NO PLAN BUT THE JOURNEY
Nita Soma puts her Wild card in her pocket and takes her car the long way to Cape Town
W HAT prompted Razia to venture into marriage? Lord knows. But, as her best friend, I had to ensure she was sane, choosing the right partner and, most importantly, receiving my blessings.
The Easter holidays were a week away, so I convinced my husband we needed to take a trip to Cape Town, where she lived. Most flights were fully booked, so we decided to drive, heading west along the N14 to Upington then through Kakamas, Keimoes, Kenhardt; south to Brandvlei and Calvinia to Tankwa Karoo National Park and finally Cape Town.
Apart from the route, nothing was planned. We had no accommodation but we did have a Sanparks Wild card, so we decided to take our camping gear and hope we could turn up at a Sanparks reserve and get a self-catering chalet or campsite, at worst.
Our first destination was Augrabies Falls. We departed at 3am, thinking the roads would be quiet and driving easier. Everything was fine till we left Carltonville to join the N14. Out here in the farmlands, there was lots of mist. We drove at tractor speed. When we got onto the N14 there were roadworks taking place. We proceeded cautiously but almost drove into a ditch and some steel drums which were meant as barricades.
Once the sun began rising, things improved. The road was single-lane most of the way but traffic was minimal. We got to Augrabies Falls late in the afternoon. It was fully booked. We took the opportunity to see the strongly flowing waterfalls.
As the sun set, we returned towards Kakamas and, after a few stops at various B&Bs and campgrounds, eventually got a spot at Lake Grappa.
Next morning we headed for Tankwa Karoo National Park. Before we left, the owner warned us of treacherous driving conditions, as the shale in those parts is known to shred tyres. We refueled in Calvinia before venturing onto the empty gravel roads. We proceeded cautiously. Somewhere along the way, we lost cellphone and GPS reception. Fortunately, there was only one road to travel on so our getting lost was unlikely. Thus far, our BMW had coped well with the road conditions. When we got to the road leading up to the park reception, it became more rugged and the undercarriage scraped the road. Eventually we could go no further without possibly leaving parts of the car behind. We had to turn back.
We crawled back to the main road and sought alternate accommodation for the evening. We drove along steadily but as the sun began setting, the rally driver in my husband got the better of him.
We made a dash for Ceres, not knowing how far it was. Ahead, we saw dry gravel road and behind, dust. It was dusk when we got back onto a tarred road. As much as we enjoyed the gravel drive, we were thankful to see tar.
When we got to Ceres, we were directed to a municipal camping ground. It looked dodgy and was more of a longstay trailer park than a caravan-and-camping vacation resort. Worcester wasn’t very far so we drove on, only to discover that there was a wedding taking place and all the B&Bs were booked out.
I called Razia and asked if we could arrive at her doorstep later that evening. It was no problem. We got there around midnight. We had to park our dusty car in the street. I asked Razia if she was aware Cape Town was still a part of South Africa — we didn’t want to lose our car. We spent two days giggling, gossiping and gathering our thoughts and then hubby and I had to drive back. — © Nita Soma
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