Day 14

Regrettably we have reached the last day. A wonderful, amazing, exciting, adventure is drawing to a close. We leave Grunau this morning and head for the SA border. In a way it’s a relief to be going home after 14 fun-filled days. I haven’t worked out how many kilometres we’ve done, but it’s over 5 000 and I have enjoyed driving every centimetre. Jill and I are both very pleased we entered the Lap as it has taken us to places we wouldn’t normally have gone to, introduced us to some wonderful people we wouldn’t otherwise have met, exposed us to all sorts of experiences, some hilarious, some trying, some educational and some just plain good fun. We left the hotel in Granau after breakfast and headed off down the road towards the border. We can thoroughly recommend the Granau Hotel as well as the Cottages at Vastrap farm, owned by the same family, delightful people, well organised and good cooks! The road to the border, in fact all the way to Upington, is tarred (410k’s) and typical of a B road through the countryside and is what you make of it. We were accompanied most of the way by a railway line and as is normal in these parts is virtually dead straight.

We did discover however, that Namibia, Botswana and the Northern Cape regions of SA are home to the Sociable Weaver, endemic to the area but mostly concentrated in the Northern Cape and we were fascinated by their nests. Major feats of birdie engineering and home also, so my bird “professor” tells me, to the pygmy falcon, who clearly is either lazy or not as good an engineer as the weaver. The number of nests we came across was mind boggling and in some areas there were “avenues” of nests.

We carried on the long and straight road and soon saw signs of our impending re entry to SA and we were eager to get to the border and our next stop.

As we could only check into the hotel after 2, we drove alongside the orange (Gariep) River to Bezalel winery a beautiful spot, family run, where they produce some great wines, brandies, witblits and Mampoer – 80% proof.

The food was excellent, Jill said her best meal of the trip. Now that’s an accolade if ever there was one! I can also vouch for their chocolate milkshakes! Jill had Bobotie and I had a delicious mutton pie – all homemade. The gardens were also beautiful and we spent a couple of hours there savouring the peace and chatting to our new found friends.

A short drive, 20 k’s to our hotel and we were so presently surprised. Absolute luxury and good service were an absolute joy after some of our more recent humble(?) rustic(?) abodes. Protea Hotel Upington is the best!!

A welcome rest, shower and we were ready for our final dinner of the Lap of Namibia, a great affair with lots of fun, stories, anecdotes and camaraderie, food and wine. These Classic Car Peeps can drink!!

Plans are afoot for an East African Lap next year around September and if all goes well, we’ll be there at the start!