The Northern Cape is greener than any of us expected and in fact SA has some really awesome places to visit (Riemvasmaak is a highlight).
AVERAGE PETROL PRICES - R3-87/litre
OUR AVERAGE ACCOMODATION PRICES - R30 per night (but we didn't pay for much accommodation)
OUR DAILY GPS CO-ORDINATES:
S 27 26.040 E 23 10.655
S 29 45.237 E 21 20.839
S 28 27.852 E 20 17.233
The Long version
It is 17 March 2002 and the start of what promises to be our awesome Africa Freedom Tour. We have been dreaming, planning and saving for three years.There were times when we felt like this day would never come, but we feel well prepared. T he past three years have also prepared us in more ways than only the physical and we have learnt that ,regardless of what may come our way: We'll always be OK.
One is never completely finished packing and we were glad that we had set a date to leaving. This forced us to get our act together, pack what we had and make do with the rest. Our trip officially started at the Matthew's house where our families came to see us off and have a quick drink with us. As can be expected, there were enough tears and well wishes. We left with our South African flag waving farewell and Johnny Clegg searching for the spirit of the Great Heart!!! We were going to find our dream.
Our first two days were spent at a farm in Magaliesburg. Louise's mom had envited us to spend time there and we slowly settled into the idea of leaving Johannesburg. The time was well spent by packing and hiding our dollars, finalising small things on the vehicles and lots of excited chatting. At night we'd watch the stars around a fire, learnt how to bake a wicked bread and trying out all our camping lights. Soon it was time to leave.
The trip down to Kuruman was a very long one and we took it slowly, still getting used to our heavily loaded vehicles. Our first stop was for beakfast, just outside of Lichtenburg, where we whipped out the gasbottles and had some coffee and left over chicken that Mrs. C had sponsored us. Brett looked like a drunken driver swaying all over the road as the wind bullied his top heavy landie.
About twenty km's outside of Kuruman is the Raptor Rehabilitation Centre where Bev and Chris, friends of Brett's mom live. They decided to take the money that they had gathered for retiring and started up this centre. We were met by their pet meerkats, bat ear fox and dogs. We spent most of the days chilling in the shade, as it was extremely hot. In the cool of the day we went on walks with the meerkats, fed Tripod, a three-legged carakel who got caught in a snare, and filled aardvark holes in the perimeter fence. After the rains, the Kalahari sands were covered in lush grass, making it look a bit like a "mini Serengetti"! Soon our two days had passed and it was time to move on again. (You can contact the Raptor Centre on 053 712 3576 or mail them at [email protected]. Check out their website at www.raptor.co.za).
We were packed and leaving by 5am to travel in the cool of the day. Our top speed is on average 80km/h which allows Brett to not over exert the landie and Daz&Lou to save on petrol. The trip to Kenhardt was once again a long one and we ended up travelling right through the heat of the day anyway!
The next three days were spent at Lou's uncle's farm 55km outside of Kenhardt. Temperatures averaged at 36 degrees Celsius, so the days were filled with socialising, reading and bumping each other into the dam! We managed to go for a few walks and even went for a three 3km jog!! On one of the walks we encountered a Night Adder snake hoping that we wouldn't spot him, but Russel, the pet jack russel, give him horns and he had to flee. Lou's aunt managed to fatten us up for the trip that lay ahead (and was the food good!!!) and soon we were on the road again.
The second week of our trip saw us leaving the farm with Johnny Clegg blaring from our radios, once again. We felt like we had now officially started our trip as we were now fending for ourselves and "going places we ain't never been.." Brett has been having some hassles with his altenator, not being strong enough to power both batteries sufficiently, and decided to stop in Kakamas for some help. In the meantime Daz decided to do some adjusting on the Toyota's breaks as well. Our stop saw us popping into the bank and Spar to fill supplies and we worked in a quick trip to the winery too! Brett had to go back the next day to pick up the new alternator, so we made our way to Riemvasmaak 60km's away.
To get there we had to go through the poor, but clean, location of the Riemvasmaak people. The campsite, managed by the local community was set in the heart of a deep gourge, with steep rockfaces on either side.
How absolutely gorgeous our surroundings were! The gigantic rockfaces provided nesting to eagles and a wide range of birds. Further down in the hollow of the gourge are the warm baths where hot water bubbles out of the earth,into two manmade pools.
Our beds were mosquitoe nets over our mattresses on a cement slab. We didn't feel like being indoors and didn't bother pitching our tents. The mosquitoe nets proved to be a good idea, as we had a visitor on Daz&Lou's net in the morning: A scorpion!
We liked Riemasmaak so much that we decided to stay anaother night and Brett resided himself to picking up the alternator the following day. To entertain himself he took a 8km walk to the office to pay for the accommodation, while Daz&Lou soaked in the baths. Dinner had not been provided for an extra night, so settled for pap and spagetti meatballs.
The morning saw us heading back into Kakamas to pick up Brett's alternator (which didn't fit his brackets incidently) and then on to the Namibian border at Nakop.