READER STORY

You don’t have to drive to the Cape from Gauteng in one go: camp your way to the ocean and add in a visit to some good old friends, says Kenny de Bie of Pretoria.

Our first stop came after 360 km, in Winburg where we visited some of the town’s beautiful churches and the Voortrekker Monument. Special buildings, but our aim was set on going west in Orania’s direction where we wanted to camp the first night. We had another 300 km or so to go to the Aan-die-oewer

Last year, Kenny and his wife, Elaine, decided to visit the Cape earlier this year to visit their friends Magda and Lionel Robinson. Lionel had suffered a stroke and wasn’t doing too well.

So, on 20 February, Kenny and Elaine headed off at the crack of dawn. Their camping trailer, a Venter with a rooftop tent, went along. They had a number of goals for their trip down to the Cape: seeing the Robinsons and some other old friends; Sutherland was on the list; and perhaps they would make a turn at the Richtersveld. They packed their passports, because you just never know... and made no bookings. They were therefore not bound to any place at any time. Kenny tells us more... campsite. It lies on the banks of the Orange River and it’s very neat. The staff are friendly and also very helpful.

Our plan was to spend the second night in the Karoo National Park. It’s just the other side of Beaufort West and slightly more than 400 km of towing. But first, we stop in Britstown to check out the Dutch Reformed Church.

We’d been to this campsite before, but things have changed since our previous visit. The stands have been paved and the park itself is beautiful.

The Klipspringer Pass is close to the

campsite and something to behold: the narrow-tarred road with its stone-stacked sides worms its way up the mountain.

The next day we overnighted with Arnold Albrecht and Werda Biesenbach. Their farm is at the foot of the Robertson Pass just before you get to Mossel Bay. It was a quick drive, just over two hours, but we made sure to drive through the beautiful Meiringspoort. The Outeniqua Pass is also special; and we pulled over at one of the waterfalls along the way where we had a bite to eat. We enjoyed the hospitality of Arnold and his family for a few days.

Hartenbos, not far from Mossel Bay, was our next stop. You never drive past there without spending a night at the ATKV resort. We had a great sea view and decided to stay for a few days. We explored the area and one day headed inland over the Montagu Pass. We stopped at Die Smitswinkel on the outskirts of Oudtshoorn and returned to Mossel Bay taking the Robertson Pass. Back there, we had a braai with our friends Hennie and Mariette Zwart in town that evening.

CAPE TOWN WAS STILL about 350 km away. On the way there, we bought cheese in Bonnievale and finally arrive at Van Zyl’s Rus caravan park on the outskirts of Cape Town. The place is great and I noticed a number of campers who looked as though they might be long termers. The time had come to see Lionel and

Magda, and our friends Johnny and Max Herbst – both couples live a mere 2 km from our campsite.

We had a great time playing tourists while in the Cape. At Cape Point the wind almost blew Elaine away – and we then drove back over Chapmans Peak. Just past Klapmuts, we made a stop at Babylonstoren to look at the interesting vegetable gardens and fruit orchards. And, of course, we visited Table Mountain – luckily the Cape weather played along.

Next up, we spent a few days at a guest house in Hermanus. On the way there, we collected our friend Corrie Huygen in Somerset West – she came to join us. Friends that we had made in Tshipise, Andy and Alet le Roux, invited us for lunch, and we explored the area some more the next day.

We checked out L’Agulhas, visited another church in Bredasdorp and made a stop at Arniston. On our way back to the guesthouse, we bought delicious figs.

Corrie returned home and we headed to Sutherland. At Matjiesfontein, I realised we wouldn’t find fuel and so we aimed for Laingsburg. Seeing as we were there, we had a look at the Flood Museum, which commemorates the severe floods of almost 40 years ago.

Of course, we paid a visit to Sutherland’s world-famous observatory, but in the evening, we attended Jurg Wagener’s stargazing session. The Sterland campsite also belongs to him and is just outside the town. The campsite is neat and each of the sites has trees on the back and sides that separates you from your neighbour.

The Tankwa Karoo National Park was only 100 km from there, and we decided to go and have a look. The roads are in a bad state, we spotted almost no animals – I have to say, we weren’t that impressed.

The 160 km dirt road would take us to Calvinia, and people in the area told us the road wasn’t in good shape. I was nervous about this and set aside four hours for the drive. But we were worried about nothing – it took us only two hours.

In Nieuwoudtville, we admired yet another beautiful church building, and this is where we decided to skip Clanwilliam. We chose to drive north to Springbok instead. The town’s caravan park is a tad old, but it’s quiet and neat, and the bathrooms have been redone since we were last there.

The Richtersveld was next, and a good 300 km away. But first, we stocked up in Springbok and refuelled near the park in Port Nolloth. We explored large tracts of the Richtersveld and our two-wheel-drive Toyota Fortuner managed without any issues. We camped at Sendelingsdrift, and

though it is all nice and clean, the stands weren’t level and that bothered us. The nearby open-pit diamond mine was also noisy, but the friendliness of the campsite staff compensated for that…

IT WAS TIME to get out our passports. We’d decided to take the ferry across to Namibia. The first ferry crosses at eight o’clock in the morning, and we were in the first vehicle that day. On the Namibian side, police officers made a thorough search – they even examined Elaine’s purse. I asked the one officer what he was looking for… “Diamonds.”

We were now in the transfrontier section of the Ai-Ais-Richtersveld Park and camped at Hobas, about 200 km from Sendelingsdrift. This is also where you’ll find the Fish River Canyon and there is only one description for the natural phenomenon: incredible!

Mariental is a little more than 400 km north of here when you drive via Keetmanshoop. We’d booked a campsite at Hardap, but could get a chalet at a discount for only R66 more. We really enjoyed our stay in the chalet.

We needed to return home, and tackled the 300 km to the Mata-Mata camp in the Kgalagadi.

We spent two nights at Twee Rivieren, and saw quite a bit of wildlife. Back on tarred roads, we headed to Kathu, a good 500 km drive. We said hello to another old friend, Barend Coetzee, and overnighted in a guest house.

After 7 000 km, of which 1 000 km was dirt road – we were home safe. We didn’t have as much as a flat tyre the entire trip, but unfortunately Lionel passed away a short while later – in June. We’re grateful that we were able to see him one last time.