6-8 September 2011

Tuesday 06 September 2011

With little to no sleep what with the excitement of leaving this morning, saying goodbye to Jemma the evening before and having the welcome dinner at Leisure Bay Leisure Suites to meet all the team – hardly any sleep – the alarm went off at 5 am – it was a mad rush to get dressed, get the car packed, and have ourselves some coffee and a bite to eat and off we went to meet everyone at the Table View Beach for the photo shoot – beautiful clear day with table mountain in the background.  We had to be there at 07h30 and quite naturally I am always on time in fact rather be early than late – thank you DHL – it was a blistering cold wind blowing (no wonder you could see Table Mountain Clearly we could hardly stand up in the wind so everything else that thought of hanging around definitely was blown away) – not sure where to hide to keep warm – the coldness seemed to have gone right threw you – with the photographs done we were off to Vioolsdrift a drive of 790 kms.  A mere 300 kms out of Cape Town I thought we had driven to the centre of the earth – it was boiling hot – not only were we suffering from the intense heat but the old lady (Modesty) started to overheat as well – we literally had to drive up all the hills with the heater on – so not only where we dying of heat from the hot sun and hot air – it was coming at us from inside as well. 

We were lucky to be able to see the Namaqualand Daisy’s – mostly purple waxy one but also the full array of yellows, oranges, pinks, purples and whites – incredible sights however you do also go through kilometer after kilometer of very little else in fact a whole lot of nothing other than 1 mt scrub bush. The mountain ranges are magnificent and the afternoon sun certainly gives you beautiful hues of brightness, blacks and grays as the sun is setting on the mountain – stunning – breathtaking but bloody hot.

We eventually arrived at our destination at 16h45 after being in the car since 08h00 in the morning a long day of mixed weather, beautiful scenery and then as dull as anything – so a good day.

The  Ouwerberg Tented Camp site – Bathrooms clean with decent toilets and decent showers – what more could one ask for.  The owner Neville was on his own so was crazy busy as his staff were on leave – their season is only expected to open in 2 weeks time.  So Service was slow to just help you and fit in.   The tented camp is based on the Gariep River (Orange River), which is on the South African side – Namibia across the river. A Hot shower, Pizza for dinner and to be by 21h30 – bloody exhausted nearly starting to loose my sense of humor.

Wednesday 07 September 2011

With the heat of yesterday Roger Pearce (The organizer) decided we had to leave early so we had breakfast at 06h30 and left by 07h15 – a good early start with 490 km’s ahead of us.  The road was going to be challenging as we had been informed that only 140 km’s was on tar road whilst the rest on gravel – challenging it was – we had the choice of either closing all the windows and putting the most pathetic fan on hence sweltering to death or leaving all the windows open and swallowing dust – we choice the dust option – Bloody hell was it challenging we ate dust and more dust.

We were a little nervous about going through the boarder as we only had our Temporary South African Passports – Well it was absolutely no hassles what so ever – the South African’s Customs official were friendly and extremely pleasant – the Namibian Officials were better – were we in Africa.  We headed off to get fuel and draw money only to be told that the ATM was not working, we arrive after this challenging trip to the smallest village – one hotel one garage and one shop – in the middle of no where –experiencing high hot winds with loads of dust???  The place is called Helmeringhauser – so the only hotel is Helmeringhauser Hotel – Katja was here to greet us and after politely asking if she could assist us with Visa Cards handing over USD’s to try and obtain cash – it was a very emphatic German NEIN??? What a great help – could almost be going off Namibia.

Although the road, dust and heat were challenging – the openness and beautiful mountains of Namibia are just outstanding – it gives you a feeling of almost being lost in vastness.  Beautiful, quite and peaceful.

Katja improved obviously with a little bit of “man” influence – thanks to Roger we had a wonderful evening meal – had to report at 19h00 sharp and got served a lovely quiche, springbok steak (for those of you that know me something I was really looking forward to) and a malva pud – our take away breakfast was ready for us straight after dinner – so off to bed for a 05h30 start for us – we wanted to get our exhaust and a few other things sorted with the vehicle,

Thursday 08 September 2011

Not much to say for today – we set off as planned at 05h35 and again on a challenging stretch of gravel road for 110 kms and then on tar – loads and loads of vastness – we stopped off to get money, coffee and petrol and then continued on our merry way – the rest of the cars only left at about 07h30 so we were well in front – the reason for this was to get to the garage to sort out our Silencer – Once again we sounded like a tractor and again we had to get it fixed – so with all the promises from the garage in Port Elizabeth – thank you Eastern Cape it all had to be done again – we also had a problem with the back left hand tyre it was leaking brake fluid which Chris managed to get it sorted out .  We are all staying in the Hotel Pension Mondi – very comfortable and clean. 

We were invited to the Old Classic Car Club for a braai, which was lovely meeting many people from the club whom also have the deepest interest in old cars – the press was there to take photographs. Ian and Val Gallagher whom had done a mere 300 km’s out of Cape Town and then broke down in Clanwilliam due to overheating –blew a gasket - they managed to get it all resolved and played catch up with us.  Great to have them back on track – as they stated after one year of planning and getting the vehicle ready an absolute disaster to be stuck in Clanwilliam.

Just for your interest the rules are the team will assist you as much as they can then it over to you to get your vehicle sorted out and back on track – its not a race but a Classic Car Event which has booked accommodation and you are to get to it.

Speak Tomorrow – apologies for the slowness in getting the blog written up – its not so easy getting Internet coverage.