P.E. to Beaufort West

We left Fish early on Sunday morning. Carl and his troop back to Pretoria and we back to our original holiday plan. This meant that we had to back track to P.E. and then get to Beaufort West where we were booked into the Karoo National Park from the 5^th of April.  As the others had to leave so early, we packed up the last bits at “Lo Shack” and then headed off to Port Alfred for breakfast at the restaurant at the mouth of the Cowie river. We clearly caught them a touch early and by the looks after a heavy night . The waitress was decidedly “moeg” and we had to assist with the putting up of our umbrella, but we had a good breakfast. It is a wonderful position where the restaurant is and well worth a stop off.

We dropped Emlin off at P.E. airport, ventured into P.E. to get some essentials and set off to Patensie where we were going to spend the night at Gonjah bushcamp. It is lovely there, but there are also no frills. It is a true bushcamp, with a donkey for hot water. This is not the transport type of donkey, it is the making fire under the hot water type. There is a bush loo and a bush shower. We love it. During the night you hear owls and frogs and all sorts of night sounds.

We left from there to travel through the Baviaanskloof, with the plan to spend the night at Willowmore, but Baviaanskloof is not a road to travel on in any sort of a hurry , so we spent the night at the wonderful camp at Doringkloof. It is one of the best campsites we have ever stayed at. We have been there before, so no surprises. The journey through the Baviaanskloof is really special. It is just the most amazing scenery all the time. You go over 3 mountain passes, obviously all gravel. The first one is Combrinck pass. It is an UP pass when you come from Patensie. The road has been improved and the bad patches are much better. The next pass is Holgat pass and that is a DOWN pass from our direction. There has been some road improvements, but clearly the money oer the contractor the bribe ran out on this one and towards the end the road is pretty rough. The next is Grasnek pass. A long and beautiful road and also not included in the “upgrade plan” Lovely to travel, though. We stopped off at the Padstal before Doringkloof for a cup of tea. This padstal is only open on high days and holidays and we were lucky as it was the first day of school holidays. So we stayed at Doringkloof, which is also called a “bush camp”, but the luxury variety. It is really in the middle of the Baviaanskloof  and if one were to spend time in the kloof to explore, really a conveniently situated place.

The next day we set of for the last stretch to Beaufort West. We stopped et the Baviaanskloof Craft shop. This is an initiative of the locals to get the community involved in producing crafts and then to have a central point to sell it all from. There was not a lot, but all in all a good idea, wiich I am sure will grow as time goes. We stopped for lunch in Willowmore a Sophie’s Choice . What a find. It is situated on the main street not far from the info centre. It is an antique shop, but not the heavy sort of antiques, more like “nice old stuff”, but boy does she have a lovely restaurant. Real Mediterranean style food. Dick had the quiche of the day , which was bacon and mushroom. Well the word “home made”  has new meaning now. It was packed with jummy bacon and mushrooms in a pastry “bakkie”. It smelt devine, it tasted like out of this world. I had a toast veggie and couscous salad and it was equally good. The attention to detail and the personal service was refreshing to experience, to say the least.

We arrived safely in Beaufort after all that lunch, all washed down with some Rooiberg wine. We are on holiday after all.