Putting off the packing until the morning was a brilliant idea last night but this morning it didn't seem like the smartest of decisions. To speed up the process we simply shoved all of our belongings in the bag with the intention of properly packing them once we reached Chantel's family farm. Our aim was to leave at 7:30 and we nearly hit our target, departing from Arum Lilly at 7:40 for a short 90 minute drive to Matjiesfontein.
Matjiesfontein is a small Karoo town founded in the middle of the 19th century that became larger and more prominent when the railroad line that runs through town started using the town as a rest stop on its journey from Joberg to Cape Town. The town remains largely unchanged from its appearance in 1900, a sort of living ghost town. We spent a short time wandering around the museum located in the old train station (which happened to have the currently running blue train stopped for an hour). Jenny even managed to ask one of the workers on the train if she could come aboard and take some photos, which she was permitted to do. She learned that the oldest car on the active train was the dining car built in 1920 and it was restored just 4 years ago.
By this time in the morning we were getting hungry, so we stopped at one of the very few places to eat and sat down for a breakfast in the sun. Jenny had a made to order sandwich and Lesley and I ordered set sandwiches, all of which were spectacular. Jenny and Lesley decided to have a poke around while I sat in the sun and waited for our food to arrive. After our breakfast we decided to have a wander down the towns very short main street. I think we managed to stop in nearly ever building along the way. Our firsts stop was at the town post office which had been converted into a tourist shop. We then found our way next door to the Lord Nelson Hotel, a hotel in which little has changed in the past 100 years; possibly not modern 5 star accommodation but stunning in its own right.
Our final destination in Matjiesfontein was the transport museum. Costing a mere R5 a person admission it was well worth it. The first room was filled to the brim with vintage cars ranging from 1931-1980 including the car the royal family rode in during their 1947 tour of South Africa. Jenny being the disobedient child she is decided to ignore the signs asking you to refrain from opening doors and climbed in most of the cars! Next door to the building housing the cars was a large building containing three retired rail cars. Unlike many museums, where you are not allowed to touch anything, these rail cars were open for us to explore and there were no indications that we were not allowed to.
Mum had actually gone to school when she was a little girl in a train. A similar to the first one we looked in, with one-bed cabins to six-bed cabins. It looked and felt like something out of Harry potter! The middle train was locked up, so naturally Dan and I went to investigate. All of the little rooms were closed off, and when we asked why we were told that a local astronomy group keeps all their equipment in them. After we had exhausted all of the things we could do in that quaint little town, we set off again for Graaff-Reinet.
Whilst we were driving we noticed that Snolly felt really sluggish, and couldn't do any speed over about 100kms per hour. As we have had all the recent issues with her we were really concerned about what could possibly be wrong with her. The engine sounded much more like a tractor than a car! We kept driving, only stopping for diesel at the Bp in Beufort West. We were most certainly lulled into a false sense of security the last time we were at this petrol station, as there were about 50 heavily armed guards there at the same time. This time, Dan got out to check the oil and coolant, and two drugged up guys came to start washing the windscreen despite our protests against it. I yelled at Dan to get back in the car as mum and I were pretty sure the guys were on a drug here called tic, a very cheap and aggravating drug.
Thankfully we managed to escape the station with fuel for the car and our lives, which was more than we could have asked for :) The rest of the trip was uneventful and we arrived at the farm at about half five. Mum was so happy to be back on the farm, it is really such a special place and once you have been there it stays with you forever! Gary and Evette had been kind enough to allow us to come back to the farm with mum, and now they had eight new jack russell puppies too!! Tess finally had her babies just before the wedding, and they really are just so cute! My favourite is the runt of the group, or pile or cuddle as we like to call them, of puppies, as he was so sweet and little and had the best markings out of everyone!
Evette had put us in the two bedroom cottage closest to the house, and we headed there to unpack our bags, shower and write blog posts. Whilst I was having my shower mum had the news turned on and Dan caught on to the fact that Felix Baumgardner was about to attempt the worlds highest flight in a helium balloon, the highest skydive and the fastest skydive, live on the news. We had to leave before the flight to get to the house for dinner, but we told them what was happening so we turned on the news and all watched him break all those world records! Quite something to be able to watch live on the news when we haven't seen a tv nor watched the news since we left Scotland. We had brought over a bottle of hanepoort for us all to enjoy for the evening, and everyone seemed to love it! It's quite strong at 16.5% so we just had little glasses of it. We settled down outside to enjoy one another's company whilst braaing for dinner, and sat down to yet another fantastic dinner with the Holmes's oop die plaas!!
No comments:
Post a Comment