Thursday 28th March 2013

L:  Leaving the cool comfort of the air-conditioned room this morning was hard to do.

Of course, I had already got up to take the obligatory sunrise and other shots and before we left, I  discovered a bird’s nest in the tree with a whole family of white-backed mousebirds, so exciting.

So, it is off to the start of our trail today, but not before going through and stopping for a few things in Pofadder, few things, is the operative word.  We were warned by a local not to buy any meat…..

It was a pleasure at the start of the Easter weekend to have no traffic this far up.  There were road works along the way and our turn-off to Pella was not marked, thank goodness for GPS.

We stopped off at the Information Centre in the town to show our permit for the Namakwa 4 by 4 Eco trail and also saw the old Catholic church, which is a landmark of the area, been there since 1875, it is magnificent, which is a real surprise in such a small town where most of the residents seem to eke out a living.  There are lots of date palms which is their industry, but the strange thing is that no-one seems to have any lawn, probably because of the constant sand being blown around.

So, it was off to start the trail through Charlie’s Pass, which was sandy and very rocky, but probably, mostly passable with a 2 by 4 vehicle as well.  The pass was constructed by Charles Weidner, one of the first white inhabitants, so as to have access to the river. (Think he was drunk, or driving a donkey cart as the track goes all over the place.) We really were impressed by the mountain ranges made up of different types of rocks and showing different colours. We drove along the ‘high level mark’ of the Orange (Gariep) River for quite a while. As the river is low at the moment there was a lot of bush and reeds between us and the water.

We eventually turned southwards again and drove past a rather large vineyard and date palm plantation on our way to Klein Pella where we were going to spend the night. Klein Pella Campsite is a delightful oasis in this arid land. There is green grass, electrified sites and most importantly a swimming pool. We spent the rest of the day chilling, swimming and taking photos. Lesley loves going around taking photos of all the birds she can find. I think we need to invest in a camera with a good zoom lens.

The sunset here was beautiful and we managed to get a shot of the mountain behind us as it was glowing bright red. It was only like that for a few minutes but what a privilege to see it.

We thought we were safe from other campers until a crowd pulled in and practically parked next to the passenger door of our car. Rather rude but one of them realised it and the car was moved another meter away.  Hopefully they will be a quiet bunch tonight.