Travelling South through the Northern Cape

This morning we woke up, early as usual, not for a safari  but for our departure, today we have a long day ahead to travel through the Northern Cape that will take us to Clanwilliam, located in the Western Cape; it is to be said that South Africans did not have much imagination in giving names to these provinces.

We leave early from the campsite of Twee Rivieren, within the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park and, as a first step, we must do the immigration to South Africa.

In fact, when we entered the park two days ago, through the entrance of Mata Mata, we exited Namibia, but we did not enter South Africa; in practice we stayed for two days in a middle ground between South Africa and Botswana.

After having got through immigration and leaving the park, we head South; today we expect a journey of over 700 km.

The road is tarred, in South Africa, unlike Namibia, the roads are almost all paved, the dirt roads are really few and all secondary.

We take the R 360, a road that, in 220 km, will take us to Upington; on board the road there are several lodges and campsites for those who travel to the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, some are beautiful, but in our opinion they are more uncomfortable than sleeping inside the park.

On the various wooden poles there are some gigantic nests, the nests of the weavers that build the nests where the entire colony lives, sometimes even more than a hundred pairs; they are beautiful to see and some look like straw huts.

When we arrive at Upington, a middle-sized town, we take the N14 to the South-West, so straight that it seems to be drawn with the ruler.

After a few dozen kilometers, specifically at Keimoes, there is a crossroads, both the N14 and the R27 take us to Clanwilliam, but the N14 goes West, crosses a conservation with the dirt road and then from Springbok heads South , while the R 27 goes South inland, shortening our path a lot, so we choose this second option.

The road is virtually deserted, except for two or three lorries that, when they see us coming, move more than they can to the left to be passed by; it is customary, in this case, once the vehicle is over, to turn on the four turn signals to thank, the vehicle overtaken responding blinking with the headlights.

On the road sides the landscape changes continually, before there are the vineyards of the wineries of the Northern Cape province, we tasted a red one produced around here and we found it good, despite this production area being less well-known Internationally compared to the Stellenbosch and Franschhoek.

As we move South we seem to be in the Monument Valley, in fact, there are several weather-eroded mountains, that resemble the profile of the reliefs of the famous US park.

In some places the fallen debris at the base of the reliefs become sand or very small stones, in other cases they are huge round boulders with a color that goes from red to black, they are wonderful, they seem to be placed artistically by a mysterious giant.

This part of South Africa reminds us a bit of the Australian Red Center, both for the deserted and straight road and for the rock formations; today's journey we love so much.

We cross the entire Namaqua region, or Namakwa, from North-East to South-West, and when we arrive near Calvinia, on the road side we see the wild shrubs blooming in spring; some wild flower is there and we stop to take some photos.

The town of Calvinia is particular and deserves to be seen when passing through around here. It is easy to understand its origins starting from its name and, looking at its buildings, I would say that there is no doubt that it was founded by the Dutch and Germans during the colonial period.

In the blossoming period of the wild flowers there are several visitors, there is a postbox where, if a letter or a postcard is left, a special stamp is put dedicated to the flowers; this postbox lies next to a huge red postbox shaped statue, you cannot miss it.

Just off Calvinia we find a crossroad, a dirt road leads to Clanwilliam through Botterkloof while the R 27 continues asphalted and along a longer route, through the Vanrhyns passage; we choose the R 27 also because the sun is beginning to descend to the horizon and we do not know the condition of the dirt road.

Before we arrive we pass a plateau, when, suddenly, suddenly the road falls down along the curved bends escaved in the rock; underneath us opens a view on a plain that seems infinite, but what a show, we are astonished by the beauty of this road, we did well to choose it.

When we arrive at Vanrhynsdorp, the R 27 reconnects with the N 14 we had left at Keimoes; from here some 70 km of road between the mountains of the Cederberg chain separate us from Clanwilliam.

We arrive when it is dark, Tracks4Africa does not show the Cedar Rock Resort that is where we stay tonight, so we stop by the gas station and ask for information; the town is small and the directions are easy to follow.

Finally we arrive, today's road was wonderful but, after 700 km, we are a little tired and we want to relax a bit.

Today we do not sleep in a camping but we took an apartment, in this area it is a bit too cold at night and so we prefer to sleep in the heat, we are also towards the end of this trip and a cuddle is worth.

We have a well stocked kitchen and then we cook spaghetti with tomato sauce and Parmesan Reggiano and then we relax on the couch and plan tomorrow's day.