Great VanDerKloof-Grahamstown Adventure Day2 Friday 14 April - AlDam to VanDerKloof and Sandgat

Today was a really big day for Theo. Having read Deon Meyer's "Fever" which is set in the town of VanDerKloof next to the eponymous dam. It has a hydro-electric generation plant and is tactically defensible because of it's geography - all very desirable in the post-apocalyptic setting of the book. He was keen to see the dam, and also to ride through the Karoo landscape up to the dam wall. He'd scouted the route on google maps and was excited to ride it.

The day started nicely at Aldam, where we'd had a good night's sleep and breakfast and camp pack up went well, although getting everything in the roofbox again proved challenging, not to mention the car keys that were in the tent pocket and the tent had to be unloaded and unrolled to retrieve the afore-mentioned! ;-)

Packing done, we headed off for Bloemfontein, Petrusburg, Koffiefontein, Luckhof and then VanDerKloof. We had an early mishap, trying a google-recommended toll-avoidance via Verkeerdevlei, but when we reached the tiny little town, the connecting dirt-road was closed. So we went back the way we came... We guess you could say we took "Verkeerdepad"!

In Bloemfontein we picked up a hammer (for the tent-pegs), a multiplug and some showergel (which Theo forgot to pack) and then to Petrusburg. The N8 to Petrusburg was narrow, but fine. Things got ugly on the road to Koffiefontein with horrible potholes which made driving very tiring. After Koffiefontein there were roadworks which does mean the road is being attended to....

30kms from VanDerKloof we stopped and Theo climbed on the bike. The ride was tough - incredibly windy and through a 2km roadworks section where he rode on dirt. The final 15km to the dam had better road, but undulated with a headwind.

Brenda scouted ahead and was excited to see Theo's reaction... He had to climb an incredibly steep hill and then the vista of the dam wall, dam and Orange river would unfold as he crested the climb. It worked out incredibly well and we spent 45 minutes just exploring the dramatic scenery.

We explored the town of VanDerKloof which is very scenic and pretty, but unfortunately there are signs of decline. The petrol station is closed, the shops are minimally stocked and the infrastructure is not being maintained. The greatest disappointment was the municipal caravan park on edge of the dam which was defunct, derelict and dilapidated.

Thankfully Brenda had researched a campsite downstream from the dam called SandGat, which was beautiful. You drive out of VanDerKloof into dry Karoo terrain and then turn onto a dirt road where after 4km of dry dry dry, you turn into the campsite on the banks of the Orange River and encounter green lawns, huge willow trees and a super caravan park.

We chose our site, set up our tent and enjoyed a chicken and rice dish which was not only yummy, but sufficient for supper the next night too. We also decided that we would stay 2 nights here because the Orange River and environs were so enchanting.

This turned out to be a great decision, because we realised we were still quite tired from the hectic lead up to our break and that's the beauty of a road-trip. You make it up as you go along!