13 – 15 November 2020
We had 20 club members (12 vehicles) gather at the Kromrivier (Riviersonderend 4×4) campsite at the foot of the Riviersonderend mountains the weekend of 13-15 November.
The campsites (we all shared one huge site) offer plenty of shade, and are situated near a farm dam and we had a small river running through the woods behind us. To Andy’s delight there was a huge supply of black wattle stumps (the farmer is busy clearing the river of black wattle trees) near the campsite. These were used to build huge campfires both nights, it got so hot that we could hardly get coals from under the burning logs. Plans were discussed to bring long or telescopic shovels for future
“Andy” campfires! About 100 meters from our campsite was the ablution facilities: a number of donkey stoked showers (these worked very well) and some flushing toilets.
Friday evening was as usual the social “kuier” and braai around the campfire. Saturday morning after a relaxed start, some of the group drove some way into the 4×4 route and did a circular hike in the mountains where they saw beautiful flowers, trees and a small waterfall. Some of us went mountain biking, but after trying the first climbs on the 4×4 route we turned around and did a circular route via
the farmhouse to the campsite for an easy +-19 km loop. Rob fired up his trails motorbike and explored some of the farm tracks.
John Little arrived around lunchtime (he had some work commitments to attend to) and brought his pet
baby owl along. This little creature fascinated us all and quite a few of our female members wanted to
“mother” it!
Saturday evening we had a campfire that could have put some volcanoes to shame as far as heat is concerned! I got my face burned red from the intense heat in trying to shovel some coals out! Again the evening was a great social get together and by 11 pm everybody was off to bed for a well deserved rest.
Sunday morning some of the group started packing after a leisurely breakfast. Sanette and I did another ride on our mtb’s and Rob did some more exploring on his trails bike. After lunch the last Sanette, I and Rob packed up and headed home.
We enjoyed the weekend and hope the rest of the group did too. Kromrivier (Riviersonderend) campsite turned out to be a great camping destination not to far from Cape Town.
Regards and see you when we camp again.
Jurie and Sanette