Gonjah Camp

Wagtail under the trees at Gonjah

Gonjah Camp

This trip was the result of a happy coincidence. We had been looking for campsites in the Gamtoos/Baviaans area and had seen one that looked lovely.

We made enquiries, but never finalized a booking for some reason. As the days went by, both Carol and I started having second thoughts about it. We decided to celebrate our wedding anniversary by taking a drive (it’s about 100km from Port Elizabeth), have lunch at a favourite restaurant in the area and check it out. We were so glad we did.

What looked like a beautiful campsite online was not at all nice, through no fault of the owners. The camp site is on the river bank, but with the terrible drought the river is stagnant and full of weed.  There was also a large, noisy pump on the opposite bank pumping water into the orchards. We were really disappointed and went off to lunch feeling quite down, especially as we had convinced my brother and his wife to join us for a week. While we were waiting for our food, Carol went to buy a loaf of their lovely bread and got chatting to the owner. There was a card behind the counter advertising Gonjah camp and Carol asked Hetsie about it. “Oh” Hetsie replied “it’s our camp, do you want to have a look at it?” To cut a long story short, we had a lovely meal and then Hetsie kindly gave us a remote to the gate and told us how to find Gonjah.

Gonjah (a Khoisan name for a grasshopper) is the most beautiful camp site, nestling on the banks of a small stream up a kloof. There are just four sites, each with their own ablutions, shaded by indigenous yellowwoods, white stinkwoods and milkwoods.

Site 1 with its ablution block & Looking towards site 2

Dining under the trees

The road into the camp is 3km of dirt, very narrow and often completely overgrown with trees. Only small caravans, like Wagtail, will get there. We traveled very slowly, never more than about 15km/hr, but had no problems in the Passat, even though the road was muddy from rain that had fallen a few days previously. The camp is very beautiful, there’s nothing there except nature and best of all – no cell phone reception! Just the place to escape from the hectic world.

The sites are huge! Even though we had booked two, we ended up with both vans on one site and we weren’t in each other’s pockets. When we arrived there was a party camped on the other side of the stream, but they left the next morning and we had the place to ourselves for the rest of the week. The weather was perfect, warm and no wind. We only put up two sides of our tent and it was lovely to sit and enjoy the outdoors and the peace. It was full moon later that week and it was magical sitting under the trees watching the moon come up in a gap between two hills, getting more and more full each evening.

There were so many birds – Knsyna loeries (reminded us of Keurbooms), orioles, olive thrushes, doves, boubous, night jars, crowned hornbills, a crowned eagle and more. We were privileged to be visited by a pair of African wood owls each evening. We would hear them calling to each other coming down the kloof until they were eventually in the trees right above us. Peter has a strong spotlight and we were able to look at them. They seemed to be just as curious about us as we were about them and peered down at us, seeming totally unafraid. We didn’t watch them for long so as not to disturb them, but even when we switched off the spotlight and settled down in our camp chairs, they stayed above us for up to an hour, treating us to their distinctive calls.

African wood owls – Mr & Mrs

There is a delightful, well marked trail up the kloof to a small waterfall. The walk is about 3 km one way and the last stretch involves a lot of boulder hopping, but any reasonably fit person should have no problem. I was thrilled to see little fish in the pools – it’s rare to see indigenous fish in the wild these days. On the way up we saw a pair of the biggest bush pigs I’ve ever seen, but they vanished into the bush before I could photograph them. The bush is lush, with ferns, wild flowers, mosses and towering trees. The hike is well worth the effort and must be spectacular in the wet season.

Views along the trail to the waterfall

There’s lots of game on the farm, Peter & Cheryl saw two kudu cows one afternoon on a walk. Another afternoon we saw a pair of impala rams and, a little later, two cows and a calf. Along the road we found a huge yellowwood that seemed to have been struck by lightning. The trunk is probably about 1.2m in diameter and there’s a bee swarm in a hole near the top.

There are also three 4×4 tracks ranging from 12km to 30km for those who want to test their driving skills. These can also be ridden by mountain bike.

As Gonjah is only 10km from Patensie, one can easily go into the village. There’s lots to see and do in the area. Our favourite eating place is Tolbos, a lovely combination of a padstal and a restaurant. It’s owned by Hetsie and her daughter Carin, who runs it. The food and the service are great. Around the corner is Archers, which has amazing muffins and down the road towards Gonjah is Padlangs, a family eatery with lots of place for the kids to play.

There’s strawberry picking in season at Mooihoek strawberry farm near Hankey. Just nearby is the entrance to Philip’s tunnel, an amazing feat of engineering that provided irrigation water to the fertile lands in the area. An energetic climb leads to the berg venster (mountain window), a natural hole through the top of the cliff. Standing in the venster, one has stunning views over the valley down to the mouth of the Gamtoos river and inland to the Cockscomb.

In Philip’s tunnel & Bergvenster, looking inland

On the other side of Patensie is the Kouga Dam and the southern entrance to Baviaans Kloof. From Hankey, about 15km south of Patensie, it’s a short drive to Jeffreys Bay, home of the world famous Super Tubes. Close by is Humansdorp, where a must visit is Le Chameleon, an amazing restaurant cum gift shop cum padstal. The whole area is a motor cyclist’s delight with great on and off road routes.

As usual, our time was too short and all too soon we were packing up. It was one of the nicest trips we’ve done and definitely the most relaxing. Gonjah is now firmly on our list of places to revisit.

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