The sun got to us early and made the rocks glow. We wished that we could spend another day here. There is a lot to do at Riemvasmaak. There are several 4x4 routes and great walks down into the gorge. After packing up, we had another lovely soak in the little spring pools. It was incredible to be able to look up to the majestic cliffs and wild terrain, while lying in the pleasantly warm spring waters. There was an amazing number of rock martins soaring between the cliffs. The spring was bubbling, and water was flowing through the two basins strongly. We said goodbye to Nick and Sam and made sure to note their contact details (083 415 9991). They often come down to St Francis and it would be fun to meet up again. As we left Riemvasmaak we could not resist dropping into Norbert’s coffee shop. The lady there did not have much to offer and they had run out of milk, but she could make proper “moerkoffie”. We offered to use our own milk and eats and sat down outside. The décor was fun, but the best thing was the cutest little kitten that was very keen to keep us company. It was delightful to have this confident little animal playing and climbing around us and it even landed up on our tray enjoying a few licks of milk!

We reluctantly left Riemvasmaak and headed for Kakamas, where I popped into the new super busy Spar for some supplies, which included a milk tart! We decide to try out the gravel road to Kenhardt instead of following the tar to Keimoes and going north from there. This was an interesting shortcut, and the road surface was generally not too bad. We enjoyed our lunch in the shade of a camelthorn tree along the way. We passed a few active farms, but the farm houses were mostly abandoned. In Kenhardt we followed our GPS to find an Anglo Boer War monument which was situated on a hill above the town. Although we were very tempted to go via Verneukpan, we decided to rather take the road to Putsonderwater and then head for Prieska. Once again, the gravel road was not too corrugated.

In Putsonderwater we were surprised that the old station building we had slept in front of was no more (we have cactii which I salvaged from the once prize winning little station garden thriving in pots at home!). We wandered around in the now mostly ghost town and a friendly man approached us. He was Blackie Swart (0730160180 or 0826051513 for Whatsapp), the only permanent inhabitant of Putsonderwater. He lived there alone with his cat! We chatted and he was very keen for us to spend the night there. Despite being very tempted, we really had to get home so had to refuse his offer. I did take his number, because we might well want to stop there on a future trip. We gathered that quite a few people do overnight there.

Just outside Putsonderwater we stopped to look at some graves next to the road. We did not cross the fence but the closest was one was a lady who died in 1918.
It was getting late and I phoned Gariep Country Lodge where iOverlander had indicated that there was a campsite. We got there as it was getting dark and we were grateful to be off the road. It was getting very cold and I just made a quick supper (pasta with tuna). There was an enormous brand-new overland truck parked next to us and our impression was that the owners were very new to this overland world and that they obviously thought that one had to have such a big “tough looking” truck to travel though Africa. We knew better! The size can be a big obstacle and the cost of entering parks formidable! We were very happy with our compact, but really tough Troopy camper!

Geschreven door Leartravels