Friday, 12 June 2009
After spending the last night with our puppies sleeping on the bed with us, we’re up early to leave for our adventure. The most difficult part is always leaving them alone at home. Luckily our friend said he’ll look after them, which took a huge burden off our shoulders.
Saying goodbye to the Puppies
All their blankies in their little house
As you can see, we made sure they’ve got enough blankets to be kept warm 
We start driving towards Cradock where we have our first pitstop for the morning. It visible that it’s getting colder the further we drive to the middle of the country.
When we reach Hofmeyer at around 9:00, a little town with almost nothing, we are about to drive through it when we notice a small little shop advertising breakfasts. It’s decided that we’ll stop off here to have some coffee, tea and breakfast before heading onwards. It turns out to be a cute little shop with a lot of old antiques in there.
Old Sign in Shop
Us infront of the Shop
Haha yes, we did the tourist thing, taking photos in front of all the landmarks
By 11:00 we drove into Burgersdorp. Amazing little place with a golf course that doesn’t resemble a golf course at all. There’s no grass to speak off, so I can just imagine how it must be to play golf there. I realised I had some geocache locations loaded on my GPS, so while we were driving and something was closeby we stopped and tried to find it. It was quite interesting as we didn’t have the clues or anything with us. We did manage to find a few.
Here we are
The view of Burgersdorp
A fort in Burgersdorp
From here we headed on again after a couple more photos were taken.
While driving I noticed a place called Zastron on some of the sign boards. I found this name quite unique and was intrigued to see how this place looked. Although a bit out of our way we decided to head off and see what the place looks like. We ended up visiting a camp site that’s located next to a lake. Looks like a very nice.. and cold.. place to camp over at. I got Bernadette a bit nervous trying to drive up a very muddy little uphill, but decided against it when we start sliding around and not having our trusty 4×4 there. I’m sure it would’ve made it with a bit more momentum
Zastron
After the slight detour we headed on again. I turned into a gravel road which would take us to the Lesotho border post. My idea was to turn just before we got to the border and then drive all along the border towards Clarence. While driving there though we contemplated what’s needed to actually go into Lesotho, and how much time it would add to our trip to reach Clarence before nightfall. We had decided we need to reach at least Clarence today otherwise we’d not make the 2nd leg of the trip to Kosi Bay in time.
Our thoughts were interrupted when a police vehicle that came from the front kicked up a stone that hit the windshield leaving a bit crack. To say that we were angry was an understatement, but we got over it quickly when we reached the border post. I’ve never left our country’s borders, so it was quite exciting to know we’ll be finally stamping our passports. After all the stories you hear about border posts, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect.
Was I amazed when we were greeted by two friendly staff members that told us we only needed our passports to enter Lesotho. Having asked a bit more about road conditions and traveling times we decided to rather give this a skip and carry on through our intended route.
Lesotho Border Post
After a fuel stop and headed on to get to Clarence before nightfall. Our plan was to camp at the Highland Golden Gate Nature Reserve. We’ve heard it was beautiful there and have seen photos, so we were keen on spending the night there. Temperature started to drop though as the sun was getting lower and lower.
At around 15:30 we reached a little padstal called the Cabin. It was just about the right time because we were so hungry and just needed a little break from sitting and driving for so long. It’s a lovely little place with some unique art that you can buy.
The Cabin
After a last fuel stop and getting some braai wood in Clarence, we were about an hour away from our site for the night. We got to the Goldengate Nature Reserve as it was starting to get dark. Just the drive into the reserve is a very beautiful drive. The mountains and formations on either side is something everyone should see! At the reception we quickly booked in, knowing the longer we took the darker it would get and the colder it would get while setting up camp.
By the time we’d set up camp, which was probably a new record, we could no longer feel our hands and fingers. The temperature was now 5 degrees celsius. The fire was made and we sat around it reflecting on what we’d experienced during the day. We saw some cool new places, saw beautiful scenery.
The braai with vegetables went down very nicely, and we headed to bed after that. As we got to sleep new campers arrived and started setting up camp. Fucking inconsiderate people didn’t even try and whisper. At least we were snuggling up nice and cosy in our tent, so that made it all right.
Need Heat!
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