When I was woken up by our kitten on November 7th, 2023 at 5 a.m., the sky began to turn pink. I was dozing in my sleeping bag when I realized that Brigitta’s sixtieth birthday was in three days. You should think of something special for a day like this. I did! Why not drive near Stellenbosch, where the Kleine Zalze Winery with an attached golf course is located?

At breakfast I suggested to Brigitta that we go there. She quickly realized that there were 1,400 kilometers to cover to get there. But something like that hasn’t frightened me for a long time now because we’ve sometimes covered eight hundred kilometers in a day in Australia or Canada!

So, we packed our things, said goodbye to the pig, the dog and the cats, packed our kitten in his padded banana box and left at eight o’clock. We were barely underway when the heavens opened. It was pouring rain! Good thing, because that would wash the mud from our trip to Kubu Island out of Mahangu’s wheel wells!

We crossed the border between Botswana and South Africa without any problems. Orapa, our kitten, felt that it would be better if she behaved inconspicuously. We reached Vryburg, the first town in South Africa. From there we continued to Kimberley, where we refuelled. Wheat and barley fields and pecan nut plantations stretched out to the left and right of the road. Kilometres followed kilometres and the speedometer showed that we had already covered almost five hundred kilometres.

An hour and a half later we turned off the road towards Witput Country Lodge. There we came across a dilapidated building, surrounded by a beautiful garden, which in the last century had served as accommodation for the workers who were building the track. The daily speedometer showed that we had covered five hundred and sixty kilometres. It was time to take a break before continuing the journey towards Stellenbosch the following day…

PS: If you want to know where we spent that night, read here.