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South-Africa

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-- From 2018/05L21 to 2017/05/24
-- From Clanwilliam to the border ZA/NA
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The GPS road tacklog
from Clanwilliam to Vanrhynsdorp
from 2018/05/21 au 2018/05/22

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.

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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

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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.

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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.