Vanputtensvlei – Loeriesfontein: 262 Km
Last night was windy, very windy but it did stop at some point. Still struck by the plague I woke up often because of a sore throat and when the sun rose I was up and ready to go. The usual morning ritual followed, me having my Mama Alles oats, Izabel having her coffee, and then we break camp and pack Putin.
It is just before 8 am when we get back on the road. From Vanputtensvlei we ride a beautiful gravel road to Vredendal, which we reach just before 9 am so the town is still sleepy seeing that it is a Sunday morning.
We just stop to fuel up and then continue to Vanrhynsdorp where we meet Peter and George who are on their way to Namibia. They are Austrian but Peter lives in Cape Town and George, his son, came to visit. Peter then bought a BMW1200GS for George to ride on their father/son adventure. Pretty cool.
After chatting to them a bit and eating a croissant we say our good byes and head off to Nieuwoudtville. On the way we drop in at the Bagdad Cafe, a very cool eclectic cafe where things are different. There are just so many things to see if you look carefully.
Leaving Bagdad Cafe behind we crest the Vanrhyns Pass. It is a tar road but the views from the top is just stunning. I’m not sure how far you can see but I’m sure it’s bloody far. Nieuwoudtville just a few kilometers from the top of Vanrhyns Pass is dead, like in totally dead. It’s a Sunday afternoon and even the garage is closed. We visit the local church building which dates from 1906, a really impressive building. The temptation of waking up the dominee by ringing the church bell on the sleepy Sunday afternoon was great but Izabel did not want to do the unholy deed.
There were several reasons why we took the turn to Nieuwoudtville. To visit the privately owned bike museum, refuel and inflate the back pusher tire which seem to have a slow puncture. None of these were achieved and we stopped in front of the hotel (which is closed of course) and pulled out the compressor to put air into the tire. Nothing, dead as a door nail. After some trouble shooting I found the fuse that has blown and since I (very cleverly) had spare fused right at the bottom of the boot I decided to just use a piece of wire for now.
Sorted we rode the last stretch to Loeriesfontein and was greeted by, yip, nothing. Everything is closed. We’ll sleep at the Smurfs Den B&B tonight. Cannot make the connection between the smurfs and Loeriesfontein but I suppose there is a story there somewhere. According to one of the caretakers at the local old age home there is only 15 residents at the moment because they are ‘dying out’ and there are no new old people.
Arriving at our accommodation there is still enough daylight to do some laundry and get it dry before the sun sets so that’s what we do.
Tomorrow we ride to Verneukpan via Brandvlei and there is nothing, literally nothing in between.
5 December, 2022 at 07:16
It sounds like nothing😉