Day 03 - 2023/08/29 - Augrabies to Nieuwoudtville
Route: N14 to Kakamas. Right on R359. Right again on a dirt road to Kenhardt. Right on R27 to Brandvlei. Right on R357 to Niewoudtville via Loeriesfontein.
Road Conditions: N14 fine. R359, potholed. Dirt track has detour (you need to travel a few kilos past the turn off, take a parallel dirt road and climb on it again). Dirt track also is pretty corrugated. R27 is good tar. R357 is dirt all the way to Loeriesfontein, and after that good tar.
Distance: 481km.
We got up early and broke camp before taking a drive through Augrabies park to see some of the viewpoints. Spotted a sizeable group of giraffe (what is their collective noun) as well as a large troop of baboons. Photos are from the viewpoint at Oranjekom.
After that, we headed out back to Kakamas, turning right at the first robot - which becomes the R359. Interestingly enough, what is now the tourism office in Kakamas was originally a power station - it has a very unique design which was modelled on ancient Egyptian architecture. When I reached my waypoint for the turn off we were meant to take, we were a bit stymied as the road was closed due to roadworks, but we managed to take a parallel dirt track about a kilometre on and back track to the road we wanted. This is the Kakamas -> Kenhardt road. Lots of interesting geological features in the fairly barren landscape most of the way. Quite corrugated, but I've driven worse. The road later on runs parallel with the Hartbees perennial river. Interesting to see, as it seems to be the southern limit of the red kalahari dunes. On the left hand side of the road, lots of red kalahari dunes. On the right, none.
When we reached the tar road just before Kenhardt, we stopped to re-inflate tyres. That was when In discovered I had made a mistake... I normally stow the jockey wheel of the trailer in the nose cone or in the boot when I tow. However, that morning I felt that I was wasting time. I mean - everybody tows with their jockey wheel attached to the trailer right? Sadly, the corrugations mean that the jockey wheel had somehow extended itself and we had lost the wheel part somewhere on that dirt track... No use worrying about it now though.
After inflating, we headed down South to Brandvlei where we took our turn off West for Loeriesfontein on the R357. The last time I travelled this specific stretch of road was back in 2020 when the area was in the grips of a massive drought. At that time, most farms were boarded up and closed. I was happy to see that the veld has recovered quite a bit and there appears to be life (and new maintenance) at several of the previously boarded up farms. Although we also spotted bat-eared fox on the drive, the highlight for me was the way the flowers suddenly just started... Originally, subtle - spotting only one or two in the barren landscape - we were treated to quite a bunch of them just before Loeriesfontein - where the road becomes tar again.
From here, we pushed onwards to Nieuwoudtville to encounter the second mess up of the day.
I'd booked to camp at "Die Blou Huis" for three nights. The photos looked fantastic and I'd paid in full. But upon arriving, the owner (I shall not mention names) already appeared pretty inebriated, insisted he was only the manager and that the owner had never mentioned that we were booked there. But it was fine "hy sal plan" maak. The place was packed. I mean - caravan A-frames standing under the ass of the caravan in front of it - really sardine-tinned in. He managed to clear a tiny bit of space for us - but this was not enough. I told him to get slotted. I'm currently still waiting for mt refund...
Anyways, managed to find a place to camp at Ulla Irene - a plot on the edge of town. But what a fantastic place. Very rustic. But the owners - Karen and Ulgar (also known as "duiwel") are fantastic people. And we even had our own braai area / pub / lapa thing...
I jacked up the A frame of the trailer to unhitch the thing, and then one or two old rims (decor at the lapa) under the A frame to steady it properly. Set up camp.
Third mess up of the day was dinner. We had not catered for this evening in terms of braai stuff as the plan had been to order pizzas from "Die Blou Huis". A quick check of consensus around the three different parties indicated there was no way in hell that "Die Blou Huis" would see any support from us. So we ended up lighting a fire for ambience, and resorting to the other rations. ie: ham, cheese, salad stuffs. Almost a european breakfast-type spread. It was good though. Chatted about the trip for a bit. Spoke lots of gif about "Die Blou Huis" and it's errant owner, and then went to bed...
