hours of Friday morning, it did indeed start raining, but we kept warm and dry in our Skipper. There were a few more showers during the morning on Friday but by lunch time it was fairly dry and the other members of our club started arriving. On Friday night we relaxed around the fire in the Lapa area and departed for bed at a fairly reasonable hour.

Saturday morning dawned and although it was very cool in the early morning, 4 degrees celcius, it was a beautiful day. After breakfast, when it had warmed up a bit, I sent my drone up to take a few arial images. Here are a few.

This campsite is really suitable only for groups over the weekends as they have a minimum charge for the whole campsite per night over the weekends. However on week days they do allow single bookings.

The ablutions consist of 2 bathrooms with a shower, basin and toilet in each. There is also another separate toilet. There is a big covered "Lapa" area with washing up basins, seating, two fridges, another sink and a built in bar area. Wood is available for R70.00 for 100 big pieces of Black Wattle and there is free wifi. There are also security camera's all around. I have also never been to a campsite with so many electrical points, giving you lots of choice about where to set up.

Here are a few more random photo's that I took.

Here is a video I did of our trip.

Click on the link below.

Die Watergat 
  
Will we be back? Yes, definitely!

Midweek breakaway to Ganzekraal

We have been experiencing some nice weather in Cape Town in the early part of our winter. Great, but we also really do need some good rains to break the drought.

We decided to take advantage of the nice weather and spend a couple of nights at Ganzekraal, only 40km from home.

As you can see from my recent post, I have been experimenting with video and here is the video I did of this trip. I tried some commentary for a change and although it was a bit nerve racking, hopefully will get better in future attempts.

 

Another trip to Dwarsberg Trout Hideaway - Rawsonville.

We have been back to Dwarsberg Trout Hideaway 5 times now. Apart from being one of the finest campsites in the Western Cape, it is also just over an hours drive away  from where we live, although we tend do do the "scenic route" with a couple of stop offs along the way.

One of these is the Joostenberg Bistro and butchery just off the N1 at the Stellenbosch turnoff for both coffee and delicious scones as well as some free range meat to consume for supper at the campsite. Another is the Delico butchery at the Potbelly pantry near Klapmuts.

As I mentioned in my previous post, here is a video I took of the trip.

 

Video Blogs

You may have noticed that some of my recent posts are just in the form of a Video.

I am having great fun visiting some of the campsites that I have reviewed in the past and doing some video footage with both my SJCam4000 Action Camera and my DJI Phantom 3 Pro drone.

Langebaan April 2017

Klipkrans Re-visited.

Last weekend we went back to Klipkrans, near Worcester for a weekend with the Trekkers Outdoor Recreation Club. We decided to go a day early as it was forecast for possible rain on the Friday and I preferred not to have to set up in the wet.

Thursday evening was a lovely balmy night and we were joined by David, the chairman of the Trekkers Laarger 8 and we sat socialising until quite late, However at 3.00am on Friday morning we awoke to pelting rain and very strong winds outside. At 7.00am it was still raining and the electricity went off. By 8.00am it had stopped raining and we ventured outside. We had erected our Tentco dining shelter and fortunately it was still standing and bone dry inside. Anyway the electricity turned out to be an Eskom problem and it was restored by late morning. The weather cleared up and the rest of the Trekkers started arriving and setting up. After the previous nights rain and storm, we retired early.

Saturday dawned a beautiful day. I had taken my DJI Phantom 3 Pro drone along as well as a few smaller toy grade drones. The kids in the group had great fun with the smaller drones and I, assisted by a few of the adults, also had fun with my Phantom.

Here is some footage. 

On Saturday evening a bit of a cool breeze came up, so we again retired fairly early. Sunday morning dawned with another beautiful day and the kids went for a paddle in the river, as can be seen in a bit more footage in the video.

By lunch time, a fairly blustery wind had come up from the North West, signaling a bit more rain possible and we packed up after lunch and wound our way home.

Here are a few photo's from the weekend.

 

Cedar Escape - Rivercamp.

