A Red Dog on an Orange River

[Kranswurm]

On one of my work trips to Olifantshoek my more senior co-worker decided that we should rather leave Pretoria on a Sunday lunch time. Turns out that was not a wise descision as all those dorpies closed up. We eventually stopped at a KFC in Vryburg that seems to have been the only place open West from Gauteng. Worst KFC we have eaten ever. The chicken my friend had most certainly died of a heart attack looking at the amount of oil dripping off it.

If you are doing that trip even during a working day you stock up on some decent Padkos the night before because there is nothing between jhb and the Blue Naartjie in Calvinia

Sorry

The Red Sands restaurant is not too shabby if you are staying over there

Edited December 2, 2020 by Kranswurm

[Bateleur1]

If you are doing that trip even during a working day you stock up on some decent Padkos the night before because there is nothing between jhb and the Blue Naartjie in Calvinia

Sorry

The Red Sands restaurant is not too shabby if you are staying over there

 

Yip we learnt that rather quickly.  Later on for my trips to Alexanderbay (I always stayed in Port Nolloth, McDougles Bay), I would stock up on Woolies precooked meals with veggies and all.  Would come back from work in the afternoon and just warm the dinner up in the microwave and sit on the "stoep" overlooking the Atlantic with Woolies meal and a bottle of red wine.

[eddy]

We decided to take our three year old dog Ranger with us, a rather large Rhodesian Ridgeback three quarters of a meter at the shoulder and a solid 65kg of muscle.

 

A wonderful trip and a well told story.

 

Just one correction.

 

This is what a Ranger looks like      :

 

 

Edited December 2, 2020 by eddy

[River Rat]

A Red dog on an Orange River part 2
Day 2 – 500km to Pella plus another 3 hours of off road driving to get to Groot Melkboom campsite. The one thing you learn from overlanding is that there are three parameters required when planning a trip. The first is obviously the distance to be travelled, the second is the time required and the third is the fuel required, the slower the going the more fuel will be consumed. We struck down our camp after a quick breakfast and had what would be our last hot shower for the next 3 days. Our journey took us through Olifantshoek and I must say that looking at the sparse shrub veld it was difficult to imagine that the area could sustain a sufficient number of elephants to justify the name. The origin of the name is interesting in that in 1912 an elephant tusk was the purchase price for the farm that the town is built on.

We followed a veritable green oasis of the farmlands adjacent to the Orange river, the ingenuity of our farmers proudly displayed in the vivid green lucern fields and vineyards. We crossed the Orange river just before entering the town of Kakamas, what a name for a town! Who would live in a town with a name like that? I mean Pofadder was sort of obvious, they must have found a puff adder there but what did they find at Kakamas? Perhaps it got it’s name from the sound an animal makes but the closest I could think of was a Hadeda which might explain the Kaka part but the mas? Anyway as a child I always imagined that Hadedas had a lisp so that would make it Kakamath, the truth is that Kakamas started as a refuge for farmers following the great drought of the 1890s. They formed a group to build irrigation canals by hand, many of these still in operation today. The name seems to have three possible origins - the Korana called the location of the drift across the Orange river T’Kakamas after a raging cow that storm them while they were herding their cattle. The Khoi origin is Gagamas meaning the red clay used by their women to beautify their faces. Apparently Kakamas without T’ in Korana means poor and infertile soil which was hardly descriptive of the lush farmlands surrounding the town or perhaps those early farmers did indeed find the stuff in the name, I think I’ll stick with the place of the raging cow.

We fuelled up at Pofadder including one jerry can just to be sure as our planning showed that route was on the limit of our tank range. Shortly after that the off road journey began as we turned right heading for Pella, Pella was originally known as Cammas Fonteyn a fountain frequented by the San people. But in 1814 a missionary by the name of Christian Albercht and his converts fled Namibia having been persecuted by the Orlam Chief Jager Afrikaner. They established a mission at Cammas Fonteyn and renamed it Pella after a village across the Jordan river that was a refuge for Jewish Christians fleeing the Roman army advancing on Jerusalem in 70ad. The settlement was abandoned on numerous occasions until the 1890s when Father Simon and Brother Leo Wolf teamed up to build the church building in Pella. We decided to find the tourism office to get some information on the church as well as registering the start of our trip on the trail. We stopped next to a group of youngsters to get directions to the office, Ranger just loves kids and he stuck his head through the window to say hello. The young lad in the front stepped back at the sight of this huge dog staring at him right in the face “Jissie manne kyk hierdie groot stuk hond!” and that was the end of our communication.

We made our way to the church hoping to wing it but as soon as Ranger jumped out of the vehicle our large group of onlookers scattered to the winds , Ranger thinking this was a game chased after them. We decided that this settlement had seen enough strife in its history with Jager Afrikaner and the wrath of the Roman army that they could do without being terrorised by Ranger from Pretoria so we set off for Klein Pella and Charlies pass. Charlies pass is quite a technical route where ground clearance is vital but we never needed low range or difflock, the route makes use of the various sandy river beds to traverse up to the mountain and followed by steep rocky climbs that takes you to the top and rewards you with glimpses of the Orange river and spectacular views of the surrounding mountains. The tyres on our vehicle were the original OEM tyres and not ideally suited to this type of terrain so we decided not to deflate it too much for the sandy sections so protecting the sidewalls from cuts in the rocky sections.
The off roading was huge fun as Ranger joined my wife as she spotted for me over the rougher sections , he was more interested in the smells than wheel placement. By the time we got through Canyon Pass and Klein Pella we realised that we underestimated our travel time and we were about to invoke rule number one of overlanding which is don’t travel in the dark. Groot Melkboom was still an hour and half away and it was an hour to sunset, we had to be wheels down at least an hour before sunset. So we found a spot 100m off the track in a dry riverbed to settle in for the night, dry river beds are risky as campsites but we concluded that rain in this part of the world is a rarity especially this time of the year.

Ranger recognised the drill when we started setting up camp and he took up the job of camp security. He patrolled the camp in ever widening circles periodically checking in with us before going for the next patrol. He celebrated his achievement with a typical Ridgeback zoomie run in the thick sand. The gloaming time was different here, there was no marked difference between day and night shift, it went from quiet time to quieter time with only the odd chirp from a cricket to remind us that we were not the only living beings out here. We sat around the fire with Ranger staring into the darkness as we stared at the fire but the wind started picking up to the point that Ranger retired to his bed in the annex , another big day done…

Edited December 2, 2020 by River Rat

[Shebeen]

we did this exact trip in 1998, i look forward to your section on the date farm.

stayed at the pofadder hotel with the parrot.

fill up your vehicle and you got a complimentary bumper sticker:

"Pofadder, die stad van die toekoms"

 

Went there again for renewables work a few years back, the bird was still there but the future was still on the horison

 

 

edit: Also if you went to Kakamas and didn't have anything to say about die Pienk Padstal, then did you actually go there?

Edited December 8, 2020 by Shebeen