West Coast National Park

Whew! Busy week so far but an update from the weekend. It was a busy weekend with two braais, but the highlight was Sunday when I went with a few friends who are also international students/visitors to West Coast National Park.

The park is about 2 hours north of Cape Town (about 2.5 hours from Stellenbosch) and on the west coast (which here means the Atlantic Ocean, not the Pacific as I always think!). We got up early and drove to the park, arriving around 9 am. The park surrounds a lagoon and has wetlands, sand dunes as well as the general fynbos vegetation. Apparently the wetlands and shorelines are a big draw for lots of different bird species and many migratory birds from Europe will stop here for the winter.

After a quick cappuccino break, we went and checked out the wetlands. There are bird hides set up all around the lagoon. These are essentially huts with slits to allow bird viewing without disturbing the birds. We didn't see much, but I did get to see flamingos in the wild which was pretty cool.

Then we decided to go on a hike out to the sand dunes. On the way we walked through the fynbos and saw lots of wild ostriches and Bonteboks, which are a type of antelope with a striking white blaze on their face.

It was really cool to be out in the wild with ostriches running around. They're hilarious to watch run too because they extend their necks out front and push with their legs. They're also huge, their feathers are above my head and the neck much higher.I've been told that ostriches are very common, but being Canadian and not used to seeing ostriches running around, it was very cool for me.

And here are the sand dunes. I've never been anywhere that was so sandy and desert-like before. The sand felt like sugar it was so smooth! It was also amazing because there were no other people nearby so we made footprints in the sand. We also slid down the dunes which was a lot of fun too. The one downside was we decided to hike right around lunch time so it was quite hot, but we brought lots of water and sunscreen so it was alright.

After the dunes we had lunch at the park's only restaurant, Geelbek, which is held on the patio of an old, Cape-Dutch style farmhouse. The food was really good authentic Cape Malay style and it has a very relaxing environment.

Here is the Langebaan lagoon. We went swimming after lunch here at the beach. The water is very warm and the beach is so sandy with almost no rocks at all. The Atlantic tends to be too chilly to really swim for a long time, but the lagoon was heaven

On the drive back out of the park, we saw more Bontebok. Their horns are really beautiful and curved and the white blaze is very striking.

Once we left the park, we went to the actual town of Langebaan and watched the sun set. The beach at Langebaan is also very nice but unlike West Coast National Park, there are many more people. We had dinner here and then drove back to Stellenbosch.

It was really a fabulous day and I have to say, if you are ever in South Africa, I highly recommend West Coast National Park because it's stunning and the crazy part is there are very few other people. Also, you can walk around the park which isn't really possible at many of the other parks because of lions, leopards and etc. so I really had a chance to feel close to the animals. Definitely worth it!