Posts tagged with “The heads”
To the East of the West
A little tour to the Eastern part of the Western Cape
Part 1 – Gouritsmond and Boggomsbaai
Departing from Cape Town on a chilly Sunday morning we made it for an arranged (no, really) nine-o-clock breakfast with friends at Worcester. When we pulled in there the muffins were ready, and the coffee machine was also just heating up.
The idea of the tour was to visit the Harkerville forest to see what it looks like. As my wife published a book that plays out in the Harkerville forest we thought it to be a good idea to just go check that it really looks like how she described it in her book. Incidentally it was a perfect occasion to stretch the legs of my newly acquired five-year old wheels in the form of a Hyundai Tucson.
After the little problem we had with my Mazda bakkie earlier the year I was under some pressure to replace it with something more reliable. However, it turned out that my second vehicle was far less likely to survive any length of time with any level of reliability, and hence we replaced same with the Tucson. I digress, but I cannot resist the urge to just mention that I am very happy that I now still have my 16 year old Mazda.
Following a good breakfast and even better company in Worcester, we departed for the remaining 270 kilometers of our journey for the day. It was in the midst of a cold snap that hit the Western Cape, with temperatures as low as 2° Celsius.
Source: Map data ©2014 AfriGIS (Pty) Ltd, Google
We arrived at Gouritsmond just after two in the afternoon. It then turns out that, it being Sunday, and outside of season, both shops in the town have already closed for business for the day.
The friendly neighbour, who was also the lady who let us into the rented house, was kind enough to provide us with the necessary foodstuffs to make it through the rest of the day. That is, of course, one of the charms of your small towns.
Within an hour of our arrival, however, I had to leave again to take our student daughter to neighbouring Kanon, a popular angling spot, to pick up her friends who were out on a hike, and take them all to Boggomsbaai where she would stay for the next few days.
I afterwards found that Boggomsbaai even has its own website with some rather interesting postings.
On the beach at Boggomsbaai one could even find a spot to pitch your umbrella between the masses of people.
Back at Gouritsmond a short recce through the town revealed the damage done to the beach by the flooding of the river earlier this year (only days after we left having spent the summer holiday there).
What you see on the picture is meters of beach sand that had been taken away by the flooding waters, causing the water to now flow somewhat higher now as usual.
The local Municipality seemed hard at work. Various heaps of driftwood had been collected from the beach and put aside.
And given the lack of tourists and the lack of interest in swimming in the prevailing whether conditions, the plugs for the outlets of the tidal pool had been removed.
Of course I would have wanted to swim, but who can swim in such shallow water. So I rather gave it a miss.
In between heavy bouts of doing nothing, I found the time to do some traffic spotting from our front stoep, just so that I can say I did not do nothing the whole holiday.
The pictures says it all. It was hugely exciting. I like this place.
Part 2 to follow (with just as riveting action, trust me).
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