16 January – Citrusdal

The most dangerous roads in the world is the name of a broadcast in the Netherlands on one of the many television channels. Well that road we drove today and he runs between Cederbergen and Wupperthal in the National Park of Cederbergen in South Africa. That we took this road once again had to do with the fixation of Lisa over shoes. She had discovered that they were made in the vicinity of Clanwilliam and so we had to drive through this place. I will report on this, first the journey from Hondeklipbaai.

In advance we were warned by the campsite owner that the road was not so good and that turned out to be so. During 60 km we were shuffled and everything was vibrating in the car. The road was sometimes fine and then you got speeds of around 70-80 km/h but then all of a sudden it was wrong again by large corregations in the road surface that caused the car to ‘ float ‘ to the side. The last 20 km of the road to the main road was asphalt. Delicious just!

We took the N7, southward and drove through a desolate landscape with virtually no trees, only sand and stones. I had the plan to spend a few days in the Cederbergen, a natural park about 400 km north of Cape Town. After the N7, an excellent road, the road was unpaved and narrow. Catch rails were nowhere to be seen and the abyss was deep. Sometimes there were pieces hardened, with vowels, unbelievable. What a work to get those things out there and lay it. We arrived after about 40 km at a vineyard in the middle of the Cederbergen and nearby, about 3 km away, was the campsite. That camp was under the trees and next to a small river and was not crowded. We met a German couple who were travelling for a year and exchanged experiences. We had enough food with us for two days and there was a small shop at the vineyard. That was 3 km walking, in the sun, and they didn’t have that much. Only very nice wine!

In the evening there were a lot of flies just before sunset, but in the night it was very cool. In this area leopards roam around so we had to be a little careful.

So this morning we left and drove on a moderate road to the southeast. The exit Wupperthal came after about 8 km and there was something on the signs that this road was only for 4×4 cars. Well, we have one! Now I have driven a lot in my life but this was a lifetime experience. This road just went straight through the mountains, over rocks, through the sand and over boulders. Occasionally the path was barely wider than the car and the abysses I don’t want to talk about. All the time I was searching for the right gear and speed to keep the car in one piece and in addition I did shoot prayers that no car came the other way. This was a very bad road that was hardly really passable. Fortunately we came across only one car, near Wupperthal and yes, with two Dutch people who asked if it was getting worse. At that moment I drove downhill into the valley in low gearing because the car was no difficult to handle, so steep it was.

In Wupperthal, what Lisa knew from school, we thought we could see many old and quaint houses, but a week ago there was a huge fire that put 50 houses in ashes and 200 people had become homeless. What a total misery and a horrible sight was this. We drove away quickly because here we were absolutely not at our place.

In Clanwilliam, where the Rooibos tea comes from by the way, Lisa finally found her shoes. These are the most expensive shoes in the world!

The campsite in Clanwilliam we found not OK so we drove to Citrusdal where we found one in the Piekenierskloof. Tomorrow we go towards Ceres