Brrrr from Sutherland to Gariep!

We woke up to a temperature of 0degrees which was made worse by the howling wind. We slept warm in Kosmos Guesthouse with electric blankets to keep us warm.

Theo lit the fire again and soon the lounge (which you can see in the photo on the left) was warmer although we could still blow steam inside! (We suspect that houses that are not lived in all the time take a while to warm up.) We desperately hoped for snow, but the most we got were some tiny, pin-head sized flakes that came down from time to time.

After packing and chatting to Tannie Naomi we made our way back to the Observatory to buy some goodies from the shop and see if they had had any snow. Unfortunately there was only a little snow on the ground and so we'll have to come back for snow and stars!

Then we hit the long road for Gariep. Caleb had an uncommonly severe bout of car-sickness which we solved by putting him in the front seat and Brenda enjoyed some time in the back seat reading. At no point in the trip did the temperature go above 8 degrees - even at midday!

The drive through BeaufortWest (where we picked up some toasted sarmies) and Hanover and other Karoo towns was not as dull as some allege because of the mountains and the subtle changes as one gets closer to Colesberg where Karoo becomes grasslands and you see more and more trees. We also saw the entrance to the Karoo National Park which is a definite future destination on our list!

We arrived in Gariep with enough light to settle in at DeLance (a very cute, clean and well-equipped guesthouse run by Harriette and Gerhard - see left ) and then we slipped out and caught the sunset over Gariep Dam driving the loop that goes below the dam-wall (which we'd never seen before) and then over the dam-wall itself. Got some stunning sunset photos!!!

We had a quick tuna pasta supper and after a lovely shower collapsed into bed!