26-27 August 2012
A day to recover from the loss of our daughter to the
Mahindra school in Pune and then a 6.30 start on Sunday morning – quick cup of
coffee and off to Paul’s place. There
stood the Toyota van fully laden that would take us to Durban. Paul gave us a last run down on the set ups
and we were off. We are team A – Myself,
Corbin and Evan. Corbin is a young
recently qualified sound engineer and Corbin is the DJ. Our first stop was in the winelands. Davie is a the power behind the PEP functions
– large in character and stature – and he had a bag and a couple of boxes to
add to the small space still available in our vehicle. We cut back through Paarl and on to the N1. Of course this made for a bit of a late start
but there was no hurry as our first stop was Bloemfontein and this was just
transit.
Through the tunnel and past Worster, the snow on the
mountains was spectacular. In places it
felt like a swiss village as we passed through the Hex river valley. As the scenery became drier the early wild
flowers seemed to become more prolific.
We had a brief stop in Touwsrivier for Corbin to have a smoke and to
pick up some snacks for the road.
For me this is a road well travelled but I haven’t been on
it for many years.
The first memory was at Meitjiesfontien where I stood for
many (many) hours after easily getting a lift from Cape Town in the early
morning. I remember standing with my
thumb out as the sun was setting and wondering where the best place would be to
sleep by the road. The cost of staying
at the hotel would have blown my student budget out of the water. Just before dark a car pulled up and called
me over. A single salesman – well
travelled – every town we came to he would pull up and one of the local pubs
and disappear for half an hour while I waited patiently in the car. Somehow we still got to Joburg.
Meitjiesfontein marks the real start of the Karoo for
me. The next town is Laingsburg. Again it sticks in my memory as I was stuck
hitching back to Cape Town after a varsity holiday and couldn’t work out why
there was no traffic going past Kimberley.
Eventually I found out that there had been a major flood in Laingsburg
and there was no way of getting to Cape Town.
I think that time I had to resort to taking a plane from Kimberley at
(for a student) huge expense as varsity was starting the next day.
So on to Beaufort West and now the scenery is wide open
spaces. The mountains and snow as well
as the overcast weather was well behind us but there was still a chill in the
air when we stopped in Beaufort West (after 100kms with the petrol light on and
me wondering if we’d make it. We had
Steers for lunch and then off again. The
last time I was in Beaufort West, Lionel flew me there. We landed at the air strip belonging to
Philippa Wilson (nee Walters) guest house which is actually the old airport
. As we passed I wondered if her
ex-husband was still running the place.
Still a fair distance to cover before Bloemfontein – in fact Beaufort
West is only about half way.
Sheep and a few ostriches and even the odd springbok but
little else other than wide expansive scenery.
Even the wild flowers had given up the effort. As the sun set we still had a couple of hours
driving before our destination – Tom’s Place.
Couldn’t find it on our brand new GPS but it did tell us when to expect
fixed speed traps which was useful (although I kept very much to the speed limit
as any fines would be for my account!).
By 6pm we had about 100km to go – an hour and we would be
there. No such luck. Three stop and go’s for the roadworks made
sure that we didn’t reach our destination before 8.30.
I had expected Tom’s place to be about 10km outside Bloem
but 40km out, there was the sign. We
turned off the road to find the accommodation totally dark. There was a sign that said reception, but
that appeared to be for a park of some sort and anyway it was closed. After looking around we went the petrol
station. They said that they had the
keys but that we were not booked in. If
we wanted accommodation, it would be R520 for the three of us. Was there a restaurant nearby?? All seemed so dark. The restaurant had closed at 8pm and the
nearest one was about 40km away. So
either we stayed and travelled for food, or didn’t have food (not an option!)
or we found somewhere else. I phoned
Paul and he offered no help other than
‘that’s why I gave you the GPS’ and don’t stay in a Guest House because it will
cost too much. Tired and un-amused, we
found (and phoned) a place 30km further on called the Luxor Highway Lodge. Price was about the same but for 3
sharing. There was a restaurant
nearby. The front of the place looked a
bit like the Kamfinsa Park Hotel (at its lowest possible ebb). There were, however lights and a man at
reception watching TV and warming himself by a one-bar heater. I paid or R500 and he took us to our
room. It seemed relatively clean if
smelling of cigarette smoke and there was even a TV and an aircon. We went off the local restaurant/takeaway (de
Regos) and had some calamari, fish and chips – no sea nearby but by that stage
anything would have been good!
In fact we all slept very well. The beds were hard but comfortable and once I
had got sort of used to the cigarette smell of the blankets, I had a good
night. We got up around 7am (no shower
and none of us was brave enough to try the bath!), had breakfast at De Regos),
filled up the van and were on the road by around 9.15.
The trip to Durban took longer than I had anticipated. The GPS had lied the night before telling us
that it would be around 475km, it was more like 630km in the end and again
there were a number of stop and go’s. I
vaguely remembered the road from a trip that we had done as a family back from
La Lucia a few years before. Back then
we had driven the other way at night and had to drive slowly to avoid the huge
pot holes. It seems that someone noticed
these and the road is now much improved.
Slowly the scenery started to change as we drew closer to KZN and by the
time we hit the N3, I was in familiar territory again. More mountains and better roads but plenty of
speed traps and traffic cops. KZN seem
to have this process well under control and as a result most people tend to
stick to the speed limit – on the open road that is. As we passed Pietermaritzburg, I knew that I
was getting close. The drivers became more
aggressive and driving a diesel meant that I wasn’t able to instantly give them
what they wanted. Our GPS directed us to
the door of the Elangeni Hotel – a far cry from the Luxor Highway lodge and we
found the right people and unloaded the kit – with lots of help from the hotel
staff thank goodness – there was lots of it!
I had contacted my cousin Carol previously and she had
arranged a braai at her house with my Aunt Joan and by pure coincidence, my
other cousin, Roddy and his family (serious bonus). Roddy picked me up from the hotel and we had
an excellent dinner/braai and their house.
It was great to get together again and catch up. Rod’s daughter, Michelle who is the a little
younger than my son Guy has shot up like a bean pole – easily overtaking both
Rod and Ces. Mus t be something we feed
them these days.
The evening was over by 9.30 and I was home just in time for
a call from Fiona.
