Jeffrey's Bay – 5 September 2021

Today is Saturday, September 4, 2021 and it’s been a long time since I’ve put something on my blog. That’s because there just wasn’t that much interesting happening actually but I also lacked the desire to write something. Visiting family is extremely tiring and especially if you stay with three sisters and their mother in 1 house it is very exciting. That’s all I’m going to say about it……

 

Of course, a lot has happened in the past weeks. Lisa’s goal was to arrange a number of things in her mother’s house and the progress there, despite protests from her 81-year-old mother, is quite good. The bathroom has been tackled, the décor of the living room, a huge amount has been thrown away such as an inefficient freezer, the tombstone for her  father’s  grave will be delivered on Friday and a freestanding fireplace has been ordered for the cold winter months. The latter will  be installed next week. Of course, the daily care for Lisa’s mother necessitates a lot more conversations, but you have to start somewhere.

 

After almost a week in Dysselsdorp I had to leave and we left for the east. Last night we arrived at a campsite at the beginning of the Baviaanskloof called Uitspan. Three years ago we were here too and it is really a beautiful place. At night it is really completely quiet except for the sounds of birds and baboons. Of course, the Milky Way is visible because it is really earth dark. Because there is a small canopy on every camping pitch (including shower & toilet) with a BBQ it was good to keep out in the evening. In the morning it was very cold but the sun makes short work of that.

It is good to note that spring has started here so the night temperatures have become more bearable and climb up every day. Last week there was snow in Cape Town and the mountains were white and that is no longer the case at all.

 

This morning we walked to the road early to see a bike ride through the Baviaanskloof (Transbaviaan). Hundreds of mountain bikers had sometimes already started at 5 am in Willowmore  (30 km away) to ride this trip in 24 hours (230 km). The roads here are moderate to bad so it is still quite a challenge to get this done within the set time. When it gets dark and the finish line has not yet been reached, the riders have to spend the night in this area and yes there are wild animals (baboons but also leopards). That’s why they drive in teams so that, if something happens, the emergency services can pull out.

 

 

 

A beautiful sight is also the halo around the sun that was there this morning.

 

There is no mobile telephony possible here at all.

 

We took another walk in the vicinity of the campsite. The first was through a gorge towards the source of the river which takes care of the water here. Truly breathtaking to do this because the gorge was just 10 meters wide and sometimes went up steeply. The walls were at least 30 m vertical.

 

At some point it became more and more climbing and no more hiking and we decided to play it safe and descend back to the campsite.

 

From there we took the ‘arch’ walk which went up steeply but accessible.  The view became more beautiful over the Baviaanskloof until we finally arrived at the ‘Arch’ and sat there a bit.

 

Tomorrow we drive through the gorge towards Port Elizabeth and then we will see again.

 

Today I experienced the most exciting ride of my life. It all started simply on a fairly accessible road towards Port Elizabeth through the Baboon Gorge. This is a dry area about 60 km from the Indian Ocean parallel to the coastline separated by 1200 m high mountains. The distance to Patensie  (the end of the gorge) from our campsite is about 160 km. After about 30 km, the road began to get worse with corregation that was unpleasant. To our surprise, we suddenly had to stop and pay admission (75 Rand per person) and then it got really bad. The road narrowed to no more than a car track and to make matters worse, there was suddenly a serious mountain pass with abysses and a track that actually only allowed 1 car. Both Lisa and I started to get very worried because we still had to cover a serious distance and we couldn’t drive faster than 20 km /h. However, it got even worse after this mountain pass where fortunately we did not encounter any oncoming traffic.

Instead of a track to drive, it now became a collection of stones that shook us together and took the utmost of the car. In several places we had to go through the water, at the end even about 200 m where the car started to skid in the all-wheel drive.

 

The worst was yet to come, namely the last mountain pass. This consisted of a track, just wider than the car, that was filled with, broken, asphalt. On the intervening pieces were deep holes that demanded the utmost from the car but also from me. Fortunately, the low gearing here helped tremendously. I estimate the slopes at 30 degrees (50%) and with each hairpin you had to try again to find the right spur while the abyss was near.

 

The sweat ran through my buttocks and I can rightly say that all this took me to make sure that the car and the occupants arrived safely. This is the worst road I’ve ever driven and seen. The car has held up incredibly well. Certainly the low gearing was a huge help but also the stiffness of the bodywork and the springs was exemplary.

 

After about 120 km (4 hours drive) we were out of the park and we came into a beautiful landscape with orange trees and beautiful farms.

 

Now we are at a beautiful campsite near Jeffreys Bay (surf capital of the  world).

 

What do we do tomorrow? I don’t know yet. Now first some wine and food