It was sad to wake up knowing that we had to go home today. But we had a lot to explore along the way. The skies were still grey, but it was not raining anymore. We had to be alert, because the monkey brigade was out to secure their breakfast from the campers. One sat eating what looked like a very tasty bun, stolen elsewhere, while giving us a challenging look. Marianne could hardly open the camp kitchen door without having to fend off some very keen youngsters and every now and then one heard a loud scream from a camper who had been caught out. Stephen watched them like a hawk. After previous encounters with these little thieves we have learned to be very careful. We had been wondering about a small impact crater in the Kendrew area south of us and we were determined to go and find out what it was about. There was only vague information on the internet but, most importantly, Marianne had found a cell number. Before leaving the Park we stopped at the Andries Pretorius monument that was moved into the Park area in November 2012 because it was being vandalised in it's original position. Our GPS lead us through Adendorp, a suburb on the outskirts of Graaff-Reinet. We had always travelled past without realizing that is was actually quite big and there were lovely houses and smallholdings. A new discovery! We had no idea what we would find at Kendrew, having always just seen the signpost off the tar road, but we did not expect to find a "nothing" place. All the old houses appeared to have been knocked down, but the old plots were still clearly visible. Only one house was standing and a young couple from Graaff-Reinet were enthusiastically restoring it as their weekend house! They explained that the owner of the land had knocked down all the houses to avoid having land grabbers and squatters moving it! A sad story indeed. At the station, the buildings were also deserted and mostly in ruin, but a few of the old railway houses behind it a appeared to still be inhabited. It was very strange to find a fairly new monument to "The Bantu Church of God" with the names of black bishops carved on it and completely fenced in. Why on earth put an expensive monument in a place no one ever comes to? We left Kendrew with very confused feelings. Only later did we read that the whole Kendrew Irrigation Settlement Scheme as it is marked on the map, had been a bit of an investment scam when British First World War veterans were invited to come and live there. An American insurance mongul, Isadore Schlesinger had been given permission to sell an irrigation scheme with promises of a thriving town attached to citrus orchards, winelands and all sorts of wonderful country activities. In around 1926 about 150 settlers arrived, but not much ever came of all the promises. The Great Depression in the 1930's and the devastating droughts did not help either. The settlement only flourished for a brief period, but eventually the residents had to abandon the place. Even the once important railway siding serves no purpose any more and the line is out of service. The couple who were restoring their weekend house had mentioned a name, Jurgen when we asked them about the crater and they had more or less explained to us how to get to his farm. We picked up the route and eventually the road started to follow the railway track again. We got to the sad looking Marais siding and decided that we would have our coffee stop there. Marianne went off exploring and found two lonely graves in the veld nearby. One of a Trooper Morning who had died there in a skirmish in 1901 and the other of Alfred Creed from the Cape Mounted Police who died in 1907. Trooper Morning is noted in the list of Imperial War Graves in South Africa. Once again the futility of war. For King and Empire? Marianne decided to try the cell number she had found on internet and lo and behold a friendly Jurgen answered and explained that he was not on the farm, but his father was and that he would notify his father that we were coming. He suggested that we delay our arrival a bit, because his father was still busy with tourists. The road to follow was indicated by the faded Bulrivier Safaris sign we had noticed at the turnoff. We pottered around a bit more and came to a fork with a very damaged sign not clearly indicating which way we should follow to Bulrivier. So we went to investigate the road to the left. The tractor driver we found advised us to follow the other road, because there were no white people on that farm. So we continued on a fairly good gravel surface, seeing all sorts of things that looked like crater rims! Eventually we crossed the Bulrivier and found some substantial farm buildings and a lot of farming activity. The nameboard said Constantia, so we did a u-turn and then followed the Bulrivier Safaris sign which took us through a game fence, but we soon turned realised that this did not look right. Marianne phoned Jurgen again who gave us directions that got us to the second farm, just past the quite substantial Constantia complex. We met up with Jurgen Smith who was busy loading some guests for a game drive and he told us that the dubious sign had been damaged by the wind during the night. He was super friendly and was expecting us. He enthusiastically showed us the old farmhouse and we discovered that this was probably one of the oldest farm houses in the region. He was the 6th generation of Smiths on