Photo Album: The Northwestern Cape Flower Route
Note: Click an image to enlarge, tap "ESC" key to return.
Links for previous posts are on the left. Expand the month tags to see posts for that month.
A decision had to be made this morning, whether I shall, after crossing the border into South Africa today, bee line for Johannesburg, and end this journey or continue down to Cape Town, and drive along the western and southern coasts of South Africa before headed back to Johannesburg. The latter would take another 30 days or more.
The key question was answered overnight, as the family issue that originally required my immediate presence in China had subsided. The question were then, will I be able to change my flight booking and the ability to extend the car rental for another month or more. These two can only be answered when I get to the next town in South Africa which can provide better telephone communications.
So my immediate goal was to cross the nearest border into South Africa, at Orange River.
 |
| Village of Orange River, Namibia |
 |
| Orange River ahead |
At the Vioolsdrif Border Post at Orange River of Republic of South Africa, after having all the paperworks inspected and stamped, the last barrier was the Custom inspection. Seeing that most every other car were casually inspected and let go, I thought that would be the easiest part of today's journey.
How wrong was I. As the junior officer who also gave me a casual walk around inspection, was quite ready to let me pass, just as casually, a senior office walked pass, and pull him aside, probably instructing him to give me a "third degree" treatment. I just stand there and watch him taking everything out of my very dusty car, opening and carefully searched through everything. And kept asking me what was the purpose of my trip etc. The only thing he did not do was to body search me, other than a patting down.
What was that about, I thought........$^&%&!!!.....? I was murmuring to myself as I drove through 30 minutes later. I had the same problem before boarding a flight out of Guayaquil of Ecuador, just a couple of months ago !! Was it my look, my demeanor or what? I boiled it down to just, luck !
Anyhow, as I was going south on the A grade highway towards Springbok of South Africa, I noticed that the wild flowers were in bloom. It was a very welcoming sight.... Surprise surprise...Spring's in the air.
Springbok is a busy little town in the Northwestern Cape region of South Africa, it is probably the most modern town I have seen since Swakopmund ( in Namibia ) about 10 days ago, after so much dusty driving in between. Here I can find shops to get myself a Mobile SIM card, a proper road map of South Africa, and a Tourism Office with some knowledgeable staff and leaflet with useful information.
And I was told, where to see the blooms in play. Instead of passing through, the lure of colourful wild flowers made me stay for an extra 2 nights, how's that for a smart Tourism Office.
I then spent the next day exploring the nearby Namaqua National Park.
Here are samples of the colorful tapestry on display along the way.
And the glorious mosaics inside the park.
Then it was a night at the nearby Kamieskroon, before heading to Cape Town, the first metropolis (big smoke) since Johannesburg and Pretoria at the beginning of this trip, 38 days and nearly 9,500 Km ago.
So it was a 500 Km long drive to Cape Town. It was made much longer because of the high number of road work sites for the first couple hundred of kilometers, unfortunately. These sites are generally quite long, some as long as 3 or 4 kilometers, so it could be a long wait for more than 10 minutes before we could pass through a section. However, the scenery along the way are quite spectacular, as a compensation.
By the time I arrived at Table View, about 20 Km North of Cape town, it was late in the afternoon. What I saw was very impressive. After passing through what looks like middle class suburbs with mainly black African families walking between shopping malls, I felt safe, after that life threatening saga in Johannesburg on the first day of this trip, one has to lookout a bit.
Aptly, Table View offers a superb and direct view of the World famous Table Mountain from the beautiful white sand beaches. Being a breezy day, there were plenty of Kitesurfing, even at this late afternoon.
My first impression of Cape Town was one of an energetic, peaceful and a very livable town. So far, after 39 days, and nearly 10,000 Km of driving through 3 countries of Southern Africa, leaving the first day of my near death experience in Johannesburg aside, I had always felt safe, and tuned into the energetic young Africans that I had dealt with and came across. Of course there are misgivings and racial differences, however, it has mainly to do with the traditional White settlers having to deal with changes of having to live as a minority, but a rich minority. There is nothing too serious. On the other hand, youth unemployment still seem to be endemic, especially in Namibia, hope they'll final a solution to that.
No comments:
Post a Comment