Daan Viljoen Park: literal translation—Gigantic Spider Park

Doug and I wanted to get out of the big city this week and get some hiking in so I inquired at the Poly about a nearby game park which was in Lonely Planet called Daan Viljoeen.  The bonus of the park was no animals that can eat you, so you are able to hike around.   Several people suggested that it was closed—in between owners—but we thought we’d drive out and see what we found.  When we got out to the park, a game guard from the ministry of tourism let us in and gave us a map for a lovely 10K hike and sent us on our way.   The park was clearly in between owners--trails were not well maintained and facilities were under construction but they said we were welcome to hike the trail.  We started up the trail when Doug stopped me immediately as I had almost walked through a spider web, where this lovely creature was in the middle…

We then took a moment to look on the trail and realize that the thick webs we had spotted in front of us were EVERYWHERE.  And so we went on our 10K hike like a scene from Indiana Jones—gigantic spiders all along the way, through the entire hike—with occasional breaks when we walked in dry river beds or got up on high hills where the wind had discouraged them from building a web.  About halfway through, Doug came up with the brilliant idea of a big stick to knock down the webs which prevent our passing—always being careful to try and not kill the spiders—we needed as much good spider karma as possible.

4 hours later and after seeing several other types of wildlife—wildebeests,  a large pack of zebra, a gemsbok, baboons and warthogs, we got back to the car and noted that we would not be returning again soon.

I checked on the web last night and turns out these spiders are in the argiope family and perfectly harmless—they even call them garden spiders in the US.  I don’t care—I’ll be adding freakishly large spiders to my list of –could have done w/out seeing those creatures to my list.  Right behind all the snakes here.  

 George Michael's Inspiration--Chameleon, taking a sand bath

Wildebeest giving us the eye--close up he had strips like a zebra

Landscape of the park--rolling hills.  If you look close--you can see the spiders everywhere.  Just kiddin.