De Werf Lodge had nice facilities but that didn’t help getting a good nights rest. They had geese which made an almighty racket anytime anyone walked past them. It went on the whole night. We reckon each time a security guard walked past they went off. Add to that the heater in our room buzzed intermittently. We eventually turned it off preferring a freezing cold night to the intermittent buzzing.
We met for breakfast at 7:15am and asked them to bring the food as quickly as possible. The other problem they have is only 1 person serving and trying to make coffee, make toast and bring the breakfasts to us. We eventually got up and made our own toast and Mr M found the butter and jam by rifling through the cupboards and drawers behind the counter. We all got our food except Mr M and eventually at 8am I went to find the owner to ask them to please make his breakfast. Fortunately did finally get it.
We were on the road at about 8:30am and after an initial turnaround (my app told me a different route than we really should have gone) we made very good time with very little traffic on the road. About two hours into the drive I noticed the Gs turned into a picnic spot and we didn’t see them for some time. Worrying what might have happened we tried calling but no cellphone signal. Eventually we came closer to Brandvlei and we got signal saying that stopped for a quick toilet break and then the car lost power. We never received the messages. They did make it to Brandvlei with limited power and they called their mechanic who said take the earth off the battery, wait awhile and then reconnect. It might be that the electronics needed a reset. We did that and voila so further issue.
We made one other stop for biltong (at Trawal our biltong place), the loo and fuel and then we drove straight back to Cape Town. We got home at just before 5pm. Some of the drive was in quite heavy rain and we saw one truck that had flipped over (clearly taking the turn too quickly in wet weather). We had an entertaining car drive home discussing numerous topics, listening to a podcast on Truth, playing 30 Seconds, and countering Mr Ms banter about how good his car is compared to the Beast. We even did some power to weight ratios and weight to fuel consumption ratios (Beast won hands down on that one quite surprisingly but we think that is because Mr Ms car is petrol and the Beast drinks diesel). Everyone except Stephen and I got some sleep fitted in as well.
If you’re disappointed thinking my awesome blogging is coming to an end – don’t despair! The good news is that we just returned to Cape Town to wash our clothes and repack as we are off to Portugal and the UK this afternoon. Slightly different group (we are adding members)!
Until tomorrow …
P, H, S, M & O