25 - 27 January 2013 - Port Nolloth

Slept very late the next morning and went for a drive, exploring the full available 8km and then sat on the Roof of Namakwa with a 360 degree view of the area discussing our plans for the day.

The Roof of Namakwa

 We had planned to spend 2 nights in Namakwa as a bit of a rest, however, with the very limited area available to us we decided to book out early and go to Port Nolloth a day earlier.

Springbok is really very central in the area as we had to pass that again on our way to Port Nolloth via Steinkopf. 

The road is long, straight and tedious, however, after Steinkopf you really notice that you are moving towards the Namib desert.  The sand turns far more white / grey than the red we were used to seeing in the Kalahari and the plant life (such as it is) became sparse. 

The temperature in Namakwa was far more temperate and with a breeze going on the hill very pleasant, however, driving through Steinkopf we reached 39.5 degrees again.

We packed our water bottles in the freezer at Namakwa but were not able to drink it as the water is strangely salty and has a strong smell.  Steinkopf is not more than 20 houses in the desert, no discernible shop or cafe to get cold drinks.

The road to Port Nolloth is a pass through the mountains where the desert area really becomes noticeable. 



View to the left



View to the right

There is nothing to see for miles, even crows that you see everywhere does not bother to live near the road.  You also do not see entrances to farms etc. on the road as all the land belongs to Alexkor - the government owned Diamond mining company.

The town itself is charming.  We stayed at Bedrock Lodge in the Grace room, it’s a lovely old Scandenavian wooden house, with Yellow wood floors from Knysna.  Very warm welcome and a hearty breakfast cooked up every morning.

Bedrock Lodge

The view from our room

The Grace room

The Bathroom - its HUGE

Had supper at Vespetti, the local Italian restaurant.  You have to bring our own alcohol and they do not charge corkage.  Great lasagna and Mexican Pizza.

International car companies often do Government approved high speed testing in the area as the dry mountain area and hot conditions as well as the coastal air lower down is ideal testing area.  Fiat was in town when we were around so the Restaurant was crowded with the drivers relaxing. 

During breakfast the next morning, we discussed our upcoming stay in Alexander Bay with the guys at the Bedrock.  Had a tip-off that the self catering accommodation may not be what we expected and as it is only 95Km from Port Nolloth we decided on an early reconnaissance mission to investigate. 

The road is in good repair and tarred.  EVERYTHING belongs to Alexkor from there on.  All the fences next to the road have warning boards and as you drive into down a boom-gate bars access to the bay area.  This is where the Orange River meets the Atlantic Ocean and after travelling through near desert for the past 2 days it was like meeting an old friend.  The river is sluggish this far and a more blue colour than inland.

The rondawels we had booked is not in the bay area, we were to discover, but some 20km out of “town” on a dirt road. 

This at last, was the desert sand dunes of my imagination.  The sand is near white in colour with a strange green tinge in areas, huge dunes around the road and it feels like just the loneliest place on the planet.

 

A stop on the way to Alexander Bay

Police college - we did not stay

Proper sand dunes!

 

Our “informer” turned out to be correct.  The accommodation is very old (about 1960) in, officially, the middle of nowhere with no network coverage and little comfort facilities, no shops etc.  While our goal was to live in far off, small, deserted places on our trip, Neville was adamant that this reminded him far too much of police college so we promptly cancelled our booking and decided on a 3^rd night in Port Nolloth.

As we were only planning on 1 night in Port Nolloth we did not do too much research on tourist attractions in the area so spend Saturday and Sunday being excessively lazy.  Driving around the area exploring, reading, making up sleep debt and walking around the town and beach.

Diamonds drive everything remaining in Port Nolloth.  De Beers and Trans Hex has diamond dredging facilities and you can see the dredges from the beach.

