Journey from Garies to Cape Town
Good day, February 26th. So we are in Garies and are making our way to Cape Town and hopefully get close enough to Cape Town so that tomorrow morning I can go to the Dutch consulate and apply for a new Dutch passport.
South African Wine Country
We encountered lots of trees slash grapes that are covered with endless cloth, I guess to keep the birds out. So they do have a lot of grapes in South Africa. That’s what they’re known for. But it doesn’t come by itself. They have to make a lot of precautions to make sure that the grapes actually end up where they’re intended to and not being eaten by the birds. And there’s other fruits that are being covered up as well. The scenery, as usual, this Africa thing is just beautiful.
Meeting Duncan and the Overland Now WhatsApp Group
We then opted to go to a place about 50 kilometers north of Cape Town, and that place is run by Duncan. And Duncan has put up the Overland Now WhatsApp group. So what it takes is people to be traveling through Africa, somewhere, anywhere in Africa. I think he started it in 2022. And if you’re in a position to be able to use some of the information, you can sign up and then can put you on the list with your name and hopefully your last name as well, to distinguish between all the Bobs. And that way you can find out things that you didn’t want to know, but many things that you would want to know, like visa questions, road conditions, weather conditions, all through Africa. Could be coming from anywhere. Could be Morocco, could be Tanzania, could be any place.
I got signed up on that through the 3 Dutch guys I got to meet, I think in Cotonou, applying for the DRC visa. And they have long reached South Africa and have long made it back to the Netherlands. But I’m still on Overland now and now got a chance to see if Duncan could answer some other questions that I have.
So we drove to his place, and it’s kind of like a farm-type setting where he has a lot of outbuildings and is storing many people’s vehicles, including motorbikes. He also helps people export vehicles, import vehicles, and whatever else. And he is the man behind the WhatsApp group, and things get attended to real fast. So it was fun to meet him and get a bit more acquainted, and then he also got to know me as well because I had posted on the group as well. So that was a good, good event.
Accommodation at Melkbosstrand
After that, it was on to Melkbosstrand. We were going to stay at Duncan’s, but there was no availability, which was perfectly fine. So we went to Melkbosstrand, which is a popular place for having a lot of Airbnbs and what have you. And with Gert-Jan’s help, we located a place that we don’t make reservations. By that time, there is no time to make reservations, really. So you just go to the place and hope somebody answers. Well, that worked out again, and we were able to find an apartment that was very suitable for even more than the two of us. We had each had our own room this time, which wasn’t something that we had been looking for. So we could have this place for 2 nights and that would be enough time for Gert-Jan’s departure date. So that was really nice, well-appointed unit, and on the second floor of the building the owner has a swimming pool. Which is visible from the street because it’s enclosed with glass. Very, very unusual, but nice people. So we lucked out on that one. Thanks for coming along.
