We woke up to a wonderful sunrise with the sun rising over the river to the east. And as the golden glow in the east died so the mountains to the west turned a subtle red. Hopefully the photos will do it justice. We quickly got a fire going to boil water, but breakfast could be more leisurely as we did not have a long way to go. After packing up we drove across to Marius and Leon at the big tree to say goodbye to them. Then we headed for Ramon’s Drift. This was only about 6 km away as the crow flies, but we would have to drive over 20 km to get there. There was a settlement with sheep and dogs where the track from our campsite met the main “road”, but there was no sign of people. Not far along the road we passed a graveyard. Most of the graves were unmarked but there was one headstone for the Spence family. Then we were surprised to see fields of green! It had obviously rained in this area and the sandy areas were covered with short green grass. Also strange were the sand circles in these grassy areas – small almost perfect circles completely devoid of grass. The turnoff to Ramon’s Drift was marked by a sign – the drift to the right and Haragas campsite to the left. The route down to Ramon’s drift was a gentle descent on an undulating sandy track. There was no way of getting to the river as the track down between steep vertical sand banks ended in mud that we could not to walk through, let alone drive. The grassy "beach" had washed away. We stopped on a high bank to the east and enjoyed coffee, watched over by at least fifty very noisy baboons. A few youngsters were having fun with an empty water container. There was a hive of activity at a sandbank where rock martins were diving in and out of their holes and we also briefly spotted white-fronted bee-eaters. We walked to the foundations of an old house about 150 m to the west and a bit beyond it to the grave of John Patrick Massyn, a private in the Cape Mounted Police who drowned in the river on 31 July 1908. A more lonely grave is hard to imagine! We retraced our route up the sandy riverbed and then drove down to see what was at Haragas. There was no one about, but there was a small farm with some interesting derelict vehicles – an old VW combi that seemed to have been used as a chicken coop, a burnt out tractor and a very sophisticated 4wd front end loader with a backacter. This looked quite repairable, but the hydraulics were disconnected and it was slowly going to ruin. There was one operational tractor parked on some recently ploughed land and someone was obviously living there. The track down to the river was washed away and that was probably the fate of the campsite as well. Driving out we headed towards a mountain we named Bobbejaan’s Kop for obvious reasons. It was not far to Goodhouse, which we approached along the main gravel road after joining it about a kilometer from the old house we had visited before. Sadly this was now in ruins. A friendly farmer took us through his adjoining property to the house, now roofless and with the mud brick walls slowly collapsing. But its past grandeur was still apparent. We went to the pump station that had been built for the paprika project that had collapsed. It had been a major investment, but was now stripped and useless. This was in direct contrast to the lush irrigated lands across the river in Namibia. Then we drove to the graves of Karl Weidner and his wife, and the 5 military graves of men of the Sutherland and Carnarvon Commandos who died here in December 1914 and January 1915. Interestingly two of them also drowned in the river. The route then lead to the village of Goodhouse where we found Marius and Leon. They had taken another route to get to Goodhouse and described rough tracks over mountains whereas we had followed gentle sandy tracks. Goodhouse is supposed to be the hottest place in South Africa, with temperatures over 40 degrees regularly recorded. Lawrence Green refers to an average daytime temperature of 43 degrees with night time temperatures of 39 degrees in February 1945. The name is an adaptation of the Khoekhoen Gudaos, meaning “sheep ford”. Goodhouse is a bit more of a village than Witbank and Marius and Leon were at the local shop, recently opened by an Indian. He was quite well stocked. A local fellow named Fernando (062 8247363) came to chat. He said he was the tourism official and was keen to talk to us. When I asked him what had happened to the paprika project and why the fruit orchards that had been so successful when Weidner was running his farm had disappeared, he said “It is the coloured way. We do not like to work” (Dis die Kleurling manier. Ons hou nie van werk nie) We left Leon and Marius and followed the road along the river. This had been damaged by the floods, but was quite drivable, although corrugated, and very scenic. We had to negotiate a herd of sheep and then pulled off under a tree alongside the river for lunch. It was a beautiful spot with the river flowing swiftly past and the peace was only disturbed by an ancient local Hilux bakkie that rattled past. Then we drove under the Henkries water pump system and were shocked to see how the Henkries date and fruit farm had gone backwards from our last visit in 1997. Here we swung south west away from the river on the main Henkries road which was almost overrun by a pipe laying project. (The pipes were to supply Springbok with water). It was a horrible road and we thankfully turned off the road onto tracks again. Luckily we took the wrong turn going off from a rather corrugated main track onto a very minor twee spoor. It seemed to be going in the right direction, but we stopped at a local sheep post to make sure. About six men and boys were living in the shelter of a cave overlooking a windpomp. The fellow Marianne spoke to said “It’s not the main road, but it goes to the same place”. And we did meet up with the corrugated main track about 3 km further on and drove next to it to avoid the corrugations. Somehow we got on the wrong side of a washed down barbed wire fence. Concerned about punctures we were not keen to drive over the wire so I had to cut it. 3 lb hammers have many uses! We had to turn back to get onto the track to the viewpoint and were surprised to find Marius and Leon behind us. We got to the parking place together. There was not much of a view from here, but Marianne followed a faint path to the actual viewpoint and she had a grand view of the river valley beyond the mountains. After coke and snacks we continued to Kamgab. The road got quite interesting, with soft sand, rocky ledges and very tight turns. But it is a spectacular route. It was a bit technical at times, but generally easy going and we got to the river to find another camping place washed away. After driving around in deep sand we found a spot near Marius and Leon, sheltered from the wind, on gravel and elevated enough to give a view. But it was much too far from the river and too muddy to be able to walk to the water. There was plenty of wood for Marianne to collect and we soon had a fire going and again had a super braai using the meat bought at Kakamas. Then it was a quiet evening under the magnificent stars, pleasantly cool and virtually wind and insect free. Our trip down the river was proving to be as good as it gets.

Geschreven door Leartravels