Our last morning at Klein Boschkloof. We enjoyed another croissant breakfast with Eleanor before packing and saying goodbye to her. Gilbert gets up late so we had said goodbye to him the night before. On the way out of Boschkloof, we managed to find the fields of Viooltjies (orchid family) which Eleanor had told us about. Today's plan was to get to Nieuwoudtville, by either the Moedverloor or Botterkloof Pass roads. We first went into town to fill up with diesel at the Agri (always much cheaper) and buy bread and wine at the Spar and get honey bush tea from the Rooibos centre. There was no luck with brown bread at Spar (they only had white) and Marianne had to go down the road get it from USave. Astonishing! Then it was back up the Pakhuis pass, with a coffee stop at a turnoff onto the old road. Another good stop, but a bit visible from the road for camping. Past the Biedouw turnoff was a new road for me, although Marianne had travelled this route with her tourists before. There were quite a few tourist vehicles around since inter-provincial travel had just reopened at Level 2 and Capetonians were heading for the flowers. The gravel was in good condition and we passed the grader that was busy scraping the road. There were excellent flowers along the road and we also turned off onto a farm track that lead to a field of white daisies. It looked as if farmers were leaving gates open so that tourists could get to flowers without climbing fences. At the Doornrivier, which was flowing strongly, we turned off for morning coffee and took more pictures of large fields of blue and white flowers. When we got to the Rooibos Heritage route turnoff and discovered that it was the road to Moedverloor (lost hope in English) and required 4x4 it became the preferred route. The road started off as a perfect gravel road and then became a rough track, then improved again and deteriorated and improved again as we approached Moedverloor. It was really a lovely road to drive with patches of flowers and lovely views. 4x4 was definitely not required. We got to Moedverloor at lunch time and decided this forlorn looking place would be a good place to stop. The tiny village was deserted, maybe even abandoned. Houses were shuttered and some had collapsed roofs and there was a closed school and koshuis. There did seem to be some activity at a larger house to the north of the little village. We had a leisurely lunch wandering around thinking about those who had grown up here, lived and then left. What were the reasons? It had fantastic potential to restore and turn into tourist accommodation for when the world returned to normal. Continuing along the road, we found that we had left the rough bits behind and it became a road through rooibos farms. What was remarkable were the number of biesieshuise (or reed houses) settlements along the way. We stopped at one to ask about kiddies clothes and explored an impressive cave next to the road. It had once upon a time been used as accommodation and had an ancient dung floor. Further on there were more fields of spectacular yellow flowers before we joined the Botterkloof road. It was now a case of looking for somewhere to camp and we turned into Matjiesfontein. They had camping space available and a friendly old "oomie" told us it would be best to camp on the padstal side of the river where there was definitely good hot water. On the other side at the main campsite he was expecting two caravans later. While chatting to me, he told me that he had worked on the Apple Express line for 30 years. Marianne also found some kiddies to give clothes to. One little fellow was a "weggooi kind" but he seemed well cared for by the farm community. We went for a short walk to the flowers, seeing "cups and saucers" for the first time. It was strange to be here alone and on foot. Last year this time we were driving the route on the farm in a Quantum with 6 ladies. We got a fire going for supper in the convenient skerm. Supper was a welcome braai, the first time we had cooked in this way on the trip. After sitting round the fire keeping warm we showered in the very neat and homely ablution block. We discovered that the old oomie who was the campsite opsigter spent the night in a wooden hut in the campsite and used the same ablutions, which was probably why he knew they worked best. And the two expected caravans never arrived. It was a cold, but lovely evening under the stars with a Spotted Eagle Owl keeping us company with his continuous hooting in the huge Eucalyptus trees above us.

Geschreven door Leartravels