As we left Glengarry this morning, Willy Nelson’s ditty, was, very appropriately, coming over the air.
We’ve spent a very pleasant Christmas and New Year period back home in Durban. Seeing all our buddies and doing the chores that needed doing – not the least of which was firing our first shot across Land Rover Ltd.’s bow (the first shot of what we are sure will be an on-going battle.) to try and recover the 15,000 Rand that our break down in Namibia cost us.
Then off to Glengarry to pick up the caravan and prepare for the next trek, and we know of no nicer place to begin and end our journeys, in fact it’s not at all easy to drag ourselves away.
We are heading for the West Coast – where on the West Coast we haven’t decided, but who cares.
Road through the Golden Gate National Park
This afternoon we pitched up at the Golden Gate National Park which lies between the Free State and Lesotho. We’ve never been here before, and we’re quite impressed. The scenery is stunning with the mountains all around us. The main attraction – other than the scenery – is the numerous walks which are graded from two-day jobs, to a few hours, to 45 minutes. We opted for the latter! Quite enough to take in the ambiance and develop a thirst.
Esmerelda Ostrich at our caravan door
There is a resident teenage Ostrich at the camp. She stuck her head though our caravan door this evening and discovered that we had some stale peanuts – very moreish. She has now settled down for the night next to our Landy. Obviously fancies peanuts for breakfast. Sean will just have to take care if he does his irrigation bit during the night.
We’ll probably stay here for another day – maybe get really fit and tackle the 2 hour walk – then cut across to Aliwal North. So named to commemorate Sir Harry Smith’s battle against the Sikhs at Aliwal in India. What about that!!
Better still – tomorrow we’re going to take a trip into the town of Clarens, to try and find a castle made out of beer bottles – now how much culture can a body take? Clarens by the way – as many of you will know – was named after the Swiss town where Oom Paul Kruger popped his clogs whilst in exile.
So endeth this episode of Ripley’s Believe it or Not.