The long road to our winter home

At the start of winter last year, my wife, Tersia, and I were about to leave Somerset West to head to our winter home, Marloth Park in Mpumalanga. To make sure we’d be able to leave early the next morning, I loaded our Skipper caravan and Toyota Fortuner the night before. There was a problem, however: when I switched the fridge/ freezer from 220 V to the Fortuner’s 12 V in the morning, there was only the kind of silence load shedding brings. What’s more, the freezer was full of meat so I needed to quickly make a plan. I couldn’t find the problem, so I got an auto electrician to help. He found a short circuit in the freezer and fixed it. We finally set off, and stopped at the Dassiefontein farm stall near Caledon where you can buy anything and everything. We left there with a fresh bread, straight from the oven, and some farm butter, and we stopped at the first rest stop next to the road. Here we enjoyed the delicious bread and butter. At Swellendam, we turned into the Bontebok National Park. A friendly man helped us at reception and we drove to the campsite where we pitched camp. As with most of the SANPark campsites, the bathroom facilities are very clean and tidy. A small-spotted genet came to visit, but of course we didn’t feed it. After exploring the park, we left for Hartenbos. Here we slept at our friends Freddie and Gerda Strauss, because the next day it was up to Tsitsikamma, which is part of the Garden Route National Park. Initially we only booked for two nights, but with a stand so close to the sea where you can properly feel, smell, hear and see the waves, we decided to stay longer. Just like Bontebok, the bathroom facilities were a pleasure. Patensie was up next, after which we wanted to tackle the Baviaanskloof. At the gate, the friendly official told us the road wasn’t really meant for a caravan. Still, I decided to push on with the Skipper. We camped at Doodsklip where the camp fee was roughly the same as the SANParks

ones over the past few days. But this campsite was dreary and you had to climb a hill to reach the pit latrine. The next day we went deeper into the mountains, over rocks and through valleys, to where a road worker advised us to it would be foolish to continue towing the Skipper. But there was nowhere to turn around, so we pushed through. All that bumping and shaking around caused the Skipper’s door latch to open, and so water ran in as we drove through a river – that was the worst of it. After two days of crawling at 5 km/h, I must say the Fortuner and the Skipper did us proud. Driving the Baviaans has always been a dream of mine. It’s a beautiful and pristine piece of earth. Graaff-Reinet was next, where we again visited a SANParks campsite, Camdeboo. We arrived at 19:00 when reception was already closed, but the security guard allowed us access. And, of course, the campsite is well cared for – the same goes for the bathrooms. There remained only one more night’s sleep at Maselspoort near Bloemfontein, and the day after that, we arrived at our winter home.