BOSMAN’S BUSH TELEGRAPH

BOSMAN’S BUSH TELEGRAPH – 16 MARCH 2000

Hi All

Nev and I will be crossing the border between South Africa and Namibia later today so I thought I should send you all a quick note to fill you in on what we have been up to in the last week or so.

After our night in the Ambassador hotel last Monday we headed for Cape Agulhas - goodbye luxury! We had decided to start our trip there as it is the southernmost tip of Africa and so that if we ever make it to Tunisia we will be able to say we have crossed the continent from North to South. There is not much at Cape Agulhas except for a sign that pinpoints the southernmost tip of Africa, a lighthouse and a museum. The municipal campsite is ghastly! It’s really just a field in the middle of town - not where we wanted to spend the first night of our trip. We headed for Struisbaai and found their municipal campsite to be slightly better (very slightly) and we camped there for the night.

Nev at Cape Agulhas

Pen at Struisbaai

The Start

The Lighthouse at Cape Agulhas

We then headed north and spent two nights in Beaverlac in the Cederburg which was completely deserted and as stunning as always. We swam, walked and read and prepared ourselves mentally for the rest of the trip. We also tried out all our very new camping gear - some of which was still in its packaging! By this stage Nev was getting very keen to get going as our GPS kept telling us that we were a mere 187km's from Cape Town - an easy 2 or 3 hour drive back.

The sun setting over the Cederberg at Beaverlac

We had decided that before going into Namibia we would visit the Richtersveld National Park which is in the very north western corner of the country so on Friday we headed north reaching Springbok in the late afternoon. We passed some real gems that you only ever hear of in urban legend - Garies, Kamieskroon, the turn off for Poffadder etc. Springbok turned out to be a really interesting place. Despite my preconceived ideas the people were really friendly and helpful

- a bit misguided perhaps - the pharmacist, on enquiry, having sworn blind that Nedbank was part of the ABSA group. We were able to restock and refuel and draw money from the only ABSA/Nedbank joint venture in the whole of SA. There also seems to be a high concentration of Rastafarians - in Springbok? What’s up with that? We decided to stay in the Springbok hotel before making the big push for the Richtersveld after discovering that the local campsite is merely a dust bowl on the side of the N7 highway!

We headed for the Richtersveld on Saturday via Port Nolloth and Alexander Bay and through the diamond area along the west coast. The whole area was fascinating - it is extremely dry and covered by the mists that come in off the sea. Both sides of the road seem to have been claimed as diamond prospecting areas and there seems to be draconian security keeping people out of these areas and more "Keep Off" signs than we could count. The mining operations seemed quite deserted as it was a Saturday afternoon and it was all quite spooky.

We reached the Richtersveld in the late afternoon and camped at the Pootjiespram camp which is he camp closest to the entrance at Sendlingsdrift and which is situated on the Orange River. The Richtersveld is something completely different and well worth a visit. It is billed as "the only mountain desert national park in SA". The area has had very heavy rains in the recent months which has changed its character quite dramatically. It can hardly be called a desert anymore as the mountains and valleys are covered with grass, succulents and flowers and are literally green! The park is interesting as it is jointly run by a management board consisting of representatives of the local community, National Parks and the companies that have mining interests in the area - which is an approach that is quite unlike the management of any other parks in the country. It seems that National Parks tried to declare the area as a National Park (which was what one did in the bad old days where the rights of local communities were meaningless) and were immediately faced with an interdict by the local community! After 18 years of negotiations the park was created in its current form. It is precariously placed between diamond mining operations and is run jointly by National Parks, the mining stake holders and the locals who by the way are the Nama people (Nama Khoikhoi - I think). Part of the compromise was that the locals could continue to graze sheep and goats in the park in limited numbers and we kept coming across goat herds with goats, sheep and dogs - about the only thing resembling wildlife - bar one klipspringer on day 4 - that we saw during our stay!

The Richtersveld is only accessible by 4x4 and the roads are terrible and have been worsened by the recent heavy rains and flash floods. We heaved and coaxed our very over laden Land Rover over mountain passes, through thick sand and over corrugations. Nev would kill me if he knew that I said that we struggled - he viewed the whole thing as a challenge! For my part - I cowered in the passenger seat for much of the journey - a white knuckled hand gripping the door handle expecting us to flip onto our side every 2 seconds. Nonetheless - we made it. We spent the second and third nights at the De Hoop camp (also on the Orange River) where we swam, walked and perfected our camping systems. We also tried out our hot water shower - which is fuelled with paraffin - it is this single item of camping gear that will save me on this trip! It was divine to be able to have a hot water shower even if it was only with river water.

Nev navigating the route to the De Hoop campsite

Breakfast in the Richtersveld

Richtesveld Tough Terrain

Chilling out in the desert

Kokerboom / Quiver Tree

We spent the last night at an inland desert camp called Kokerboomskloof which was the highlight. We camped amongst the rock formations and quiver trees that characterize the desert. We walked up to the top of one of the rock formations and had a sundowner while we watched the sun set over the desert. There were also far too many creepy crawleys for my liking - we saw the most massive scorpion - it was more like a small dog - yuck! I had to "knyp” the whole night as I was too scared to get out of the tent for fear of being carried off by a giant bug.

Nev and the Land Rover near Kokerboomkloof

Our Campsite at Kokerboomkloof

Flowers in the Richtersveld, near Kokerboomkloof

We are currently in Springbok but will cross the boarder later today at the Noordoewer crossing and will head for Ai-Ais - which incidentally is part of the same park as the Richtersveld but just on the other side of the boarder. We will camp there for a couple of nights and then head for the Fish River Canyon and Hobas.

I hope that you are all well - we will send more news soon.

Penny

PS: We are having difficulty with our Hotmail address as we have to work online which is just too slow and expensive on the cell phone - we have therefore decided to retain our old home address - so please send us mail on the following address – nevbos@gmail.com [updated March 2010]