The time has come the Walrus said.......
Today we started our two day drive to Cape Town, accompanied by Kylie Madge, Ruth's Aussie friend from the Art Therapy Centre in Jozi.
We drove down in two cars. Ruth and Kylie in the Mini and me in a VW Polo hire car, seeing as I haven't as yet bought a new car since writing mine off in September.
We finally left our apartment in Parkview at around 06:45. It was a sad occasion as we had grown really fond of the area and the apartment. We were leaving just as the Jakaranda trees were coming out in full-bloom.
We picked Kylie up at around 07:00 and embarked on our 1,400 km Cape Town road trip.
To cut a long story short, we turned off the N1 Motorway at about 700km and onto the N9. We were heading to a quaint little Karoo town called Nieu-Bethesda for the night.
We arrived at about 4pm and found our accommodation which we had previously booked. Nieu-Bethesda is a beautiful little place. More like an oasis in the Karoo Desert.
What a beautiful Rose....
Nieu-Bethesda is famous for a little place called 'The Owl House'. Seeing as it closed at 5pm, we had to hurry quick smart.... The Owl House was owned by a woman called Helen Martins who had a thing for sculpture, especially Owls. She used a lot of ground coloured glass in her works, which added a beautiful sparkle.
Below is the kind of sculptures I like...
Spare a candle Sir?
These sculptures are wonderful. Lots of different characters in different poses...
Below is an old rusty car. The sign says 'Rust in Peace'....
After the Owl House, we took a walk around the town to take some photographs and then headed towards the local pub (as you do). Within minutes were were talking to some people who had gathered there to watch the Saturday rugby on the big screen.
Koos Kombuis was playing at the Town Hall tonight. We saw him perform in Johannesburg a few months previously. This was his first time in Nieu-Bethesda and we were looking forward to seeing him after a long day on the road.
The next day we had breakfast at local cafe. Kylie and I had drunk quite a lot of beer the night before whilst watching Koos Kombuis perform. Coffee and eggs were the order of the day...
We left Nieu-Bethesda at about 09:00 and passed through a wonderful valley and then through Graaf-Reinet, a historic Karoo town. There is a beautiful Church there which needed photographing.....
We drove down to a town called George and stopped for some lunch at Mossel-Bay.
A few more hours into it, we hit Sir Lowry's Pass, heading into the Cape Flats. Man, the traffic was backed up for miles. You could see the cars bumper to bumper for around 5km....Eish, after a long days drive, we didn't need this.
Eventually we made it to the N2 and to a place called Century City where we were spending a few weeks until we found suitable accommodations......
All in all, it was a good, safe trip... We had made it to Cape Town. For how long? Who knows....