Bulhoek and his son, also Jurgen (who we had phoned) was the 7th and a little baby Jurgen who had just been born, the 8th generation! The original Jurgen Schmidt came from Sweden and arrived in the Karoo in 1775 (Graaff-Reinet was only founded in 1786). His son settled at Bulrivier back in early 1800's to serve as the local "vrederegter" (justice of peace) for the early Trekboers who were moving into this area on the so called quitrent farms. He started farming on Bulrivier in 1833. The original living quarters and jail were incorporated in the now Cape Dutch style homestead! The family changed their name to the English version, Smith, to appease the British in the Anglo-Boer War. A picture of all the Smiths was hanging on the wall (except the newest - no photographs yet). He also showed us the little Crater Exhibition and directed us to the site which was about 7 kilometers from the farm house. In was interesting to discover that geologists still regularly come to do research there and there has been exploration for gas and uranium in the past. We were also welcome to drive to the "hunting lodge" and the glam tents (luxury safari tents) he had acquired very cheaply from Botelierskop. While he was enthusiastically telling us all this, his poor guests were patiently waiting on the game drive vehicle! He seemed much more interested in chatting to us. The little crater was easy to find now that we had directions, but one would otherwise never even notice it. It is actually very small (640m in diameter) and very shallow with a faintly outlined rim. We had not really expected much else, so we were not disappointed. Still, it was intriguing to finally be here and we set about exploring. There were various pits dug and boreholes sunk and it was obvious that many people had taken interest in this impact crater in the past. It is rich in lime stone and they have found gas, but quickly sealed that hole. We also saw a huge leguaan disappearing into his hole. We took lots of photographs. It was almost lunchtime and we decided to go and have a look at the "hunting lodge" and glam tents and have lunch there. So we once again went through the Bulrivier Safaris gate and continued on the track that led through the dry and rather desolate looking veld. The drought was taking its toll on the veld in this part of the Karoo. The route took us over a koppie and there below lay the camp. We tried to make out the crater rim with binoculars from this high point, but it was not possible to see it. The camp was rather rustic, but we could imagine that a bunch of hunters could enjoy themselves there. The tourists were back at the tents so we did not go there. The wind was howling again and we had to orientate Troopy with the back away from the wind to be able to sit and enjoy lunch, toasted sandwiches, at the car. We did spot some zebra, but not much else. Jurgen had mentioned that he does not allow hunting at the moment, because he wants to build up his game stock. We did see a surprising amount of small game along the country roads on this trip and especially on the route towards Bulrivier. Perhaps this is as a result of the drought. The animals are possibly looking in the road reserves for food. The parched veld was in sharp contrast to the green strip along the riverbank where huge flocks of sheep were happily grazing on the lush grass. Jurgen had mentioned that the Bulrivier farm had a very strong spring, which had never dried up and they could irrigate and grow fodder. It was now time to really start heading home. The road deteriorated and we were fearing for our tyres. We had survived so far, but this was a road that could "eat" tyres. The route itself was very attractive as it meandered through the low hills and eventually we drove through a very scenic poort before arriving in Jansenville. We came across clumps of Noors flowering profusely. These rather harsh thorny plants have given this part of the Karoo the name Noorsveld. We have one at home that needs to be transplanted and we decided to take back a bag of Noorsveld soil for the larger pot. We did not go into Jansenville, but turned right towards Port Elizabeth. Almost immediately we got to a stop and go. Roadworks were happening. They were well overdue as this stretch of road had suffered overuse by heavy trucks. Not much further on there was another, but we got through this one quite quickly. We were hoping to make some better progress, but there was quite a headwind that was slowing us down. Or so I thought. Not much further on there was a horrendous noise and I had to pull off very quickly. A flat tyre! The "headwind" was the tyre loosing pressure. We breathed a sigh of relief when we realized that the tyre itself did not seem to be damaged. At home we discovered that the tube and flap had been damaged beyond repair. The wheel was quickly changed and we were on our way again. A little bit later I suddenly felt very tired, probably the result of the stress of the blowout and wheel change. Fortunately Marianne drives Troopy as well as I do and could easily take over. The 10 days had gone so quickly and we had so many great experience and saw new places and met wonderful people. We were already talking of the places we had to go and explore on our next trip! Back in Port Elizabeth, we collected the cats and at home found a lush overgrown garden and all was fine at the house.

Geschreven door Leartravels