Epilogue

I’ve been wrestling with this concept for the last few weeks. How should I conclude this epic journal? What can I say after such an experience that will match or even come close to buzzing over Victoria Falls in a Microlite? The serenity of an African sunset, or sunrise? The vast splendour of the savannah, mountains and open sky? The sheer psychotic rage of the river Nile? And what of the freedom of the road or living each day for just that day? The generosity and kindness of strangers? The insight and knowledge gained of oneself?

Priceless treasures, all of them.

I will admit freely that, like our family, we couldn’t choose our travel companions. But, like family, you learn how to deal with their idiosyncrasies, or rather do your best to. In that light I can say it wasn’t an easy trip, but it was an experience. A modern day adventure. There are a great many things I would have done differently, looking back now. But then, I wouldn’t have come out the other end with all the lessons I learnt and still benefit from daily. I learnt a great deal about what it means to be African, about acceptance, about communication and about being genuine. I think for both Annelie and I, we were humbled by these interactions; sometimes fleeting moments by the roadside, others for hours at the border posts or camps. There is so much potential in Africa it’s astounding! And her people are kind, open and down to earth.

Zimbabwe strikes me still as the one country being blacklisted because of the actions of a small band of criminals. Her people are just getting on with it and I genuinely feel that if you have an opportunity to go there, do so. You will not be disappointed. Uganda, for her raw and savage beauty. Winston Churchill wrote of Uganda as “The pearl of Africa”. I agree.

Since we’ve been back in so called “civilisation” we’ve had a difficult time relating to... well... anything. Or anyone. Strange as it may seem, we didn’t feel like we belonged in South Africa or London. Trying to catch up with old friends and family was hard, sometimes overwhelming. Nothing personal, of course. Just, we were still on the road, in essence. It took more than a few tears and encouragement between Annelie and I to get back into the flow of things and start rebuilding our lives here in the UK. You need to know where you are if you you want to know where you’re going? Quite like Alice in Wonderland, when asked by the Caterpillar “who are you?” we could only wring our hands and reply “I don’t hardly know”.

And this is where I have to mention, following on the “How should I conclude this epic journal?” train of thought, that had I posted this a few weeks ago it would have been a gloomy affair indeed! Heh heh heh, yeah, life was confusing, frustrating and downright upside down. We count ourselves fortunate that we’ve had such unprecedented support from our biological and chosen families! Whole apartments for our exclusive use, a living room sofa bed here, express delivery of all our kit we had in storage... it was just heart warming and extremely humbling. We managed to find a fantastic apartment, not far from where we lived previously and for the last two weeks we have been on a mission to make it our home.

Annelie has picked up the majority of her client base and there are very exciting prospects on the horizon. I’ve been digging into the photography (with Annelie’s help) and secured a few quick turnaround jobs to keep the debt collectors at bay. And just last week I secured a 6 month contract for a very well established blue-chip corporation, starting on Monday. Now all we need is furniture! :)

I’ve “burrowed” Paulo Coelho’s “The Alchemist” from a friend’s bookshelf the other day. It’s a fantastic parable about a boy who dreams of travelling the world, seeing extraordinary things and finding his treasure. It’s a short novel I’ve known about it for years but never before picked up. I still haven’t finished reading it yet... I’m kind of savouring it. It has been a fantastic reminder, a beacon of sorts for what it means to believe in yourself, follow your heart, be mindful of the signs, to enjoy life and be in the moment. It is so easy to get stuck in the little things, to blame others for your perceived misfortune and to begrudgingly accept your fate. So many times in the last month I’ve caught myself in the act and what could have been a deal breaker was turned into an opportunity. Even more amusing: it was easy! It’s just a simple matter of perspective.

So what’s my point?

Well, it is this: sometimes you need to do some shit that scares you. Climb out of your shell and leave you’re cushy comfort zone behind. It reaffirms who you are and puts your values and beliefs to the test. Puts your identity in the blender a bit. We feel, perhaps, that we let ourselves down a few times on this trip. But then again, did we? Win or lose we have the luxury of hindsight to see both sides of the situation and learn valuable things about ourselves. What’s more, we can soundboard moments off each other, since we have fully two perspectives of one situation. Powerful stuff.

I was quite adolescent when I thought that Africa would be all about the photography for me. I’d have yet another excuse to hide behind my lens and not interact with the world. Silly rabbit. Instead it turned out to be a perception changing, life enhancing masterpiece. A delicious slice of time captured in glorious detail in this journal! And now, after its completion, I intend to create a physical manifestation of it, in the form of a coffee table book, sprinkled liberally with photos and hand written observations. This is my gift to future Gerhard and Annelie, who may have the benefit of picking it up on a lazy Sunday afternoon and be instantly transported back in time.

