We woke up to the sound of dripping rain. It was raining lightly in Nuwerus, a follow up from the 10 mm of the day before. Not much, but unusual for this time of the year and the locals were really happy. Fey was very excited. The March lilies would be coming out now. After breakfast Marianne chatted to Fey, while I pumped the tyres. What had been 2.5 bar in the heat of yesterday was now 1.9! But they were all the same pressure so no slow punctures. It was raining when we set off and we drove in heavy mist at times. The dry hillsides were really enjoying their drink, but we feared that it was not enough to break the ongoing drought. Despite driving quite slowly in the mist we were soon at Vanrhynsdorp. We stopped at the Shell service station at the entrance to town. We planned to do the shopping at the excellent OK Foods there, but it was too busy. They had 500 ppm, diesel but it was expensive, so we decided to try the Agrimark on the far side of town. Here 50 ppm economy was R14.72 so we filled both tanks. Consumption was 7 km/l, not too bad considering that we had done 300 km in 4 wd, with quite a lot of heavy sand and low range. Then it was on to Nieuwoudtville. The Van Rhyn’s pass was shrouded in mist at the top, but this cleared as we got to Nieuwoudtville. It was completely different from flower time with hardly a tourist to be seen. The bakery with their roosterkoek (flower time only!) was closed, but the tourist office at the church was open and Marianne had a long chat to the tourism lady. We shared some of our thermos hot water for coffee, because Nieuwoudtville had load shedding and she was dying for a cup of coffee. We were surprised to see the church garden was covered with parasol lilies (Crossyne flava). Perhaps not as colourful as in flower time, but nonetheless flowers! Before leaving we bought groceries at the Spar, chatted to a coloured fellow who was a great Voetspore fan and had an old Discovery and dreamt of having a Cruiser like ours. We also said hello to the Lizette from Rooikat Guest House who had helped us last time when we were looking for camping. The tourism lady had told us that the March lilies (Brunsvigia bosmaniae) were flowering so we stopped at the municipal flower reserve to look for them. We were a bit early as most were still in bud form or just popping out of the ground. But those that were fully open were spectacularly beautiful. There were also several other species starting to flower. Then it was on to Calvinia, a very substantial town where the tourism lady had told us all the schools were closed because of Covid cases. We made a lunch stop at an attractive roadside stopping place, quite clean as most in the Northern Cape seemed to be. There was little traffic on the road, most of it being big trucks. Pools of water were lying everywhere. It was such a strange sight having only seen this route in very dry times. Next town was Williston where we stopped to have a look at the Williston Mall, an odd collection of all sorts. The hotel, which had been very not so good when Marianne last stayed there, was closed and painted in sorts of funny colours. It looked like a permanent close. There were once again lots of pools of water next to the road in places indicating recent heavy rains, but other areas still looked desperately dry. We did stop at a tributary of the Sak River that was flowing. We wanted to see what seemed to be prepared lands waiting for planting that would probably now happen after the rain. We had read about this. It was now time to look for a stopping place for the night and Marianne phoned two establishments that both proved to be quite far from our planned route. But one told us about a place about 6km before Carnarvon called Sandrivier (0833437271). We stopped at the turnoff and while getting the number off the notice board a bakkie stopped. It was the farmer! He showed us the campsite about 500 meters from the road and said that his wife would come to unlock. It was across the disused railway line – we would photograph the old signs later – and had three campsites and two cottages. But it was rather exposed to the wind. The farmer came himself to unlock and agreed that we could camp in front of the cottage so long as no one else arrived. We didn’t think there was much chance of that so moved immediately. This was much more sheltered. We soon had a fire going and the meat from the Nieuwoudtville Spar was excellent. A distant thunderstorm provided visual entertainment for at least two hours. A black cat appeared out of the dark to keep Marianne company at a distance while I was showering. There was little traffic on the road which was also quite far away. We turned in for another night under the bright Milky Way in a moonless sky.

Geschreven door Leartravels