Hi everyone,
Thought I'll fill you in on our return to Kriel in Mpumalanga at the end of last year.
Before I go there I must let you know about my trip that preceded this one.
My daughter who lives and works in Kriel, Mpumalanga (about 1310 km from Stellenbosch) wanted to visit us over the 2013 Christmas holiday but she wanted to drive down with her own car. She wanted to be down here for her youngest brother's 21st birthday.
My daughter dearest at her unflattering best in her work clothes outside her apartment (see pic below).
It is really down :-), Stellenbosch altitude av. 136 m (over 400 ft), Kriel altitude av. 1552 m (over 5000 ft). She paid for my plane ticket to meet her at O R Tambo International Airport after which we would share driving duties back to Stellenbosch.
Before that morning, I decided to use various available forms of locomotion to get to Cape Town International.
On the morning, I got up early, took a minibus taxi from near my home to Stellenbosch station, took the train from there to Cape Town main railway station (hauptbahnhof Kapstadt), got on a MyCiti bus to Cape Town International, all before my flight to O R Tambo International (ORT). Now all these various forms for transport increased the risk of me missing my flight, but it was exciting nonetheless! I could very well have jumped into my trusty steed much later and have driven to the airport without fanfare! This would have been hassle-free but the about R80 per day for parking is a rip-off. Travelling for me is about taking certain risks, some of which are not always quantifiable. Suffice to say I made my flight in good time on the day and thus waited for my good daughter at a pub restaurant at ORT.
As luck would have it, there was time for slightly more than a pint of Windhoek Draught as well.
So I was ready for the long road when my dearest (read only) daughter arrived. We had lunch and she drove until we got to Bloemfontein (she told me that in her mind she was planning to drive straight all the way to Beaufort West -another 540 km - ego, Methinks :-)).
I took over and drove until Worcester - all driving was via the N1 and, apart from the hectic two hour plus stretch between Beaufort West and Laingsburg, proceeded without undue incident. My daughter took over in Worcester and drove the rest of the way to Stellenbosch.
I was rather proud of the 25 year-old's fortitude and driving skill!
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| Interesting thought to live by |
The pic above is of a thought posted on an external notice board in a church yard in Stellenbosch.
So we spend the Christmas holidays together in and around the Cabo de bon Espearance (to use one of its old names) and after Christmas we took the long road back to Kriel.
The only difference was that we turned only the N12 at Three Sisters and drove via Kimberley, not Bloemfontein. I made the call, more for variety than for the reason that I sold it to the Good Wife for i.e. visiting family in Kimberley. I enjoyed the family visit as well, I must admit.
So it came to be that we (the Good Wife, My Dearest Daughter and I) left Stellenbosch on 29/12/2013 and took the N1 to Three Sisters.
We travelled well and got to a small town called Strydenburg (Town of Strive/Argument) where my Good wife did some primary schooling. The house her family lived in was still there and so was the primary school.
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| Good Wife's childhood home in Strydenburg |
When we left Strydenburg, we went to service station to fill up. My Dearest Daugther decided to pay for the petrol with her First National Bank card but apparently the Telkom internet service to the service station was not operating at its optimum and the service cut out some time during the transaction. The service station owners/managers did not tell her that the service had been intermittent that whole day before she used her card, so when they told her afterwards, she checked her phone for confirmation and she had indeed received confirmation of the transaction by SMS. The owners/managers were not satisfied and apparently were rather rude in their interaction with her (she looks far younger than her age!). Eventually, the owner/manager approached me and I offered to pay cash! This did not satisfy my Dearest Daughter as she felt insulted. In my opinion however, it does not pay to argue at length with small town people - they are normally on friendly terms with the local police! I'm not certain what Strydenburg is famous for apart from being one of the closest towns to Orania (a white separatist enclave). Funnily enough four white separatists in Orania voted for the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) in the recent national and provincial elections - a party led by the black former leader of the ANC youth league!!! LOL.
Some of the allure of the Northern Cape lies in its roadside rest places (see pic below). This is in contrast to
some roadside signs in Gauteng, warning motorists not to stop next to the road for their own safety.
Advice for tourists: It may not always be required but carry some local currency with you out in the countryside - whichever country you find yourself in!
To calm my daughter, I suggested that she could check with her bank in Kimberley the next day but it was no great consolation.
So we left Strydenburg with a beaming Good Wife, a blistered Dearest Daughter and a Driving Dad. Have I mentioned that my daughter possesses, as co-owner with the bank, a Ford Figo, so wherever we go, we go in Figo (could not resist my favourite saying at the time). Seriously, I was impressed with the road manners of this small car and it got us to our overnighter in Kimberley in good time.
The B&B was comfortable and I really enjoyed the pool after a long driving stint. Finding take-away dinner outside the normal pizza takeaways proved more of a challenge! I eventually found some fish dish at the local Spar. It was filling :-).
After a good night's rest, our priorities were: 1) visit to First National Bank, 2) visit to the family and then 3) back on the open road. We found FNB with ease and the family was truly happy to receive us. We spend some happy moments, catching up and left Kimberley with lots of well-wishes. The Dearest Daugther was a bit happier after the visit to FNB. I must mention that the Kimberley central Spar did not measure up to our Western Cape expectations of the general Spar look and feel. May the outlet or franchise owners do something about that quickly.
The rest of the journey to Johannesburg went by without incident and we visited more family in Johannesburg, which was another boon for us.
The N12 route was a really nice and relaxed alternative to N1. The road is well-maintained, carries less traffic than the N1 during holidays and is only 100 km further between Cape Town and Johannesburg.
We then made our way back to Kriel and drove past some interesting roadside advertisements (see pic).
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| Stiff maize porridge plus tripe and trotters is best way to describe it |
Kriel is in the centre of electricty generation hub for the country and the Dearest Daughter is employed at one of the two power stations over there. I include a pic of her workplace from the outside.
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| Good Wife outside Daughter Dearest's workplace |
Kriel itself is a nice little dormitory town in the Mpumalanga highlands without much by the way of entertainment variety. At some stage, it was officially known as the garden city of Mpumalanga and while there are still lots of signs of the sedentary pleasures, much of the existing facilities have fallen into disrepair. At times it looks like efforts at resuscitating the town's esrtwhile status are bearing fruit however.
The Good Wife in a gardening fit, decided to help my daughter with her balcony mini herb garden. Impressive! She used up some of the 5 lt water bottles that my daughter and her roomies saved for when the town runs out of water and they have to fill up at water tankers. Clever girls all!
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| Daughter dearest's herb garden courtesy of mom's hard work |
I'm signing off on that note.
Keep travelling ...
