It was good to be on the road again. To us the journey is as much a part of this experience as the destination. And in some cases more so!
After leaving Grahamstown we soon got to the Ecca Pass; another one built by Thomas Bain’s father, Andrew Geddes Bain and completed in 1842. Bain named the heights and the pass after the Ecca River, tributary to the Fish River. Ecca is a Khoikhoi word meaning ‘salty’ or ‘brackish’. Being a keen geologist he studied and named the 225 – 270 million-year-old sedimentary blue shale and mud stones at the foot of the pass the Ecca Group.
We decided to go to the Fort Fordyce Nature Reserve. It came up on the GPS when looking for a campsite and was indicated about 20 km from Fort Beaufort. But of course, there is 20 km’s and then there is 20 km’s! The access road is about 12 km of dirt road, steadily and steeply climbing up to the highest point in the vicinity! It used to be a Fort after all. It took about an hour to cover the distance. But it was worth it. The scenery was stunning, with dense unspoilt indigenous forest and beautiful vistas. Sadly there are pine plantations once one gets to the top where the office is.
The reserve manager, Karina, was very helpful and most friendly. They normally only have fishermen that go and rough it down at the dam and we would not be able to get there with Ufudu so we parked in the picnic area amongst very tall pine trees. Not our favourite but it was late and we needed to camp somewhere for the night.
The next day we did some sight-seeing around the reserve but it was rather cold, windy and miserable so we did not stay long.
We left the reserve after lunch and now headed towards Oviston. En route we had a number of surprise bird sightings over the next two days and on each of these occasions Roger made a sudden, but thankfully safe, stop alongside the road. There were two sightings of the vulnerable Grey Crowned Cranes, two sightings of the near-threatened Blue Korhaan and 2 sightings of the vulnerable Blue Cranes. The one group of Blue Cranes had about 50 individuals!
We were planning to overnight at Sterkstroom near Molteno but the nearest Caravan Park found by the GPS was called Valschfontein just off the N6, north of Queenstown. It was getting late so we decided to stop there. There are major road works happening on the N6 so the access road took us through the Group Five construction camp, through a very narrow gate and a very sharp turn. The camp was good though; clean and neat with very friendly owners. They warned us to use the ablutions before going to bed because the pipes freeze during the night. And it did! Ufudu’s pipes fortunately did not freeze so all was well in the morning. According to owner Pieter the temperature dropped to -15 C during the night.
We got going early in order to make our destination (Oviston Nature Reserve on the southern bank of the Gariep Dam) but were very disappointed when we got there just to be informed that the Reserve was closed for the week. Due to hunting activities! No amount of persuasion could get them to let us in and just quietly camp! The area around the dam is an IBA and we were looking forward to trying to identify some LBJ’s for a change.
As an alternative we found the River Destiny campsite, situated on the banks of the Orange River downstream from the wall, and set out to find it. After a wrong turn (thanks again to Garmin) we eventually got there in the mid afternoon.
We woke up after a very cold night to find the windows inside Ufudu covered in iced condensation and the aircon’s temperature gauge reading ‘Lo’, meaning sub-zero. All the facility’s pipes were frozen and so was Ufudu’s, meaning no water. By 12h00 the pipes started showing signs of defrosting. Eish!!!
Moving on to the Van Der Kloof Dam, hopefully having better success getting into the Doornkloof or Rolfontein Nature Reserves.