Day 1 Brackenfell – Williston.
Tar roads, taking in the sunrise over the Bainskloof pass. We have done this before but it is beautiful every time. Brekkie in Ceres at the Wimpy.
From Ceres we drove on the R356 to Sutherland, all of it was dirt roads. We deviated from that route to go up the Ouberg pass. Very steep and bumpy uphills with old Kaspasie having to engage 1st to go up some inclines. The view from above is absolutely breathtaking.
After doing some more dirt roading we ended up in Williston without seeing any other towns, dorpies or even settlements. Williston Hotels serves the best grilled skaaptjops in the WORLD. We slept at Soek ‘n Slapie.
Day 2 - Williston to Upington.
From Williston we took the Brandvlei road, abd after 10 km turned right towards Zwartkop. We were on our way to Verneukpan. By now we were all dusty and dirty as Kaspaas showed us that he actually does not like dirt roads at all. Dust was pouring in through the door seals (which was not sealing any more). We got lost on our way to Verneukpan and did a 70km detour to get to the turnoff. Once there we took in the flatness. Amazing!!
From Verneukpan we drove to Kenhardt and stopped at the Kokerboom Forest. Apparently some kokerboom virus got hold of these trees and killed almost all of them. We settled for lunch with 10 million flies.
At Kenhardt we turned off towards Marydale via Putsonderwater (PSW). As we did a long detour we decided to turn towards Upington at PSW and not Marydale as we originally planned. PSW used to be a station but is a ghost town since Spoornet closed up shop. I would love to go live there, with the only traffic being a train once in a while.
We made it to Upington in time to light the fire and have a nice braai with the family. A few beers later and the dust settled in my throat.
Day 3 Upington – Hondeklipbaai.
This day was mostly tar roads. From Upington to Keimoes, Kakamas, Pofadder, Aggenys and the Springbok. Pretty uneventful but Kaspaas was doing it at a trot at 120km/h, no problems.
From Springbok we turned off towards Hondeklipbaai via the Messelpad and Wildeperdehoek Pass. It was immediately evident that tyres inflated for tar road use (2.4 bar) was NEVER going to work on this road. We stopped and deflated to 1.2 bar. Even that was a bit bumpy still.
We got lost… again… but we sort of found the way, we had time on our side so we didn’t mind. The roads were in a disastrous state. Not to be driven at night time. At least not with huge spotlights.
Hondeklipbaai was very nice. We explored a bit and settled in for the night in Kennel #2 at the Honnehokke. The reception was warm and friendly and we felt at home right away.
Day 4 Hondeklipbaai - Home.
We left HKB and made our way to Garies on the N7. We saw a roadsign pointing towards Kotzesrus and decided we are going to look for it. We got lost.. again.. This seems to be a habit by now. But seeing as we were driving in a southernly direction, and that is the direction to Cape Town we decided to push on south as far as we could. We found Kotzesrus, as well as Lepelfontein, and Katdoringsvlei. The scenery was beyond beautiful. We ended up in Koekenaap and from there it was a hop skip and jump via Lutzville and Klawer to get home on the N7.
Overall km’s travelled : approx 2000km
Tarred Surface : Approx 700km
Dirt Roads : Approx 1300km
Avg Consumption : 6.3 km/l
Best Consumption : 6.75 km/l
Worst Consumption : 5.9 km/l
PS: Kaspaas blew a top gasket on the trip. Another pirate gasket seeing its gat! But besides that no other damage was done. Luckily it was a water jacket that blew (no oil and water cocktails) so with frequent water stops (about every 250km) we managed to make it back home.
Running repairs included a lot of duct taping around door rubbers to keep the dust out and a black bandanna taped to the dashboard to stop the glare reflecting from the dashboard onto the windscreen.