 

One of the dredges on the beach, being re vamped

6 of them were out this morning - vacuuming up the seabed

A dredge out vacuuming - the pipe at the back is used
by the diver to vacuum the sand from the seabed.  They
are out there for up to 8 hours a day - it is very cold,
between 12 and 15 degrees 

 

Illegal Diamond buying and trade in uncut (rough) stones used to be rife during the early 2000/1 period and apparently there were more Mercedes Benz and BMW’s per capita in Port Nolloth than in the rest of South Africa.  Eventually the Police did a raid in the Mc Dougal’s bay area and found people with no jobs but thousand in US Dollars under the mattress.  Lots of property available on the market now.

Interesting town with lots of gossip if you are willing to sit and listen to the locals.  Plenty of characters in the area, especially the Kotze family that seems to own everything in town and, depending on the source and story, is a mixture between the Mafia and the Broeder-bond!

We had supper at the Scotia Hotel on Saturday.  Fantastic Prawns, very reasonably priced.  The Scotia Hotel is right near the dredging facilities, and this is where the Divers converge early morning and wait for favourable weather conditions to go out and “vacuum” up diamonds from the bottom of the ocean. 

24 January 2013 - Namaqua National Park

Left Hondeklip Bay after Breakfast and had to drive back to Springbok for supplies.  Garies and Kamieskroon’s shopping would just not cut it.

The drive to the park was tough.  The road is not in great condition and it’s about 20km dirt road to the gate, many sections are so bad we were reduced to no more than 10km/h.

SANPARKS does warn you before-hand that the “bulk” of the park is assessable only with a 4x4 vehicle.  They should specify that less than 1% of the park is accessible with a normal car.  This means a circular route of 8km from the gate to the camp – Skilpad Rest Camp. 

We would not have booked 2 nights had we known what a small section we were able to view.  Even out of flower season the park is gorgeous, untouched with rolling hills.  It is a bit surreal to sit in a National Park and watch the sheep munching next to the rest camp!  We did see a Jakkals, Springbokke  and some dassies but for the rest the park does not support a lot of wild life in the Skilpad area.

The accommodation was something else.  Normally the SANPARKS cottages are not real flush but these were great.  The “stoep” (veranda) at the back offers a great view of the Kamies berge and a spectacular sun set. 

We were very cafefull to only stay on the road

Skilpad rest camp Cottages

The Lounge area - I'm already reading

The view from the Stoep

We spend the afternoon watching movies, sleeping and walking around.  After a week of driving it was great to have nowhere and to go and no time frame in which to get there.  The camp was deserted – it only has 4 cottages and only 1 other was occupied, even though, when making the booking we were advised that they are fully booked – in fact, they did not have open spots at the beach camp!

The cottage has an indoor braai and we had a meal fit for a king (a normal South African braai) on the stoep watching the last colour fade from the sky.  It only gets dark by 8:30 in the Northern Cape.

23 January 2013 - Hondeklip Bay

From Springbok to Hondeklip Baai is about 110km.  We went via Garies which includes about 83km of dust road.  The road is not pleasant in places, but the scenery is beautiful although a bit sad.  There are many abandoned farm houses on the way, makes you realise how difficult it is to live here and make it work.

A abandoned Farm house on the way, you see many of
these on the roads through Namakwa, very sad

Stretches for miles

Not at all glamorous! 

SMALL, but it does have a supermarket -the Garies SPAAR :)  vs SPAR

The road may be a trail but is absolutely worth it.  The town is small, gorgeous on the bay and this was just one of the bests visits of the trip.

Welcome to Hondeklip Bay

The Dog Stone - a bit disappointing as it now resembles
a frog or a dassie

Every beach is covered by stretches of Mussel shells

The lighthouse

 

Die Honne-Hemel (Dog Heaven) - everything is doggie related

Honnehok (Dog Kennel) Chalets

 

We stayed at Skulpieskraal and AnneMarie and Laurens Van Vuuren could not be friendlier or more hospitable.

Our dome tent

Yep - Neville had to sleep on that bed - foetal position all night !

Again a tent, this time a 2 man domed tent under a "wind skerm".  The ablutions is a separate shared block, which normally I don't enjoy, but as it was mostly empty and INCREDIBLY clean, it really did not bother me that much.

