Ugie to Middleburg – 21st February 2016
We have had a very pleasant night at Clarendon Guest House in Ugie. Mr Gouws breeds show budgies and has a huge variety of excellent birds, in his aviaries in the back garden. It’s Sunday and as we head out of the driveway at 7h13, we hope that the roads will be quiet and that the roadworks will be few. If only we had known!
The first little town we come to is Elliot. You could be forgiven for not noticing it as you pass through, even although two of our famous rugby players, Mark Andrews and Os Du Randt, were born there. The road is shocking and really a feat for the driver to negotiate. Potholes to the left, right and in the middle! There are also large humps, seemingly at every turn – but the road must go on…and on and on. It takes us until 8h10 to drive these 30 kilometres – 97 minutes! To adjust our bones, we hop out and refuel the bakkie at the Engen garage. There is also virtually no cellphone reception along the road, so we are pleased to handle calls and sms’s at this stop. We have passed through Mount Fletcher and see the Gatberg River and the Gatberg Mountain, as we meander and negotiate corner after corner.
Just out side Elliot is an enigmatic sign board which reads “Elliot Five Shootout”. This refers to a political incident as follows: –
On 6 August 1981, one person was injured in a bomb blast at Central Square in East London’s city centre. The following day a shoot-out was reported between the police and MK guerrillas in Butterworth, killing two Transkei police officers, including a Captain Ngidi. The guerrillas escaped and later that day were involved in another shoot-out with the SAP at a roadblock near Elliot on the road to Lesotho, resulting in the injury of two SAP members, the death of two guerrillas and the arrest of another. Six days later, there was a final clash between the surviving guerrillas and the SAP on a farm near Aliwal North, during which the two last guerrillas were killed.
VOLUME THREE Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa Report
We continue on our journey to the next town which is Indwe. The town is named after the Indwe River, Xhosa for the Blue Crane (Anthropoides paradiseus), which at one time occurred in great numbers here. Sadly this is no longer the case and the river is dry. This is the case for most of the rivers we pass over along this route. Some look as though they have been dry for about 20 years.
Our next stop is Dordrecht. This is a much larger town than those that we have passed through. Just before entering the main town, there are numerous sign boards to various farms in the area and many of them can be seen at this link.
It is now 70 kilometres to Molteno. This is reputed to be the coldest town in South Africa, but it was so hot, we didn’t notice. and of course, there are numerous POTHOLES!!! Frustration starts to creep in at this point and we still have 50 kilometres to go to Steynsburg and then another 90 kiolmetres to Middelburg. We can’t wait…the road has seemed endless and we are starting to get tired. Onward and upward they say, so we grit our teeth and finally arrive at our destination.
We are staying at Caro Chalet in van der Walt Street and thankfully pull into their driveway to be met by two very affable gentlemen from the South African Army who lead us to our accommodation, called Compassberg. Tired and almost at breaking point we offload and start packing things away, only to discover that there is no room for our worker. We get onto the phone, only to be told that we are in Tafelberg – small problem as the army chaps have already moved in there. No problem we say, we’ll stay where we are and just need to find a chalet for our worker. A rather pedantic gentleman reiterates that we are to move to Tafelberg. We pack our stuff up again and wait. If you had driven from Ugie to Middelburg, you too would find your patience a bit frayed. We say nothing and wait for Agnes Booysen, a delightful soul who looves Stoney ginger beer, to arrive. In due course…that’s three quarters of an hour…she arrives and sorts everything out. We are to stay in Compassberg and a chalet is found for our worker, so we unpack everything again……really!!
We then get a call from the lady to whom we are going to deliver the stove on a farm outside Middelburg, to say that if we want assistance from her worker, we have to meet her at 6h00, the following morning. No lying in for us!
We rise at 5h00 on Monday morning and hurtle off to meet this lady. The off loading takes about an hour, with much huffing and puffing and pulled muscles, but we get her AGA into her kitchen and leave her to unwind.