They say a picture is worth a thousand words.  Here’s a novella about my vacation so far.

On the way here we passed through one of my favourite places in SA – the Meiringspoort pass.  This pass is on the road between Beaufort-West and Oudtshoorn and is the main passage between the Great Karoo and the Little Karoo.  In times of heavy rainfall the entire valley fills up with water.  I once passed through here on a school tour shortly after a flood while they were busy repairing the road.  Boulders the size of our school bus had lain scattered along the road.  Now, however, it’s a beautiful road with regular rest stops, this one also at a tourist centre a short hike away from the Prince Albert waterfall.  Imagine five kilometres with these cliffs towering above you.  At times it feels like they’re going to close up over your car.

Oh, and the Afrikaans author, C.J. Langenhoven, wrote a story of how he and his family once travelled through this pass in an old railway car pulled by their tame pet elephant, Herrie.  Naturally they got stranded in the middle of the pass due to a flood for several weeks.  The boys from a nearby village supposedly climbed down the cliffs on ropes to visit his daughters while they were there.  Your guess is as good as mine whether the story was true.  He was one of those authors where you could never be completely certain.  He also wrote a story of how he and his one daughter visited the moon in a Venusian spaceship shaped like a golden egg.  I’m pretty sure that one was made up. Continue reading “On vacation (me)” →