Botterkloof Pass
On Monday, May 21 in Clanwilliam I bought a refill of the Vodacom
SIM card at Shoprite which the charming cashier undertook to install
on the card. Then at the shop of Rooibos Tea Factory I made a
tasting of natural and aromatic tea manufactured starting from the
endemic plant in Cederberg, the rooibos, the red bush,
Aspalathus linearis. In 1904 a
Russian immigrant, Benjamin Ginsberg, became aware of the potential
of the virtues of this plant of which he undertook the commercial
development. I bought green tea as well as a pomade sensibly calming
the articulations. On the way towards Calvinia I stopped at
Traveller's Rest Farm to walk “Sevilla Rock Art Trail”, five
kilometers return length to be made in 2 hours according to the
hostess; I put 2:30. The track is well marked out by marks of white
painting on the ground and numbered panels for the nine sites to
visit. The track is reputed easy going, certainly, but some passages
are however painful for arthritic articulations. These cave
paintings were carried out by the San people living the north of
Clanwilliam in Cederberg and other areas in Africa from 40,000 to
25,000 BC. They are in cellars and shelters - under - rock mainly of
ocher color representing of characters as well as animals
descriptive of the culture of these prehistoric people. I noticed
the presence of what the ethnologists call the negative hands that I
had already seen in other areas in the world in particular in North
America and Australia. After this very instructive visit I moved
towards Calvinia by a very driving gravel road. I crossed dramatic
landscapes with very contrasted colors in spite of the overcast sky.
I bivouacked in Botterkloof Pass where I arrived at the beginning of
afternoon.
|
click on the pic for opening the gallery
Vanrhynsdorp
The target of the Tuesday, May 22 was to visit two villages in the
mountain at nearly 1,000 meters of altitude. In first Calvinia
accommodated me in the cold, 10°C, and a mountainous drizzle.
Calvinia Museum is the main attraction because it is in an old
synagogue and exhibits odds and ends of the beginning of the
colonization of the area. He points out to me the many museums of
the United States of the west and the middle-west. I like this kind
of museum pilot hold-all of the hard life of the first colonists.
Moreover the post office is in a surmounted building with a tower
which was water tower. After an overland route Loereisfontein
presented a strange collection of windmill to get up water in the
fields. Alas the contiguous museum was closed. I continued my way up
to Vanrhynsdorp where I bivouacked on the car park of a gas station
while passing in front of "Baghdad Cafe" by the name of a famous
American movie 1987.
click on the pic for opening the gallery
The GPS road tacklog
from Vanrhynsdorp to the border
from 2018/05/21 au 2018/05/24
Bush camp
On Wednesday, May 23 I left the Shell car park as of early dawn to
approach the border between South Africa and Namibia. On the way I
stopped in Springbok to make supply in food not knowing what I was
going to find in Namibia. I bivouacked in a clump of trees away from
approximately 200 meters of the road and 80 km of the border. The
landscape is quasi desert with an ocher ground planted with shrubs
which embellish it in spring.
Vioolsdrift
Exit South Africa, ZA
On Thursday, May 24 I arrived at the border post around 8:30. I was
alone. At immigration my passport received the exit stamp. Then I
exposed to the young lady the problems of my visa in view of my
return in South Africa at the beginning of September 2018 after the
expiry of the validity of the 90-day visa received in Cape Town on
May 6th. With much of patience she explained me the visa for
tourists. Then she tells me that there is only one possibility for
me which consists in returning to my home country then to return to
South Africa for obtaining a new 90-day visa. It does not last there
stay in the home country. While smiling she tells me that I could do
it in the same day! At the customs I presented the carnet de
passages en customs which the customs officer did not want to fill.
With as much of patience he explained me South Africa, Namibia and
Botswana belong to the same customs area. My carnet de passages en
customs will be filled when I leave this area. Thus for me when I
leave South Africa to enter Mozambique. I moved towards the border
post of Namibia.
