I’ve spent my last day here in the Tankwa Karoo National Park…and even though I’ve only spent a week here, it feels like home. So it’s strange to be leaving. Come to think of it, I’m never really comfortable leaving a place…I think I’m a better person when it comes to arriving, if you know what I mean!
The cold weather has set in, and hopefully we will have some rain in the area, because the flowers need good regular rains to maintain their brilliance.
Thanks very much to park manager Conrad Strauss for having me to stay, as well as Letsie Coetzee, the section ranger, Elmare and Koos van Wyk and Julianna and Garret de Vries. They manage a huge park in the middle of nowhere, and they’re doing an amazing job. More than that, they have been really kind to me!
Some photos from my last day are below…the Tankwa Karoo is a scenic wonder. Ecologically too…more than 70% of all the little succulents and flowers here are found NOWHERE else in the world. So besides the amazing sense of space and freedom, this national park is very important from an ecological point of view. It’s only 50 kilometres or so wide, but from west to east, there is a wide range of habitats, going from pure desert, to grassland, to mountain escarpment.
Top of the Gannaga Pass in Tankwa Karoo National Park
Abstract of leaves....Tankwa Karoo National Park
Long roads, big skies and a trusty Ford Everest!
The Roggeveld Mountains in the east of the Tankwa Karoo
Driving up the Gannaga Pass in Tankwa Karoo National Park
Tankwa Karoo National Park sunset
Heck, this place is beautiful!
Farmhouse just north of Tankwa Karoo NP...