So, to you, future Gerhard and Annelie: remember this. Remember your time under the stars and the epic adventure you had together. The smells, the sun, the rivers and valleys. The highs, the lows, the spirit of the road. The journey, which bolstered the powerful foundation you have built your relationship and now married life on.

Be true. Love. Enjoy. Remember this.

Makhtub.

[G & A], out

this is the end, beautiful friend, the end.

26 August, Day 74: "Home" stretch

At the breakfast table we implore the waitress to NOT bring us any bacon or eggs! I know, I know, crazy right? But my word, we’ve both tired of that combination over the last week. So we’re quite easy this morning, sticking to the muesli and yo-gurt, fruit salads and coffee.

Checkout all done, back in the Bullet for today, our final drive of our tour. Quite sad, hey? I wasn’t so much sad as elated, I kinda get like that near the end of a long holiday.

As mentioned before, Matjiesfontein is only a few kilometres down the road and we make the left turn off the highway to the inconspicuous looking town.

Our first stop is at the train station, which has now been converted into a museum. A great many artefacts are stored in the glass cabinets and shelves, dating from the late 19^th century. One of the coolest exhibitions was in the preserved apothecary (that’s a chemist, kids...) where they had hundreds of really old, ooooold cameras! There was a weird clash of worlds, on my side I was standing with (to my mind) a state of the art professional, digital camera with all the trimmings versus a universe stuck in time; a hundred years worth of history and evolution to get to the point of what I was holding in my clammy paw.

Cool.

The town itself is really tiny, consisting of a short street lined with a handful of detached buildings, with the station/museum on the other side. Our next stop is to explore the set of detached buildings, and we find a coffee house, bar, old post office, the old Standard Bank of South Africa offices and the Lord Milner hotel. All of these buildings have been renovated and restored from about the 1970’s, some like the hotel maintaining their function whereas others like the coffee house used to be a general goods store. That’s actually Matjiesfontein’s original claim to fame: it was a refuelling and restocking outpost. Back in the days of the Kimberly diamond- and later gold rush in the 1800’s, the town was perfectly situated to offer both quality stocks and accommodation, both in high demand. This is technically the middle of nowhere, by most definitions. The Karoo, like I have noted many times before is wide open, mostly featureless and almost barren where it not for the few pieces of flora here and there. And the travel to these parts, you where rocking it with an ox wagon, or on foot.

Jimmy Logan was the man responsible for Matjiesfontein’s fortunes in the early days, having spotted the potential of the town. He started off as a porter in the railway at the age 15 and quickly rose to District Superintendent of the stretch of rail line between the Hex Rover and Prince Albert Road by his 21^st birthday. While still in railway employ, he was granted a concession at Touws River station, becoming lessee of the railway-owned Frere Hotel there in the same year. Within 12 months he had resigned from the service to devote time to his own affairs.

Another bonus of the Karoo is the dry, clear air, a big deal back in the days when all sorts of chest ailments where almost always fatal. So in 1883 he decided to move permanently to Matjiesfontein with his family, gaining another refreshment room concession there in 1884. Between the outbreak of the Boer war he developed the village into a delightful Victorian health and holiday resort, catering to Premiers, Governors and leading political figures of the day. Even Cecil John Rhodes was a regular patron (he suffered from ill health all his life).

The village was also used as a staging area during the Boer War, with 10 000 troops and 20 000 horses stationed on the outskirts and the hotel serving as a hospital for British officers; it’s central turret becoming a armed look-out post.

James Douglas Logan died in 1920, at 65 years of age. By the second World War, the town fell into obscurity and decay, but never lost its potential. The whole of it was bought by David Rawdon in 1968 and in 1970 the hotel was reopened as The Lord Milner. The rest of the village too has been restored and renovated into what we saw today, a living monument to a slice of history. Even in the bar, there was a guy dressed in period garb playing a few diddies on the piano (surprising to see, 11:00 in the morning. More surprising was that he wasn’t alone and the bar was full of patrons!).

So that’s it! A very educational little detour.

One last pit stop at the coffee shop for a cappuccino and a muffin before we head out again. We’ve been treated to some amazing sites during our two and a half month sojourn in all the countries but I can truly say that the Hex River valley can give every single one of those a run for their money. It’s almost spring now, so the vineyards are all bare but by no stretch of the imagination can I imagine what this must look like in the full bloom of summer. Deep valleys and rivers cut through imposing peaks, green and blue, littered with wine farms. It was utterly breathtaking. The snow capped mountains of the Cedarburg came into view next. I tried again to take a few decent pictures of it all but I’m not sure I can do it any justice.

