Koningskop, Citrusdal – Camping (South Africa)

October 2021

After our adventurous 5-day hike at Oorlogskloof, we were in serious need of some rest. We could have done this easily at home, but what is more relaxing than being out in nature? This time not to hike, but to camp.

Koningskop (loosely translated, it means King’s Head) is approximately 145km (90 miles) from our home town and close to the agricultural town of Citrusdal in the Olifants River Valley in the Western Cape province. Koningskop is nestled on a citrus and Rooibos Tea farm in the Olifants River mountains.

Friends joined us on our camping weekend … a weekend predicted with heavy rain! That can be fun … 😉.

Due to the weather prediction, we were only a few campers at Koningskop. In fact, we were the only campers on the one side of the camping ground. There were a few more tents and caravans on the other side of the dam, but we could not see (or hear) them from our camping spot … that was really nice and quiet!

On the menu tonight was Espetada – an old favourite at the camp fire! Berto was preparing the steak with heaps of garlic, bay leaves and olive oil.

The next day turned out to be as predicted. It was cloudy and cool. Heavy rain was expected from the evening until the next morning. We therefor took the opportunity to explore the campsite a bit before the expected rain.

We just relaxed for the rest of the afternoon – that is what we came to do after all! We played Pictionary (while having a good laugh at each other’s drawing abilities)! Then, as the afternoon got colder, our friend made yummy pancakes – perfect for this kind of weather!

For dinner, Berto had another favourite up his sleeve … chicken paella! This is such a delicious meal that can easily be prepared over the fire.

After we enjoyed the chicken paella, we added more wood to the fire … because our friends brought a real treat for dessert!

What a rainstorm we had! Between the strong gusts of wind and rain, it almost sounded as if there was a river on its way towards us… we did not sleep much because we were constantly checking our tent for leaks (we have had it for a good 20 years now). But luckily only a tiny bit of water seeped through the seams and no damage was done!

When the clouds moved away and the sun came out, it became a beautiful day! We walked through the campsite again to see if our fellow campers had survived the stormy night and luckily it turned out that there was little or no damage.

We’ve spent the rest of the day enjoying the sun – sitting outside, reading and playing more games. Towards the evening we made another fire and putting some meat- and chicken kebabs on the coals.

Our last day at Koningskop was a real summer’s day! It was time to get our short sleeve shirts out and enjoy the sun (and organise our tents a bit 😊).

We had a delicious brunch of the leftover kebabs, onion, mushrooms and scrambled eggs. After toasting our bread on the fire, our meal was almost restaurant style 😉.

And once again we strolled through the campsite, while chatting to a few campers. It was time to start packing up, but no one was in a hurry. Why is it that the most beautiful and sunny days are always the last day on a camping weekend?

Berto made one last super delicious meal – a lamb knuckle potjie! It’s such simple ingredients: Onion, lamb knuckles, potatoes and carrots – cooked for quite some time until the meat is tender and the veggies soft. And as always, I forgot to take a photo of the finished dish … too hungry to even think about that!

It was the perfect weekend to rest our bodies after our strenuous hike in Oorlogskloof a few weeks back… and it was quite fitting to do so back in nature! This weekend also proved that you do not always have to have perfect weather … the rain put no damper on how much we enjoyed it!