It all started on Saturday evening.
We had, during the afternoon received the news from Australia about the arrival of the newest family member. My brother Philip and his wife Amy welcomed William Faure into the world.
Naturally this event had to be celebrated so into the wine cellar and a Kanonkop Paul Sauer came to hand (thanks Kathi). In my excitement of the new arrival and wanting to taste the wine I managed to cut my thumb on the corkscrew. Fast forward to Sunday afternoon and after cooking food for the trip I put my hand on the stove top to lean over to clean a stove plate and managed to burn my knuckles. The burn was such that the casualty unit treating burns at the hospital would have been excited to put their skills to the test. The final straw was when filling the on board water tank in my Land Cruiser the tap suddenly started leaking. This after a through check was done on this over the weekend. A temporary fix sorted that out. If these issues were all I am to encounter on this trip I will happily trade them.
On to day 1 and the drive from Cape Town to Kimberley where Booking.com has me accommodated in the very pleasant Oleander Guest House. The day started by our neighbors dogs waking us up at 04h30. Usually we are woken at 05h30 by them, but today they put on a splendid display of yapping. The neighborhood is onto this and strategy is being debated ranging from calling in the SPCA to a polite, but firm chat.
Cape Town is a wonderful city, but if you want to head north then it could not be better placed for the longest travel. Thus, I decided to put in a big day and do the 1000 odd km. Once off the N1 the road is delightful. Very little traffic and the road in good condition. The veld is wet with many standing pools of water and plenty of grazing for the sheep. Good news for the farmers.
SARS is on strike apparently and this may have an impact at the border tomorrow. We shall see.
With all that excitement preceding your blast off we can only expect exciting times ahead. Hope only bush babies en route and yapping dogs are of the wild kind. Personally we hope that SARS is short staffed at the border as we have vested interests in a smooth entry into Botswana.
The blog is back! Whooohooo! Good luck for tomorrow 😀