You can have supper at the Rooi Spinnekop Restaurant.  It's part of the facility and run by AnneMarie and Laurens.  They cooked us up the most fantastic supper of Kreef (for me) and Prawns and Hake (for Neville) and even fresh salad!! Trust me, this far from a Food Lovers Market, you start to really appreciate fresh fruit and veggies.

The Rooi Spinnekop - where "food alchemy" happens

There were 2 other visitors at Skulpieskraal (Jessie and Anne) and together with Laurens and AnneMarie we talked, laughed and shared stories until the wee hours.  It was a incredible visit.

Me and Jock Rossow - went to School with my Dad
in Kimberley - met him by accident at the Rooi Spinnekop!
What a small village we live in

The food is priced VERY reasonably.  We also met some other "locals", Jock and Ben and had a great time laughing with them.  They are all from the area and real characters.

We had breakfast the next morning and were treated to a feast before we left.

Definitely one to return to.  Highly recommend it and well worth the trip to get there.

22 January 2013 - Off to Springbok via Pofadder

Yes, it really exists!  Not sure about this one yet, but will see on the way back

The view from the Room.  Very rocky, but stunning.

The room.  VERY new, we are the first visistors.  Still busy building the new section.

We did a early reconosince of the Pofadder Hotel as we have reservations on our way back.  Will have to see.  First time in years we've seen a Hotel with liquor offsales (bottle shop) next door - with, needless to say, many thirsty guys sitting across the road.  Was not able to find the tourist info centre in Pofadder and for serious brocheru travellers like us it was a bit disappointing.  It seems bar the flowers once a year, there is not much else - the beautifll harsh scenery makes up for it though.

The road to Springbok seemed endless!!  Straight, 311 Km with numerous stop / go sections.  It is great to see how much roadwork is going on in even these remote towns, many of the roads are in far better condition than in Gauteng.  We hoped to see the town everytime we crested a hill, but was met with more and more straigth tar road.

The road to nowhere

The town itself is great - even had a Nando's.  And, as Neville always notices, if a town sells 95  unleaded petrol, it's a cut above the rest.  People are really friendly, the town is very clean, but they seriosuly cannot drive!!  Who on earth does 60 on the highway!!  Sadly, no good shoe shops :(

21 January 2013 - Khamkirri Private Reserve in Kakemas



We left for Kakamas early morning and travelled via Upington.  Had to stop and buy the most unspeakably ugly shoes as my dainty flops was just not up to the river walks!  Also stopped of for wine at the Orange River Wine sellers.  On the banks of the river, as you drive into town, the most amazing sight of bright green wine vineyards greet you, after driving through near desert it is a fantastic sight and a testament to the wonder of water.  Their wine is great and we always try to buy a few boxes when we are in the area.

From Upington it's up to Keimoes and Khamkirri Lodge is on the Orange River, just before you reach the Pink Padstal outside Kakamas.



The Tented Accommodation



The View from our tent

The tent's are very luxurious and the welcome and greeting could not have been more friendly.  We spend the afternoon warding off dehydration as it was SERIOUSLY hot and swam in the river - again, sadly, no diamonds!

The Deck on the river - perfect for sun downers - yep, our first stop !

Made a friend - this one even eats fruit salad!  Check the unspeakably ugly shoes :(

"Roughing it" - Neville and Chris style



In a tent!

We completely misunderstood the supper arrangements. You are suppose to place your order before 16:00 so the day staff can prepare everything before they leave at 17:00 and then, when you are ready, you wander up to the deck and your meal is served.

We, rather to enthusiastically, started sun downers early, and when we wandered up at 19:00 to order supper was told that everyone had already left and that we should have ordered earlier.  Came in George to the rescue.  What a fantastic guy, cooked us up a perfect steak, chips and salad with Red Wine.  With a stunning view of the river, it was the best!

  Gets seriously hot at night so sleeping, even in our luxury tent, was a battle and as we forgot the peaceful sleep at home - got munched to bits by every flying thing in the Kakamas area.

20 January 2013 - Groblershoop -Met up with Jaco and his family, an old school mate

s

Stealing Grapes



Ladies having a dip

Jaco my pel!

