5 – 6 OCTOBER 2020
With heavy hearts, we said goodbye to the Karoo National Park early on Monday, 5 October 2020.
The objective for the day was to get as many kilometres behind us as possible – not the way that we like to travel, but in this instance, a necessary evil. We drove north on the N1 and then turned off onto the N12. In Victoria West, we looked for a coffee shop to have breakfast, but our search did not deliver anything that looked suitable or appetizing to us. I have also started to realise that Andre is even less inclined to stop and browse around when Miss Daisy is hooked on. Parking with a caravan is not always the easiest thing to do. In the end, we drove further on the N12 and stopped at a roadside picnic spot. By this time, I was ravenous. Our coffee, rusks, the leftover pork ribs, and braaibroodjie, really hit the spot.
A little further north Andre spotted these weird, dark blotches moving from west to east across the asphalt. We stopped to investigate. It was a large swarm of small locusts, all trying to cross the road. As interesting as it was, we hoped that this would not be the beginning of a plague for the farmers in the area who were already hit hard by a severe drought.
In 1991, I spent my first year of teaching English at Kimberley Technical High School – a wonderful school where I could lay the foundation for my teaching career under the mentorship of my HOD, Mr Small, and the principal, Mr Terblanche. Andre and I frequently drove this route back then. As we continued north from Victoria West through Britstown, then Strydenburg and Hopetown, it was sad to see the neglect in these once beautiful little towns. However, one of my saddest experiences on our trip, was to see the condition that Kimberley was in. This once affluent small city was dirty, the streets lined with litter, and the roads in a state of total disrepair. Everywhere there was evidence of development taking place, but it looked haphazard and incongruent.
After Kimberley, we headed further north into unknown territory. We drove past Warrenton and into the North West Province. Andre was getting tired and it was getting late. I phoned ahead and booked a spot at the Christiana-on-Vaal Resort. People had warned us about the terrible roads and the massive potholes in the northern parts of the country, but we were still baffled by the condition of the streets in Christiana. The asphalt had degraded to such an extent that only patches of tar remained, which stood out like little table mountains on the gravel road. It was actually safer to drive on the shoulder of the road than to risk hitting one of these massive molehills.
The manager, Brenda, welcomed us with open arms at Christiana-on-Vaal. (Find them on Facebook / brendavanaswegen@gmail.com / 0724505708) We were the only midweek campers and could choose any of the beautiful, grassed caravan sites right on the banks of the Vaal River. Andre was eager to do some fishing from his kayak before sunset. He just got the fire going and I promised to cook for a change. Life does not get better than this: sitting next to the fire with a Savannah, watching the river flow by as the sun is setting. My tinned mussel and cheese pasta pot did not taste too bad either.
The campsite at the resort is far from the office at the end of a long, winding lane with mostly empty holiday houses. From the back road, it all looked a bit maplotterig (run down and disorganised), although Andre says the front facades of the houses were aesthetically more pleasing when viewed from the river. The bathroom was set a little bit too far away from the campsite up a long flight of stairs. I felt too nervous to go to the bathroom alone after dark. Since we were the only campers, Andre could share the ladies’ bathroom with me so that I did not have to shower on my own. Even though it was a beautiful campsite with a stunning setting on the river and neat and clean ablutions, we were a bit on edge that evening and did not feel safe.
Early the next morning, after coffee and rusks with a million-dollar view, we were on the road again.
Our first stop was at the Bloemhof Dam. We were amazed by the size of this dam. It is one of the largest dams in South Africa and renowned for excellent angling.
We then continued through Klerksdorp to Potchefstroom. Here we took a detour off the N12 to drive through the campus of North-West University. We were surprised to see so much activity on campus, especially because our kids and their friends were all still studying online.
We contacted our friend, Philip, who studied town planning with Andre. He sent me a location pin for the construction site where he was working in Fochville. When we left the NWU campus, we were a bit rushed and nervous about the boom closing onto Miss Daisy. Andre urgently needed directions to get out of Potchefstroom and onto the N12 again. I forgot about Philip’s location pin and just typed Fochville into Sannie (Google Maps). We were driving merrily along into a suburb of Fochville when Philip’s daughter, Trunette, phoned me. “Tannie, are you in Fochville yet? Someone with a CG-caravan just drove past us on our way to my dad’s work?” Oh, my word! Sannie was taking us to wherever she thought the centre of Fochville was! We had driven past Philip’s site about 5 kilometres back already. Time for a U-turn! Not the best navigator in the world, am I?
We finally met up with Philip, Trunette and her boyfriend, Danie, on site. After catching up over a welcome cup of coffee, Philip showed us their social housing project. Unfortunately, we could not visit with them for too long, because we still had to find a sleeping spot for the night near the Hartebeespoort Dam.
We travelled north from Fochville on the R500 past Carletonville towards Magaliesburg. I searched for a caravan park next to the Hartebeespoort Dam in vain. Just before five o’clock, I saw that the ATKV had a resort close to Rustenburg near the Buffelspoort Dam. Luckily, we could still make a booking for the night. Sannie nearly led us astray onto a dubious gravel road again, but Andre turned around after about 500 metres. We were not putting Miss Daisy through another ordeal! In the end, we had to drive all the way around the Magaliesberg Nature Area. We only arrived at the ATKV Buffelspoort Resort after dark, which was a bit stressful. Nothing that the beautiful setting next to a little stream, a glass of wine and a T-bone over the coals could not fix though.
