Today was the start of our travel back home. When we woke this morning at 6am, the valley was covered in cloud/mist which was hard to capture as a photo but a few people gave it a try. Photo below was courtesy of B.
We were packed up before 8am and on the road to just north of Colesberg where we had our last overnight before heading home. A quick refueling and tyre pumping at the Glen Reenen camp and we were then on our way. The first 100 kms of road varied from barely passable to appalling in places. The potholes littered the road and in some places you had to wonder if there was actually a road there at all. The speed limit varied from 80 km/h to 100 km/h but there was no way you could drive those speeds because you would have shredded your tyres. H suggested I invest in a tyre manufacturer as people must be going through more tyres now with the state of the roads. It made me realise again how much better quality the roads are in the Western Cape. I few of the road signs saying ‘Potholes’ had ‘ANC’ sprayed over them. It really does make me wonder why the government doesn’t invest in infrastructure (like roads) so much more. It would create jobs and give us better roads which actually benefits everyone.
Fortunately we go onto the N7 (which is a national road and therefore maintained better) and then onto the N1 and both of those roads are in good condition and well maintained. We did two stops on route to our overnight venue – one for toilet and coffee and then another one driven by the need to get rid of the coffee which had worked its way through the system. After the 2nd stop (which was just outside Bloemfontein), we wound our way through Bloemfontein and onto the N1 heading south to Cape Town. Just before we got to Colesberg we turned off to our lodge – Tzamenkomst River Lodge which is on the banks of the Orange River.
B & S had stayed here in 2021 and enjoyed it so that is why we are back. The lodge has been added to since then and they have more rooms, a new dining/bar area and a gym and place to have sundowners. We arrived at about 3pm and did a bird walk and S saw her 300th lifer so champagne was ordered to celebrate.
The sunset over the Orange River was quite amazing. The colours changed almost by the minute. Sunsets with a little cloud, water and in a remote place always seem to be the best.
We had our final dinner together provided by the lodge – the vast majority of us had lamb shank and J had chicken curry. Desert was chocolate sponge with ice cream. Over dinner we did our usual go round about the highlights and lowlights of the trip. I am getting older now so forgive me if I don’t remember everyone’s but here they are:
Highlights:
- Ganora Farm – bird walks, running and 4×4 trip up the mountain
- Underberg – crisp air, views, running, bird walks, bridge crossing
- Golden Gate – views
- Company – getting to know some of the group better than we did before
Lowlights:
- Potholes on roads
- Coffee Bay – harassment of locals, the road to get there and being underwhelmed when we got there
- Afriski & Lesotho – sadness of how run down Afriski was, winding & monotonous roads
Until tomorrow
P, H, S (she got to 300 lifers today!), B, A (he provided the red wine for dinner), R, J & O (she had ice in her champagne)
