Blogs from Northern Cape, South Africa, Africa - page 4

Vlooisdriff to Trawal, South Africa This was an easy travel day, around 300 km on paved road, making our way down from the high desert plateau into wine country. We arrived at Highlander's and pitched our tents on a grassy terrace overlooking hills of grapes, all hung with fruit just formed. Whip Man and his truck White Nile was already there. We knew he would be, since we were scheduled to have a wine tasting with his group later that afternoon. They are now a small group, and we noticed some tension between two people, who were fighting, which is not an uncommon sight for an overland group, we are told.   This is spring in South Africa. We went for a walk down the road for a few kilometers, just enjoying the scenery, with grapes ... read more

lange zeit habt ihr nichts von mir gelesen... ist mittlerweile ungefähr 3 monate her. alles ging etwas unerwartete wege und dinge sind geschehen die man nicht vorplanen kann... und jetzt bin ich zurück in der schweiz! es ist etwas kompliziert, aber ich mache es ganz einfach: ich bin hier um ein arbeitsvisum für südafrika zu beantragen... oder einen weg zu finden um eines zu kriegen. seit kurzem arbeite ich temporär in der schweiz und werde wohl spätestens vor weihnachten wieder nach südafrika fliegen und mein schatz wieder mal in die arme schliessen! bis zum nächsten mal natali ... read more

One of highlights about travelling is the interesting people you meet along the way. Graatjie and Gerhard, alarmed by the increasing crime rate at Hartebeesport, sold up to travel like us, but 2 weeks later, fell in love with the coast between Pappendorp and Strandfontein so they just stayed. They invited us to park our truck next to their seaside wooden house which they were revamping and kuier with them for a bit. We couldn’t resist their friendly hospitality or the remote setting of their warm dwelling overlooking a disused marine diamond mine so we plakked with them for a week. We have made friends for life. Their neighbours, two brothers deep in their 70’s are salt of the earth people and I was fascinated by their stories as they bggeyed about days gone by. They ... read more

A barn owl sat on the roof of the truck screeching softly right through the night and no it wasn’t a bad omen he was just having take out dinner on the fly. It was quite something knowing he was right above us especially when the truck rocked ever so slightly from his weight every time he took off or landed on the roof above the vent where he sat catching flying insects and massive grasshoppers which were attracted to our light. He probably ate rodents for dessert which we had inadvertently attracted for him by putting those disgusting bones out from those horrible heads. That was the setting for our next stop which was at the stunning waterfalls a few kilometres outside the town of Niewoudville. We stayed a few days, parked on the old ... read more

Giant steps are what we take, but we still move very slowly. We’ve finally left Cape Town, headed for the Warm Bokkekveld (pronounced wwggarrrm bokkggeveiltdt) and 4 days later it really is like being on the moon out here. We’ve taken the R355, a 250 km dirt road from Ceres to Calvinia. It was chilly the first leg of our scenic route as we left the snow covered Matroosberg mountains behind us but the view of miles and miles of fynbos and plenty of birdlife kept us occupied as we flipped through our bird book, marking off sightings just like real twitters. Then we went through Die Poort, the doorway to the Karoo and life on the Warm Bokkeveld got sparser and warmer. Then on the morning of Theo’s 50th birthday (we spent 4 days doing ... read more