Breakfast in Prince Albert
Good day, it’s March 12th. So leaving Prince Albert, but first have breakfast at a nearby hotel with a good coffee shop. So Eggs Benedict it became and was delicious. The food is really reasonable here, probably about two-thirds of in the US or in Europe.
Meeting Fellow Travelers
I wasn’t the only one sitting there. The couple that was just about wrapping up their breakfast, I asked them where they were from, and obviously they were a Dutch couple. And Annemiek, she has been a KLM stewardess for the last 31 years and enjoying every part of it. They’re making good use of the fact that they can go places. Now they’re on a several-week trip, and they mentioned some of the places they were still going to go to, and among them was Kruger Park.
Journey Through Swartspass
Then I went on through Highway 328, and that is then Swartspass to get closer to the coast, but first to get to Oudshoorn. And that turned out to be a steep mountain pass at times, but very doable. At times I opted to wait for cars to come up to pass in a good spot because it wasn’t passable in just about every place.
Mountain Coffee Shop Encounter
Mountain Coffee Shop EncounterBefore I got to the top, there was a little house that turned out to be aiming to be a bit of a coffee shop and met Diedrich there, who is the person in charge. And for the last 2-3 years he has rented that space from the government. It had been empty for about 10 years, and he gave up a career as a winemaker for 20 years to do this because he really loves the mountains and likes doing the trails. We had a conversation about how we could make his business better because he felt only 20% of the people that come by stop.
Arrival in Oudshoorn
It was a leisurely ride to the top and a leisurely ride down that got me to Oudshoorn, which seems a nice enough place, but had no reason to really want to stop there. But before leaving town, I noticed the Ostrich Emporium, which is a huge building operated by OPSA, which is short for Ostrich Products South Africa.
Meeting Louisa at the Ostrich Emporium
I just went there for a little bite and ended up sitting outside close to Louisa and we ended up with a conversation. And Louisa is enthusiasm personified. She has two girls about 12, 14 years old and a husband, and they live on the coast. She had been to a game reserve to do an environmental impact statement because that is the kind of thing she does and she really enjoys her work.
Adventure Road Discovery
It was time to get closer to the coast again, so I did not want to take the easy road. So I ended up getting to Highway 9, which is basically parallel to the coast, but not quite there yet. I traveled east to see if I could find a road that made a little bit more sense. What came up was a very small road, and I had absolutely no idea what I was getting into.
Louvain Farms Campsite
I drove into that road and it turned out to be a farm – one of 3 farms that are combined into the Louvain Farms. They have also a wedding venue, places where you can stay and a campsite. They are also the administrators of the road that I wanted to take, which turned out to be a road only good for four-wheel drive cars. The latest I could go on that road was at 3 o’clock, and it was getting close to 5 o’clock. They did have a great campsite, so that is where I ended up. It was a very good campsite with bathrooms and hot water, but no one else to stay there. That was perfect – another great day.
