I know what you're thinking. Let me guess. You want to know how the trip went? Right? Well, before I get to that, let me just ask this question: "Why is everyone always in such a rush to get where they're going?" Life is a journey after all. I just don't get it.
Anyhow, I left on Saturday morning (a bit later than I would have liked) and hit the road along with my brother and his family. It's amazing how beautiful the world is when you're not too busy to take a look around as you travel. Some might call 5 hours on the road some kind of torture, and when you do it for 3 days, some might call it madness. Me, you ask? I call it absolute bliss. I wouldn't forego my air con though - every man has his standards. To take those proverbial "...roads less travelled", all I can say is wow.
Day one took us from Cape Town to "Rietfontein", a guest farm 45km past Barrydale. To get there we went by way of Worcester, de Doorns, Robertson, and Swellendam. 5 hours and 2 witnessed car accidents later. Talk about a discovery. This place is beautiful. My only complaint would've been that they'd gone a little too "green". All your electricity is sourced from solar cells and then it's only enough to run the light bulbs. If, like me, you're a quadruplegic, being turned in your sleep every 3 hours gets tedious. I definitely need a plug for my air mattress! Otherwise it was great.
Day two saw us taking a "shortcut" to Beaufort West via Laingsburg, our destination, "Ko-Ka Tsara Bush Camp", being 7km past Beaufort West. Well, bah humbug! The "shortcut" was a 2 hour dirt road through absolute desolation. It was beautiful country but I'm a "tarred road" kind of guy. Eventually we reach the civilization of Laingsburg... if you can call it that. It's a quaint little one-horse town on the N1. But hey, we're off! Only 2 hours to go. Yippee! Well, that's what I thought. The Chinese have a curse: "May you live in interesting times." With 40km to go... splutter, splutter, gasp, gasp - nooooooo! We run out of petrol. Thank God for roadside assistance. Geez Louise! 2 Hours later without air con in the middle of the Karoo, 36 degrees celcius... I for one was having a serious sense-of-humour failure. We eventually get going again but by this time we've lost our need for sight seeing. Let's just get there, unpack, and pour a "g 'n t" I say. After an alcohol induced de-stress it is decided that another day on the road would be put on hold for the sake of general sanity. We booked for another day/night and lit the braai... man, the stars were beautiful!
Day three got underway with a fantastic camp-style brunch, followed by an afternoon of catching rays, a good book and a beer around the pool, all the while befriending the local hand-reared meerkat. I must admit, this was blissful! 3:30pm saw us hop into a 4x4 for a 2 hour game drive which turned into a 3 hour adventure. Giraffe, Gnu, Impala, Springbok, Oryx, Eland, Kudu, Duiker, Bushbuck, and a *phew* far off Red Hartebees later we arrive back at our chalet. Dinner was a hurried affair as my bed was calling in a big way... I had to recharge my batteries for the 460km trip the next day.
All in all it was a fantastic trip. Give me R4 million and I'd happily set up a game farm of my own. It's truly God's own country.
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