Day 2 - To Calvinia Monday 1 Sept

0730 Monday 1 Sept

We Met in the lobby after breakfast and checking out of breakwater Hotel.  By 0750 we were all loaded up and on the road. Mishek gave a short talk on where we were going that day, what we would see, and also said we were to change seats each day. 

Table Mountain as we leave on our Safari

As we left Cape Town I felt a sense of anticipation for what the coming days would bring.  There were a couple of "townships" next to the highway as we neared the outskirts, and I took a few photos from the moving bus, mindful of how fortunate we were to be born in N. America to a middle class family

South African township for the poor

Further along, the landscape changed more as the land flattened out, and boulders with frequent piles of rocks became prevalent.

Grape fields for the wineries that are everywhere

It is the end of winter here in S. Africa, which is high tourist season. There were lots of wildflowers along the roads which were quite pretty and we stopped a couple of times for viewing and pictures.

Nice farm at one of our leg stretching breaks.

Stops were made every couple of hours either for leg stretching, bathroom breaks or photo ops. One of our travellers, Mike Dority , was keen about photographing the wildflowers which were in bloom and present everywhere for a couple of hours. We crossed this huge plain and finally came to this large hill. Mishek, our guide, later said it was a 2400 ft.  climb. Once on top I was expecting to go down again but we were greeted by another large, seemingly endless plain.

Switchbacks of the big hill we climbed up to get off one plain and onto another!

On left is road we just came up after crossing that large plain at the bottom

There was a LOT of construction later on that day which caused considerable delays in our progress.
Not very much machinery as it is cheaper to have manual labour than big machinery I guess.

Crews on road construction.

400 km was our mileage for the day when we finally pulled into this small town called Calvinia. It was 4:30 in the afternoon when we disembarked in front of the local museum. It was very cool inside which was a blessing considering how warm the bus had become inside over the hours. Normally a museum is a so-so item to report on but this one only cost 5 Rand (50 cents) and housed not only a.profound amount of sheep data but outside, around a corner was an old Blackstone stationary Diesel engine, a control panel and generator similar to what Bob and I worked on early in our careers with the Armed Forces.

My friend Bob in front of the control panel for an old Blackstone diesel we both used to work on.

Calvinia is not a large town, nor is it wealthy. Payday had just occurred which was evident by the lines of people in front of the local bank. Some individuals appeared to be drinking their monthly wages in a fairly rapid manner. Mishek picked us up at 5 pm and drove us down the road to a small Dutch motel that he had already registered us in with our names on the doors. It was with a bit of trepidation that I opened my door.

Motel in Calvinia, S. Africa

Quaint was an easy description but would not do it justice. It was comfortable and held all kinds of stories from decades of use. If only the walls could talk.

My room in Calvinia

We had a beer with Bill and Cheryl and were soon joined by Rick and Wendy. They were all from Ontario, retired, and were teachers except for Rick, who was an engineer involved with the production of steel over the years.

Dutch doors and an outside gate that had a separate lock as well. That is Bob, locked himself in, he did.

It was wonderful getting to know some of our fellow travellers and we joined them for supper, which was Dutch in nature and served at an old 1853 House which is not a restaurant and national treasure. The meal was excellent, with chicken, spinach soup, a curry flavoured shepherds pie. Dessert was an amazing rum cake with ice cream.

Group getting truck packed up in the morning. That is Bill from Ontario looking at me.

We were to meet at 6:45 the next morning so we all crashed to our rooms around 9:30 pm.