We had been getting withdrawal symptoms having not camped since the end of November as we tend to avoid school holidays. With the schools going back to start their new year, I started looking around for somewhere new to go to. This summer the wind in Cape Town has been almost non stop so this also ruled out our usual favourites like Leentjiesklip and Ganzekraal. I have found in the past, that strong South Easters in Cape Town also often bring rain to the Breede River Valley area as well. I then decided to give Rivercamp, one of the campsites administered by Cedar Escape, a try and booked for 4 nights.

On the Monday morning we set off with our packed Skipper, along with a couple of friends with their tent trailer. The weather forecast for the week was good with high temperatures forecast for the Wednesday. A nice change from Cape Town's continuous wind.

After turning right at the 4 way stop in Citrusdal we found the entrance to the campsite exactly 16.9km as per my gps along the road.

After entering the farm, a very friendly and willing farm worker took us along a dusty but good farm road to the campsite. It was also well signposted.

I had seen some photo's of the campsite on their website and was very pleasantly suprised with what I found when we got there. The website photo's do not do it justice. The campsite is huge. Lush green grass and plenty of shade. There are actually two sites but they are not demarcated. Anyway we had the place to ourselves most of the time, other than 2 very pleasant German tourists doing a quick one night stay over on their travels. The ablutions are in a stone building. There are 2 bathrooms with a huge shower, wash basin and toilet, There are also plenty of hooks and a bench for changing. There is also a nice kitchen area with electrical plugs and a double sink and plenty of hot water . There could be better ventilation, however they are going to attend to this.   

    
The campsite is on the banks of the Oliphants river and is quite far upstream, so the quality of the water in the river is very good. The water temperature was a pleasant 22 degrees, so very nice for swimming, which we did plenty of as on Wednesday is was 42 degrees outside.

There are 2 braai area's with a fire pit and an electrical plug point and a light at each. I presume this more or less differentiates the two campsites.

Here are a few photo's. Some taken from the air with my drone to give a different perspective.

Looking South from the campsite

Looking East towards the Cedarberg

Sunset on the Cedarberg

Another sunset shot.

This is now among my top 5 campsites in the Western Cape and we will definitely be back.

Here is a video I shot with my drone of the campsite from different angles.For better quality viewing, click on the YouTube logo on the bottom right and once opened in Youtube, click on the settings button next to the logo, also on the bottom right, and then on "Quality" and select at least 720p or 1080p.

 

Welgegun - Rawsonville.

I have not done any updates to this blog for a long time as I have been involved in a few other projects. However we have still been camping as often as possible, although mostly to the places we have visited before. However about a year ago we went to this hiddem gem, only an hour's drive from Cape Town.

After a bit of research on Facebook, I found a few mentions about Welgegun. It is another of those very special campsites that when you book it, the whole campsite is yours and there will not be any other people there. Now obviously over weekends there is a minimum charge and I think it is around R90.00 per person per night with a minimum charge of R1000.00. Therefore you do need a group of 11+ in order to not have to pay a premium over the R90.00pp charge. However during the week they are happy to waive the minimum charge and you just pay the R90.00 pppn. I could be wrong about the charges as their facebook page states R80.00 pp but this could be outdated.

Welegegun is situated on the Breede river near Rawsonville, Western Cape. It is just off the R101 which is also known as the Old N1. The entrance to the campsite is a bit obscure as there is just a farm gate with no signage whatsoever. However it is quite easy to find. As you go from Rawsonville towards Worcester, about 200 meters before you cross over the bridge over the Breede river, there is a lone Palm Tree on the right hand side of the road and the gate is next to this tree. After entering the gate you turn immeadiately left and follow the road running right next to the R101 with small signs to the campsite. The entrance is quite easy to see on the street view on Google Maps.

The campsite itself is lovely. It has two sections with a communal Braai Lapa in the middle. Nice green grass on the River bank. There is good fishing in the river and although we did not do any fishing, I saw lots of nice photo's of good catches made there when I was doing my research. The are a couple of canoe's that one can use as well. We took our SUP's and you could paddle for about 1km plus downstream quite easily. There is not much shade other than next to the ablutions and at the Braai area. The ablutions are good with 2 separate bathrooms with a shower, basin and toilet inside the block.

The only slight negative is that the campsite is quite near the R101 where it crosses the Breede River and you therefore do get a bit of traffic noise.

Their contact no is 082 871 8745 for bookings. Here is a link to their facebook page. 
Facebook Page. 
Here are a few photo's