I begin today’s blog somewhere north of Ludzville, belting it towards Springbok on the N7.
We left the west coast village of Lamberts Bay this morning after a very restful night’s sleep at Sir Lamberts Guesthouse, mouth perhaps a bit dry from last night’s tasting session, but otherwise no worse for wear. By the time I was up and out, snapping some quick shots in the early morning light, Jan was already back from his morning run and doing push-ups on the deserted sidewalk. The man is a real pain to travel with. It just makes a guy feel bad.
The drive out of town produced a first for me. Pulling off the tar just outside the village limits, we dropped down onto the first dirt toll road I’ve ever had the pleasure of driving. Toll roads are just about my least favourite thing on a road trip, but this wasn’t so bad. R30 gets you potholes, sand and beautiful views. I’ll be back here on my KTM, that is for sure.
The toll road wasn’t just a scenic novelty, it was also the quickest way to get to Ludzville, an even sleepier little town than Lamberts if that’s possible. Ludzville is the home of Oom Jan (no relation) who moved there from Durban seven years ago to escape the tedium. Or something like that. He has now established a thriving little butchery “˜Oom Jan se Slaghuis’ in the centre of town. From there he hangs and cures his own meat, producing fantastic steak and lamb, and mouth wateringly good smoked sausage which he brought fresh from the smoking oven for us to eat just so – warm off the rack. Apparently the recipe is secret, but I think Jan may have coaxed the ingredients out of him. Check out the Braai4Heritage website for more details. All I know at this stage is that they contain a rich mix of prime beef, pork mince and bacon. Jan had about 12, but then he went on a run this morning. I restricted myself to just the two.
From Ludzville we shifted back onto tar and onto the N7 to Springbok. For some reason I thought we were going to try and make Port Nolloth and then back down to Kleinzee, but in fact we were booked to braai at our accommodation that night – Houthoop Lodge, just south of Kleinzee – and the route directly west from Springbok was definitely the quicker option.
The sky had been bright and clear most of the morning, but by midday there was a definite gloom hanging over the barren, rock-strewn hills around us. There’d already been a few spits of rain before we hit Springbok, but it was nothing to the near biblical deluge that hammered down on us as we rose up through Misverstand Pass, and began our final leg, west towards the sea.
Only once before have I seen rain like it – many years ago when I got caught with friends in a sunset thunder storm in Kruger. I remember it being intense then, and I’d forgotten just how blinding a sheer wall of falling water can be, and how sudden it can arrive. As we came round a corner it was like someone had just turned the lights off on us, but in reverse. White-out. No railing, no lines, no road! Jan slowed down as fast as seemed safe and we crawled along at 10 or 20, peering out through the impenetrable white wall in front of us.
It didn’t last long and abated completely as we moved down out of the hills, but it really left its mark. Huge waterfalls gushed off the veld and onto the road, forming instant rapids down the sides of the road.
We arrived at Houthoop Lodge without further incident and received a wonderful welcome from Veronica van Dyk, the owner. Veronica began the lodge in 1998 and judging from the pictures she showed me, she’s turned what was once desert into an oasis in that time.
Veronica put on a awesome evening for us – it’s only day four, but this is definitely the highlight of the tour so far. Besides the fact that we’ve all got our own little cabins and I don’t have to listen to Jan snoring all night, she more importantly organised local musicians, story tellers, farmers and fishermen and topped it off with a feast of a braai the likes of which I have seldom seen. The menu included:
- Fresh oysters – my first ever I might add
- “˜Houthoop’ mussel soup
- Namlam Vetdermpies (smoked sausage)
- Vet sterkies (Lamb tails! …are you seeing a lot of “˜vet’ here or is it just me?)
- Fresh braaied cod and steenbras
- Garlic mussels by the pot load
- Roosterkoek
- Potbread with homemade jams – 4 or 5 kinds – I didn’t try them all
- Bowls of salads and pasta
- And koeksisters for desert
And that doesn’t include all the great meat we’d already picked up from Oom Jan.
What scares me as I type this is the promise of a liver and bacon fry up in the morning. I bought a bag of apples today. I think I may have them for breakfast instead.
It’s been a great day though and we’ve been hosted in true west coast style. Warm, friendly and very relaxed. Tomorrow it’s up to the Richtersveld for a braai in Kuboes. If there’s internet there I’ll be surprised, so you may only hear from me the day after.