Anne-Rita's Red Roman Spider aka Bliksem

We travelled to Groblershoop from Kimberley, about a 2,5 hour drive.  Were booked in at Kheis Riverside lodge - AWESOME, and after booking in went to visit a old school friend.  Neville and Jaco played in Linden High School Kadette band (if you know what we are talking about, welcome to your late thirties! :) ) together and have not seen each other in 20+ years.

What a great visit.  Jaco, Liza and Anne-Rita live in paradise and are happy to share with old friends.  We even had fresh home baked bread with honey! What a treat, and went swimming in the Orange river late afternoon.  We stopped on the way to "steal" some grapes.  This is always a debate.  I'm of the opinion that if there is no fence, it is for everyone to share - Neville does not agree - Must be the old cop in him not giving up.

Jaco's dog's even eat grapes!  Have you ever .....

We were also treated to a viewing of the local monsters.  A Red Roman spider (haarskeerder), ugly as sin, and even bigger than my fertile imagination could see - if this moves in at Roodekrans - we are moving out, it can have the house!  Jaco also helped with co-ordinates for old family farms we want to visit to get photo's of old graves (morbid, I know) and a great help as it is near impossible to get any other way.

We stayed at Kheis Riverside lodge.

Kheis Riverside Cottages.  Great place to stay

The view from our cottage.  RIGHT ON the river

Our first braai on this trip, view from the deck.

The riverside chalets were just gorgeous.  Clean, well equipped, RIGHT ON the river, about 30 or so paces.  Squirrels and warthogs as neighbours with a swimming pool - not required as swimming in the river is far more fun.  Definitely recommend this place, friendly welcome, great ambiance.

20 January 2013 - Magersfontein Visit

 

We visited the Burgher grave memorial on Saturday afternoon but had to come back Sunday morning to see the actual battlefield as we just missed closing time.  The Burgher grave memorial is a a perfect cross if seen from the top and the four sides of the peak symbolise the four provinces coming together after the war. 

It was a seriously sad place to visit.  The War Graves Committee has re-buried many of the soldiers that dies fighting for South Africa on this spot and some of the stories is really touching.  The air of neglect around the grounds also adds a feeling of despair.   The granite gravestones seem fairly new but there are weeds and grass growing everywhere from the paving stones.





Burgher Grave Memorial



The Memorial Write up - One of the burgher's re-buried here is Adrean
De La Rey

The Battlefield Museum was great.  The Kopie gives you a view of the whole battlefield and shows a map of how the battle unfolded and how South Afria (brilliantly) outwitted the British attack.

The View of the Battlefield

The Map of the Battlefiled showing the trenches to the
right of the Kopie

The standard battle plan in those days was to move your forces to the top of the kopie if you held the siege.  With the introduction of artillery into the mix, the opposing forces would just show up and bomb the hell out of the top of the hill - game over.  So when Genl. Cronje who commanded during the siege of Kimberley heard of the advancing British troops he stasioned the South African forces at the top of the hill.  Genl. De La Rey returning from the burial of he's son argued that the forces should be moved to trenches at the foot of the hill.  When the British arrived under command of Major General Lord Methuen, after a night march, they played according to the rules and proceeded to bomb the top of the kopie which only served to announce their arrival and intentions to the Boer troops in their trenches.  We held the day but then lost the siege of Kimberley 2 months later at Paardeberg (to hopefully be visited on our way back).

After their dismal defeat (the 3rd one that week!!) they started using "spy" balloons.  These were mini hot air balloons with a soldier inside, hanging on for dear life while making a drawing of the battle layout prior to attack.

For more info :-  http://www.britishbattles.com/great-boer-war/magersfontein.htm


The site has a separate museum near the top of the hill, very well done.  There is a separate room where you are in a trench, with 2 other Boer's and you watch a video of their view as the British troops advance.  It tells the story of the Highland troops that lost nearly a whole Brigade during the battle being that surprised by the trench attack from the boers.

The 2 Boer "Soldiers" with us in the trench

The rest of the museum shows the name of the fallen as well as some of the South African "pop-pop" cannons and uniforms used etc. - definitely worth a visit if you are a battlefield addict.