Three hours north of Cape Town, we spent our first night at the Bontebok National Park beside the Breede river.
We were all a bit grumpy and very hot and tired and I was trying not to panic at the difficulty of balancing work/play/play as work/work as play.
A big beautiful mountain tortoise ambles by. Should we observe it? Photograph it? Should I draw it myself? Encourage the girls to draw it? Blog it? Research it? Write a story..? Feed it lettuce? Iceberg? Romaine? Yikes. When in doubt, jump in a river!
Swimming in the river sorted us out in the short term and Ralph encouraged me to Not Panic, that we would find a flow. Writing now a couple of days later, we are definitely finding more of a flow. The girls are able to do their basic schoolwork on the long car journeys so that they can play when we set up camp, and I think Heidi’s advice to cram for a few days then take days off will suit all our temperaments.
Before sunset we walked the Aloe Trail (1.8km) in the hills behind our campsite.
We saw a scary looking flying beetle dragging a half-dead huge hairy spider down his hole. Turns out it was an assassin beetle who injects his victims with poison and then sucks out their insides. Yum. Time to head back to camp for dinner!
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