Today we are in Springbok, a town in the north of South Africa. We had an easy trip on the N14 of just over 300 km. It was a boring drive through the Kalahari Desert. By now I know the consumption of the car a bit (slightly worse than 10 km per liter of diesel) so it is a bit easier to estimate when to refuel again.
Yesterday we had a great time with first a walk along the waterfalls and then enjoyed people watching at the campsite. It got quite busy and the people who came were mainly Afrikaners and that’s a special brand of people. They are incredibly friendly to you but incredibly stubborn and with stone-hard heads. Near our place there were 8, with 4 cars and 3 trailers. In no time they were lined up as if in a “laager” (see the history of South Africa, grote trek) and the tasks were divided. I was able to save some of the contents of one of their cars from a cheeky monkey that had crawled in. Braai quickly took off after an afternoon nap on the stretchers outside. By 6 a.m., they were all up, dressed in camouflage suits, ready to go hunting.
I have written before about the difference in camping in Europe and South Africa, but I cannot resist doing so again. In Europe, with the potatoes from home, we go to Spain in traffic jams where we put our tent or caravan in a very small spot. Here you go with a tent to a campsite, without traffic jams with only some herbs from home. The campsites are huge, clean and very affordable (€15-20 per night). An important difference is that the African sees camping as being outside, living outside and all this without the luxury of home. They do this almost without exception with sturdy 4×4 campers or SUV’s sometimes with a trailer with something that looks like an Alpenkreuzer but which with huge muscles (Bush Lapas).
And yes, camping is an activity carried out by white people. It’s true!
Tomorrow we head towards Port Nolloth and Richtersveld. I’ll take some pictures for the blog. I did suffer a nasty wound to my foot, but luckily we brought an emergency first aid kit. I’m not going to be walking in the next few days and I’m going to have to wear socks in my sandals.
We have now rented a house for the period between 15 and 28 August in Somerset West near Cape Town
Flim, I feel sorry for the baboon Lisa kidnaps. That poor animal….
?goed verhaal weer. En het beste met je been, voet.
So interesting reading about your adventures. Go carefully and enjoy every moment out there 🙂
Wat is er met je voet?
Mooi verhaal weer ??