We finally got away on what had to be a very different trip in these Covid times. Besides all the usual stuff there were now facemasks, 70% alcohol hand sanitizer, cross provincial border permits and no alcohol. What was positive was very little traffic on the roads. Our route took us along the N2 to the Kareedouw Pass, then to the Langkloof, through the Uniondale Poort to the R341 to De Rust and then to Meiringspoort where we would spend the night. We had decided that we would avoid restaurants, but we soon found that very little was open along our route anyway. Morning coffee was at a roadside picnic stop just before Joubertina. We hardly ever use these stops because of passing traffic, but hardly a vehicle passed. The Langkloof looked very good, green, with plenty of water in the farm dams. Just past Misgund we entered the Western Cape and our documentation was very thoroughly checked. Not only the police permit but also the letter from Eleonore were scrutinized. At Haarlem we turned off to Uniondale and went through the first of our passes where we made an afternoon coffee stop. Uniondale looked much as usual but it was noticeable that no coffee shop type places were open. We were now in the Klein Karoo and there were again signs of recent rain. An event on the road was passing a convoy carrying wind-turbine columns. Approaching De Rust we started to think of finding somewhere to camp for the night. Marianne phoned Meier's Rust and the The Travelling Tortoise. Meier's Rust answered and had no customers and we decided to try it. When we got to the farm, at the entrance to Meirings Poort, we were told that "die baas was bo op die berg", but we could drive up the 4x4 route to try to find him. As it was quite early we set off up quite a steep track. At the top there was no sign of him, but a helicopter was flying around. We later discovered that it was herding eland that had been sold. After speaking to the farmers wife, who was in town, we did a bit of exploring and then headed back down to the campsite. It was very swish, with an 0ablution block for each two sites. After we had set ourselves up we enjoyed Marianne's pre-cooked supper. The farmer, very English, came past on his quad bike and told us what had been going on. His dog was a very happy quad bike passenger. We spent a comfortable night although the nearby road was rather noisy.p

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