So needless to say, it was a most pleasant drive. Not long before we arrive in Worcester and then on into the Du Toits Kloof pass, an equally stunning drive! I’ve mentioned it before but the same applies here: it’s quite weird to experience vertigo looking UP. But here it was again. Before long we dive into the tunnel and exit the other end into quite overcast and damp weather. Welcome home, it said.

The excitement is quite palpable by this stage as the signs go by: Cape Town – 75 ; Cape Town – 50 ; Cape Town – 40....

And so it was, at 13:51 that we finally rolled into Jacqueline Street, Annelie’s home, to greet her parents. I think they were quite pleased to see us :)

We spent the rest of the day chatting about this and that, after we unpacked the Bullet entirely (I am still amazed how much stuff we ferried along with us!) and eating way too much! In the evening we visited my parents for a quick howdy do, again eating and drinking way too much.

Our plans are pretty fluid for the next week or two. Lots of people to meet and greet and quite a few administration tasks to perform. I think mostly we’d like to spend some time with the family for a change, we always give them the short end of the stick when we are down this way.

And of course, I will need to sit down and get to all the pics I took, upload a few. And really think about how I’m going to end this piece! But all in good time :)

Highlights: Well, we’re home! And in one piece.

[G & A], out

we move like shadows

25 August, Day 73: one thousand twenty three

We actually slept in a tad today, not really getting our 05:00 start we wanted. I kid of course, we were never going to get up at 05:00!! Andries sorts us some delicious breakfast of fried eggs, toast and left over steak chunks. Mmmmm, steeeeeaaak. It’s the new bacon.

Quick shower, pack up and ready to go by 10:30 and we say our goodbyes and good luck’s. In no time flat we are back on the N1 and grinding away at the last bit of asphalt home, a grand total of 1023 KM’s to go!

We make pretty good progress before reaching our 1^st road works stop. “10 minutes wait”, says the man. Said man returns 10 minutes later to inform us that there has been an accident in the stretch ahead, so we can expect some minor delays. Much later, and after catching up with two Mythbusters episodes on my laptop, I make a call that we double back and try to get onto one of the dust roads running parallel with the N1.

Easy does it, best dirt road we’ve ever seen. :) It snakes through the koppies this way and that, mostly running next to the train tracks and national road off the right so we know we’re heading the right direction. We don’t have GPS, so it’s terribly old skool navigation. A few cars coming the other direction can at least verify where we will end up and we trade directions (since they want to go the other way). Not long before more people catch on to the alternative road and more cars fill the narrow bypass.

Finally, we rejoin the N1 and my goodness, it doesn’t look any better on this side either! Cars, trucks and trailers backed up for kilometres. We make a quick stop at a block in the road where people have climbed out of their cars and I relay the terrible news: you’re gonna be here a while. But I’m a bad news / good news kinda guy and offer them the “secret” route around the carnage. I later found out a truck and a 4x4 bakkie had a serious collision, hence the fire trucks and no doubt jaws-of-life operation that had to take place.

We push on, but it is now increasingly likely that we will not be making it all the way home today. This sentiment is somewhat lightened when we seem to again be making really good time and dashed equally as we get stuck behind yet another few sets of successive road blocks. We’re lucky that they at least stick to the plus-minus 10 minute wait time.

By the late afternoon we roll into Three Sisters, aptly named for the three tall (for this area) free standing mountains. It gets progressively dark by the time we get close to Laingsburg and even though we are in striking distance to Cape Town we make decide that it would be so stupid to rush home now. By our ETA we would only arrive by something dumb like 11 o’clock, and what’s the point in that??

Laingsburg isn’t the largest town I’ve ever seen, but that have 3 decent looking inns / hotels and we’re ready to have a serious sit down dinner for a change, having only had Provita bisquits and cheese (the same cheese we bought way way back in Kenya! Still... delicious!).

The Laings Inn happens to have one double bedroom available and we snatch it up, unpack our sleep over gear and head out to one of 3 dining options at the Cafe Hart Hotel. The other options where Steers and the Wimpy at the petrol station as you drive into town. Heh heh, small town indeed.

The Cafe Hart seems to have quite a rich family history and is quite cosy on this cold evening. The bar is quite buzzing when we arrive. An extensive menu covers all the basic food groups, of meat, meat, fish, and meat. We order the ribs with chips and wash it down with whatever the house red was.

Even before dinner is done I could feel a very real weariness creeping into me and I mention that I am really glad we didn’t push through like lunatics.

Tomorrow we will take our time and pay a visit to Matjiesfontein, only 15 kilometres down the road.

Back at the inn, we settle into the big double bed, have a quick night cap and doze off.

Highlights: Feeling very homesick man, very pleased we’re almost home.

[G & A], out

ya’ll know the lyrics, com’on and sing with me!