After that the road becomes quite straight and easy. When you see a stand of these huge old eucalyptus or pepper trees, know that they have a history in South Africa. They were often planted to give shade to a wagon train, so the people and oxen could get relief from the overbearing midday heat
The temperature that day reached 35ºC, the hottest we had seen so far this year
Then it was off up the last mountain pass and we found ourselves crossing from the Western Cape (good roads) to the Eastern Cape (not bad roads today, but we'd heard stories of what was to come….) Then we were also moving from the Little Karoo to the Great Karoo, where the plains are flat and very dry and the mountains disappear to waaaay away, nearly at the horizon
The last of the onion fields
Then we drove through the entirely amazing Meiringspoort mountain pass to De Rust. It is not a high pass, just a river route that has cut itself through the mountains. What an incredible drive that was; everyone should do it at least once. Lynne kept thinking of the amazement of the first people who found their way through the rocks and followed the river - and of the Voortrekkers with their ox wagons, struggling over the rocks
Disconcertingly, they warn you of rockfalls as you enter but, apparently, floods are something to beware of too
However, the weather was wonderful and so no sign of any flooding this time
To enliven the tedium of the long journey, we were animal and bird spotting all day. Baboons trying to find mates, tiny vervet monkeys, lots of Angora goats and sheep, two mules and some horses. Sadly and separately, two bat eared foxes that had been killed by traffic. And no raptors except large black crows. We suspect that the drought has killed off most of their prey, so they have moved to greener pastures. Once we had gone through the pass, the temperature became hotter; we had to stop and rescue this large fellow who was attempting to cross the road
John carried him to the other side where he was heading and got hissed at for his efforts
But there are some very fast cars on this long straight stretch of road
You can tell it is heating up when the sheep huddle together so they can hang their heads in shade
An old wind pump, a Karoo trade mark
Water is very scarce in the Karoo and this borehole probably goes down a long way
Long straight roads, a heat haze and not much greenery
We stopped in Willowmore for a small lunch; we fancied toasties
Not necessarily the right place to stop but we wanted to be quick and couldn't see many places
We sat on the stoep
it appeared to have been opened a while before, so she put in a LOT of ice
We just wanted a simple sandwich and a cold drink
Well, that was the plan, but what arrived was not a club sandwich as we know it
it was enormous with two poached eggs and chicken hiding under the pesto spread and local bread
John had something unusual. An overstuffed sandwich called a Catemba, which South Africans know as a cocktail of Red wine and Coca Cola, originally from Mozambique. This was slow cooked pulled beef that had been cooked in the red wine and cola! Both enjoyable, but just too big to finish
Exploring the interior, we found a deli
with pies
a second-hand clothing shop
and a bar
We were just saying, as we left Willowmore, how little litter we had seen so far on our trip ...
...and then we reached Aberdeen
The best bit, as we were approaching Aberdeen, was the view of the blue mountains in the distance as they came closer. In this part of the Karoo the hills change to mountains with flat tops (Mesas) and to pointed mountains like our own Lion's Head and they are truly magnificent to see. Sadly the veld was littered with plastic garbage. We stopped to take a photo; there was an entire field completely covered in plastic, so depressing. People just don't seem to care and the animals are eating amongst it
much of it was also along the road
So sad
One of these goats had managed to get through the fence
and kept wandering up and down alongside its companion on the other side
Then around the side of one of the hills, there was the town of Graaff-Reinet
Lynne was expecting something small, like Prince Albert but, apparently, it is one of the largest towns in the Karoo
We checked in at our hotel, the Drostdy
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