It was bitterly cold when we woke up and very close to freezing. It was difficult to get away in these icy temperatures. I went to pay and noticed the cutest cat sitting cosily in its well-padded box at the door of the house. It sat there like a guard cat. This lovely cat chose to sleep outside. I chatted to the owner and discovered that they do have accommodation for tour groups and they offer all sorts of activities on their huge cattle farm. I was hoping to buy some meat at Grunau at the Agri garage shop, but they had hardly any stock. We could not believe the clouds of dust that were blowing around. It seemed that a new gravel surface had been put down and they had not realized that in the brisk winds that was blew over the plains, there would be lots of dust. We hoped that Paul and Petra had not camped in this dust in the campsite behind the garage! In Karasburg we filled up and I had better luck at the Spar buying some supplies. I got some meat, bread and fruit.

Now the border lay ahead of us. There had been some negative reports on Facebook in recent times about the Nakop/Ariamsvlei border. The emigration officer at the Namibian side was really miserable and sullenly stamped my passport. When he came to process Stephen’s passport, he firstly photographed it with his cell phone and then pointed out that Stephen did not have the normal 30 days written in his visa. (mine did not have it either!). Our hearts sank. Was this going to be trouble? He pointed out that it was our responsibility to have made sure that this had been filled in. We decided to not even try to point out that we had been given a 30-day visa two days earlier at Mohembo when we entered Namibia the first time and that this was stamped in the passport and that the friendly officer there had probably thought it unnecessary to once again fill it in when we came back from Shakawe a second time. The Mohembo border was also about to close for the day there and he was probably in a hurry. After some more grumpy remarks Stephen got his passport back. We gave a sigh of relief. It was quite a way to drive to the South African side. Here we firstly had to go to the sanitizing station to show our vaccination certificate, get our temperatures measured and fill in some forms. Next was immigration and then followed a queue to have everything checked by the police. We were lucky that it was not very busy, but it still cost us about an hour.

Back in South Africa, I suggested that we go via Riemvasmaak. I have had a “bee in my bonnet” to go back there for a long time and now we were going to pass very close to this beautiful place. I vividly remember one of the locals there telling us that there was a rough track that led from the Ariamsvlei/Upington road to Riemvasmaak. This would be an interesting way to get there and a huge shortcut. It was actually shown on Tracks4Africa and we decided to follow it. We found the track and firstly stopped for lunch in some shade near what looked like a police station. The birds in the bush were very active. We went to the police buildings, but could not find anybody to ask about the track. It seemed reasonably well used and not too rough. It followed the railway line and looked promising. However, after a few kilometres the track crossed the railway line and here three gates met and they were all locked! This was the end of the track for us and we had to go back and take the Lutzputs turnoff quite a bit further on. This was an attractive road, but very up and down and full of little river crossings. It certainly was not going to be a fast road. I was driving and I had to really concentrate not to hit the dips too fast. Then there was suddenly a big surprise on the road ahead of us – a little band of bat-eared foxes were feeding on the road. They were off in a hurry, but I managed to brake and quickly grab my camera. It was a lovely sighting and the second we got to see bat-eared foxes on this trip! As we approached the Gariep River, the cultivated lands and vineyards came into view. It is a very fertile area and there is no shortage of water. In fact it was Japie Lutz, after whom Lutzputs as well as Lutzville on the West Coast was named, who had initiated the incredible irrigation scheme and excellent canal system together with the famous waterwheels. Close to Kakamas the turnoff to Riemvasmaak was well sign posted. On our previous visit a long time ago, the road was in a very bad condition, but this time it was a beautifully smooth gravel road with the last 15 km being tarred. We passed a lot of vineyards along the way.

Riemvasmaak has an interesting history. It was originally settled by Xhosa, Nama, Damara and people of mixed race, but they were forcibly removed in 1974 to their “lands of origin” to make way for a South African military training ground. This meant that many had to move to the Transkei homeland and Damaraland in the then South West Africa. In 1994 after South Africa’s democratic elections the community was given the option to return to Riemvasmaak and 80 % chose to return. It is generally a very impoverished community, but tourism has helped to uplift the economy.

Riemvasmaak had expanded and there were a lot of RDP houses and developments. We passed the coffee shop that belonged to Norbert Coetzee of Voetspore fame. The route to the hot springs was well signposted and as we approached the little tourism office at the reserve entrance, the tourism lady was busy closing up for the weekend, but she told us to continue to the campsite where Henry would sort us out. The route down through the rough mountainous terrain formed by the Molopo River making its way down to the confluence with the Gariep is very impressive and the track gets quite rough. It is definitely 4x4 world. We stopped a few times to take pictures. It was very exciting to be here again. Down at the campsite we were indeed greeted by Henry who showed us a good place to camp. To our surprise the campsite had been developed and there were excellent hot showers and even a power plug at reception. We chose a lovely campsite tucked in between the rocks and then we could not believe our eyes. There were only two other campsites occupied and in one stood a Troopy just like ours! The friendly owners, Nick and Sam were from Cape Town and they had also flown to Johannesburg to buy their Troopy. They loved their little camper and they had also had lots of great adventures with it. We chatted enthusiastically and compared our Troopys. They were very impressed with all the improvements we had done to ours and even took some photographs. After a lovely braai, we wandered down to the spring pools to enjoy soaking in the hot water under the stars. It was a mild evening and perfect weather to enjoy an outside “bath”. It had been a good idea of mine to come here!

Geschreven door Leartravels