We arrived at Upington, dog tired; at 7:45 (clearly Doris doesn’t factor in road works and rain). Along the way I googled a few B & B’s and we struck it lucky with Three Gables, highly recommended. After a quick unpack we headed off for dinner at Le Must, a real must for anybody dining in Upington. It is South African cuisine with really friendly staff and a relaxed atmosphere (I should become a food critic). It is voted as the no.1 restaurant in Upington, with the Spur as no.2, clearly a no brainer as to where to eat.
Our last meal in S.A. was breakfast at Three Gables: fruit, cereal, yoghurt etc, followed by mince, poached eggs, bacon, mushrooms and fried banana. I have a feeling I might be dreaming about this meal in the months to come.
The road from Upington to the border at Nakob was long and straight with stunning buffalo weaver nests on the telephone poles. We passed through the border at Nakob (S.A. side) and travelled 16km to Ariamsvlei (Namibian side). Officially, we left S.A. at 11:00; I hope all our border crossings are this painless.
We headed into Karasberg, where not much has changed from the first time we went through the town 10 years ago. Robs was 4 and taught herself to read in the back of the Discovery; Gareth, at 10, could change tires in his sleep due to all punctures we had; and Kirst, well the princess read all the fashion magazines she could find.
We stopped off at the Spar to buy meat – on previous trips into Namibia, we had the kids sitting on frozen meat, as due to foot and mouth, we were banned from taking meat in. This time, we decided not to abide by the law and for the first time we were not searched. How I wished we had bought some of Manny, the butchers, steaks, chops, ribs and pregos. We left the Spar with 3 T-bones (these turned out to be tougher than old boots and inedible). Payment by credit card was another experience, it took a while, during this time the teller used her bic pen as an ear bud – the same pen was then given to me to sign with. I am so going to miss Woolies!!!!
We encountered more road works, due to flooding, in the area but they had built side roads for traffic and it was a pleasant drive. There were thousands of tok tokkie type beetles crossing the road. We had no way to avoid squashing them; this upset my bunny hugging daughter terribly.
We went through Keetmanshoop and arrived at Klein Aus around 4:00, then set up camp in a pleasant camp site for the night. Along the way Robs joked about seeing one of my pupils, teaching sport, I teach many children and wherever we go I have a “Hello Mrs Morrison”. I told her that I thought in the middle of Africa, we might be ok. As things turned out the tables turned – in the camp site next to ours were two of her teachers from Girls College (what are the chances?). Tracey Harvey and Ginny Ross were touring Namibia with family and friends. It was great to catch up with colleagues away from work. Graeme and Dougal Ross, are friends from way back and they had a good chat too.
Our first night in our roof top tent was warm but the serious winds kept most of the camp site awake.
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