Day 1 of our Baviaanskloof camping holiday. It felt a bit strange to leave Zoe and Ellen behind, and together with Daniella take to the road.
It seemed to take hours to leave Cape Town, what with needing to find a bicycle tube and then breakfast hunger pangs interrupting a quick getaway. Anyway after a Winelands One -Stop Wimpy breakfast we hit the road!
After a short game of animal/vegetable/mineral (you know the game. Whatever its real name is....), Daniella got stuck into imparting the knowledge of the countryside granted to us by Mr T.V. Bulpin in his ‘Discovering Southern Africa’. She had to compete against the wind noise in a getting-long-in-the-tooth Landrover, but she did very well.
It inspired us to take a right to Matjiesfontein and to explore James Douglas Logan’s creation. Unfortunately the Museum and gift shop were all closed for lunch, so after some photo opportunities and checking out Logan’s London street lamps we were on our way again. But not before checking out some of the other sites like the old London bus with it’s interesting signs and the railway station platform.
Laingsburg’s flood museum proved a little disappointing, other than taking in the scale of the disaster. We supposed the town was probably quainter before the flood with more victorian buildings still standing. A quick lunch and stock up on a few things we forgot to buy in Cape Town allowed us to take in the spectacular scenery of the Bosluiskloof (‘Cleft of Ticks’) on the way to Seweweekspoort. Needless to say Daniella refused to even open the widows.
Arriving simultaneously at the entrance to the Seweweekspoort and the guesthouse we were staying at we allowed ourselves a little relaxing reading, soaking in the silence before a short mountain bike ride got the heart pumping and the arteries flowing enough to enjoy a some artery clogging meat followed by melted marshmellows on a ‘hardekool’ fire.
The silence and spectacular night sky, makes me think sleeping under the stars is a must tonight to round off a fantastic first day to this little father and daughter excursion.
