Cederberg 7 Dec 2022

Groblershoop – Vryburg: 465 km

Today we get up at the crack of dawn because it is a long day of 465 km. Half of this is gravel. Because of load shedding, we could not settle our bill yesterday. We arranged to only leave at 7 am after the office opens. We arrive at a locked door and nobody answers the bell or phone calls. Not to waste time we decide to settle later via EFT.

Now here is the weird thing about traveling, and I’m not sure if I’m the only one that experiences this.

the longer the day the more boring it is. We always have the most amazing experiences when we have a short day planned. Whenever we have a long day then we don’t see anything that is out of the ordinary.

It soon becomes apparent that this will be one of those days. The R309 to Postmansburg is bad but it’s not good either. The recent rains left scars all over the road and it is a constant dance to navigate the potholes. You know that when they put up a sign warning you about potholes on a gravel road that you are in for something special.

From Postmansburg we turn onto the R31 past Danielskuil. It is on this stretch of road that plans started to unravel. With just over 200 km to go the plan was to visit the Wonderwerk Caves and then take the R373 to Vryburg. Getting access to the Wonderwerk caves takes a wonderwerk. It is closed with no signage indicating where and how to gain access. Since it is a national heritage site I suppose access control is in order but then do a bit more than just installing gates. Well, at least now I know the evidence of the first controlled fire is claimed to be found here (don’t ask me how you prove this).

Back on the road, the turn for the R373 is fast approaching. I slow down, slow down, slow down but the turn eludes me. There is no road. I still need to investigate this but it is very weird because an R road is well known, and used in some cases and how it can be on my map but not found is weird. My options are to continue straight to Kuruman and then to Vryburg via the N14 or take another small road that backtracks. Since this is already a long day I’m not keen on backtracking and adding a potential 50 km to the distance so I foolishly opted to continue via Kuruman.

Anyhow, no use crying over spilled milk. We did the long boring frustrating 150 km and eventually got to Kameelboom Lodge just 10 km outside of Vryburg. Just before we arrived clouds started forming and the temperature dropped a bit, you could feel the rain in the air. I book a campsite under a large Camelthorn tree but as I walked back to go get Putin from the reception area something in the back of my mind said ‘get a chalet’. That would impress Izabel because I could see how she looked at the chalets when we drove in. So I did and am I glad because that evening the rain bucketed down.

The lodge itself is a very interesting building. The centerpiece inside is a large tree trunk with side branches going everywhere. Initially, I thought that it was a dead tree but no, this is a living growing Camelthorn tree that weaves its way in and out of the building.

We had pork chops with chips and salad for dinner before going for a walk to look at the sunset and step in some thorns.