Preparation for Overland Trip: Cape Town to Kenya & back again.

Sunday 15th February 2009

After much preparation, particularly on Dusty, our Land Rover Discovery, (It's a 1997 Tdi 300 for you tech heads out there, with a quarter of a million kms on the clock)  we departed for our trip on a beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon. The aim was to drive just under 400kms to Calvinia which is a very small farming town in the Northern Cape. We chose to do it the hard way by taking a more challenging route other than the main road.

We drove via Stellenbosch to Wellington and then took the very old and very narrow/twisty Bains Kloof pass to Ceres.

From Dust and Diesel Overland Trip Part 1

From Dust and Diesel Overland Trip Part 1

From Dust and Diesel Overland Trip Part 1

That's an exciting ride to start the journey with and Dusty coped admirably under a heavy load through all the passes. As yet, we were only challenged by the passes and we still had to encounter the 250 kms of gravel road between Ceres and Calvinia.

For the 250kms between Ceres & Calvinia there is absolutely nothing in between.

From Dust and Diesel Overland Trip Part 1

As far as I know, it is the longest distance between two towns in South Africa. It was a great journey and we both had huge respect for Dusty as it coped brilliantly on the gravel, never giving any cause for alarm.

Near the end of our journey, not long before sunset, we encountered a lone pick up, (a bakkie as it's called in SA) stranded. 

From Dust and Diesel

The man, who was on his way to the Kalahari had 2 flat tyres. Thankfully he had two spare tyres as well. John quickly changed a wheel for him and it was not far short of formula 1 timing either. Meanwhile, I am pumping his spare which was also flat, in the back of his bakkie. We have a built in compressor in the engine compartment and we did not expect to use it so quickly. However, as quick as I was pumping his spare, I realised it was coming out through a huge gash in the sidewall. Fortunately, his other flat tyre took air and off he went. We were only 5 minutes behind him but we didn't see him again until Calvina, at a garage.

We stayed in the Hantam Huis guesthouse in Calvinia and quickly went out for dinner where we were told we picked the most expensive place to stay in town. How typical is that, so we vowed to pay more attention on future night stops. It was only R400 ($40) a room. 

John & I are not into sharing rooms so we've elected to have our privacy along the way. There will no doubt be occasions where we won't have much choice but to share. We also have our individual tents.