Kaapsehoop

The following morning after breakfast we decided on a trip to the nearby town of Kaapsehoop, an old gold mining town that overlooks the De kaap Valley from the south, you can actually see the town from Chris's house on a clear day or at night. We traveled the 35kms of winding roads through pine and blue gum plantations to the town at a leisurely pace, dodging pot-holes and wild horses along the way. Legend has it they are horses left over from the old gold mining day gone wild, but the truth according to Bob is somewhat less romantic and they were simply allowed to run free after their owner passed away. Bob who is 80 yrs old and a wealth of local knowledge says he remembers visiting their owner as a teenager.
Kaapsehoop is now a small artisan town just off the main road and has a wonderful mix of curio shops, bed and breakfast accommodation a pub and the most delightful pancake shop.
We chose a savory biltong pancake and a sweet Amarula and Ice-cream pancake between us "Oh my God" they were amazing, the Amarula and Ice-cream was so good it was beyond description.

We looked in the curio shops and walked around the town, we would have liked to have walked to the cliffs for the view to the North but the trail was closed due to recent heavy rains. We bought some postcards and drinks for the trip home and with a huge thunderstorm building in the distance we drove back to Chris's house. A huge lone male Baboon running across the road with his mane flaring in the wind providing the only distraction to the trip home.

We arrived just in time and within a minute of stepping inside the storm hit, it was amazing lightning was flashing, the power went out and it was as dark as night at 3pm in the afternoon. A tree not 200mts from the house got hit and blown apart,

The view across the De Kaap Valley to Barbertown during the storm Kaapsehoop is to the far right though not visible through the cloud and rain.

We spent the afternoon inside sheltering from the storm and it lasted well into the afternoon providing a spectacular show, unfortunately due to the rain I was unable to get any lightning photographs.
We went to bed to the sound of thunder rumbling in the distance and flashes of lightning in the distance lighting up the room and slept the most wonderful sleep. The next morning I had a surprise in store for my wife, as far as she knew we were going to Kruger national park for the day, little did she know that with Chris and his assistant Colleen's help I had booked us into Kings Camp private game lodge on the Timbavati Game reserve for 2 nights.
Oh was she in for a surprise.