Paul and Petra were up early. Paul was expecting a long drive to find a tyre, while Petra was convinced that they would be able a buy a second hand spare in the park. My money was on Paul having to go to Port Nolloth at least. We waved them goodbye and had a leisurely breakfast before driving to the end of the road to try to get to the river. It was a long walk over boulders, but it was lovely to be on the banks of the Orange River again. Marianne cleverly identified a broken canoe as an orienteering point for the way back and we wandered a distance upstream. When we looked for the canoe it had disappeared, but our shorter route back over less difficult boulders luckily got us almost to Troopy. We drove back to the campsite for coffee and heard Ssyril approaching. Petra had been right and they were given an almost worn out tyre by the Parks people, who kindly fitted it as well. We wanted to go to Sendeling’s Drift to buy some supplies from the shop and use the showers. So we left Paul and Petra to do their walk up a side stream. For “stream” one should read “sandy river bed” – water seldom flows here. The shop was open and we bought bread, potatoes, biscuits and milk and then went to the office to get the exit permits that the girl at reception had omitted to give us when we arrived. We wanted to speak to the technical staff about another tyre for Paul, but they were out in the field so we went across to the camp site and had lunch and showered. We also made use of the electricity to charge our appliances. The technical staff were back after lunch and were happy to give us another tyre. It had plenty of tread although the sidewall had a shallow cut. They said that they had fitted similar tyres to split rims using tubes, but I wasn't so sure. But it would be perfect for Paul if he lost another tyre. Before we left we went to the nursery and had a long talk to botanist Pieter van Wyk. He was able to fill us in on the effects of rising temperatures on the Park vegetation. It seems that the plants are able to cope with the extreme summer temperatures, but the rising winter temperatures combined with the ongoing drought had devastated the endemic Aloe Pearsonii. He was incredibly knowledgeable about all aspects of the Park's botany, geology and weather and we chatted for almost 45 minutes. He also mentioned that a massive cold front was expected. We had seen it on Google weather too. Then we drove back to the campsite, stopping along the way to walk down to the water again at the turnoff just before the Potjiespram trees. We made our way over some wonderfully smooth and weirdly shaped rocks and then the usual “shore” of round boulders to get to the water. Back at the camp we talked about a day that had promised to be challenging for Paul and Petra, but had turned out quite well. We had an extra spare tyre and Paul tied it onto his roof rack. We braaied for supper and then made a monster fire to burn rubbish with our vast supply of exotic Tamarisk wood that can be burned at Pootjiespram. It was very quiet and moon was now rising quite late, so the stars were dramatic. Our turtle dove called quietly in the darkness again and sleep came easily after a relaxed day.

Geschreven door Leartravels