BootsnAll Travel Network



A Cold Day In Hell

Day 58

The sun is directly overhead but it is cold. Since it has been warm all day, I don’t have my fleece on and the sweat on my back is giving me a chill. We are at an elevation of 4,000 feet. The wind is blowing at around 15 mph in a consistent southerly direction. The earth is red and rocky. There is no sound except for the wind blowing through the little vegetation that exists. Scrub in my laymen’s eyes. Dust is in the air and is making my throat dry. The mountainous landscape stretches like brain coral in all directions. We didn’t expect to find ourselves in this environment today. We have arrived in hell.

To be more exact we have arrived in “Die Hel” which in Afrikaans translates to The Hell. Let’s back up for a moment.

After having a month at The Manor Cottage in Hout Bay, I think we are all ready to hit the road again. Well maybe not Alexa. She still likes her own bed and friends and some sort of routine. That is fine, but she isn’t going to have much of that this year. The kids did make some good friends with other kids in the neighborhood. That was great for them and gave them some base in their lives here in Cape Town. They spent many an afternoon running around our little neighborhood and often we had to drag them in for dinner and showers.

Debbie and I also enjoyed our down time. We have spent a lot of time on our web-site and hopefully you have seen and like the improvements. We are quickly learning that web-sites are never done and we will have to pace ourselves when it comes to all the things we have in mind for it. We are still learning too so everything takes us much longer. But overall, we are very pleased with the look and functionality of our site. It has already proven to be a great way to keep in touch with friends and family. The site also gives us some structure to our days, as we have to remember to write the blogs, edit them, prepare the pictures and now add video as well. The writing also serves as the childrens’ writing lesson and we are working hard to make them better writers.

So now that we have had a month to re-charge and catch up on chores and other self induced work we are now at the beginning of a six week whirlwind tour from the Garden Route here in South Africa, Munich for Oktoberfest, Cairo, Dubai and India. Wow. To make it more challenging, Debbie will at the end of this stretch, fly home to Florida to do fifteen portrait sittings only to return to the rest of us in Thailand. Yes, we have decided to move through Dubai and not make this one of our ‘Home’ destinations. This decision is based mostly on business reasons and some budgetary as well. Therefore the same day that Debbie flies to Florida, the kids and I will fly to Chiang Mai, Thailand. This is a city we have been to many times and are very comfortable in. We have found a beautiful apartment with WiFi Internet access, a gym and more. It is also walking distance to everything in the city, so we will not need a car. All nice.

So back to the Garden Route and our trip today to Hell. We were up at a normal 0800 and packed this morning like the old pros that we became thanks to our travels last month. No pain here. We checked out with Chris, our landlord, who is a great guy and said our goodbyes. Somehow, we managed to get 99% of our things into our Opel go-cart. One third of the back seat had to be dropped forward, so the kids are a bit cramped, but it works. What do you expect for a rental car that only costs us $15 a day? From Hertz no less.

Our plan was to drive to the far eastern side of the Garden Route and work our way slowly west, back towards Cape Town, over the coming week. Our draw to this week’s adventure is the Garden Route that stretches along the central southern coast of South Africa for a few hundred miles. Lightly inhabited, and totally wild and beautiful, we plan on taking thousands of pictures.

We figured the morning drive to Oudtshoorn, our first destination, would only take four hours or so. It took almost seven. Our route took us on the national highway, the N1, to the east. It was our intention to take a smaller road back to the south to Oudtshoorn through the Swartzberg Pass. We heard the drive was beautiful. The drive was uneventful, though much longer than we expected, until we got to the turn onto the Swartzberg Pass road.

The sign said Oudtshoorn, thataway. We turned. Can’t be. It was a one and half lane dirt road headed towards what seemed to be right at the sheer side of a mountain. We did turn. We proceeded. Half mile we stopped. This can’t be right, let’s turn back to the proper road, look at the map, take another peek at the road signs and make sure. We did this. Confirmation, Oudtshoorn, thataway.

The road went from a one and half lane dirt, to one lane dirt. The angle went from flat, to not so flat, to steep. The road went from looking like a challenge for our Opel go-cart, to looking impossible for our Opel go-cart. Did we turn back? NO. Of course not. With me at the wheel (remember I am the guy who ran with the bulls in Pampalona a few years ago!). We pressed on.

Okay, this is not the diary of a teenage drama queen. The drive was not expected, but beautiful. We laughed together and stopped often to admire the scenery. Halfway through we came across, Die Hel. I had read about this place in a magazine a few months ago before we came on this trip. Only one woman lives in Die Hel. It is a valley in the middle of the Swartberg Pass and it is REMOTE. I can’t think of anywhere in the US that is as remote as Die Hel. From the point that we came across the sign to the place, it was another 30 miles the valley floor. The sign said 50km=2hours. Most people say you can only achieve that in a top notch 4×4. I wanted to go and stay with this lady, Debbie rejected this overture. Probably smart, but I won’t admit it, not even here in this blog.

We crested the top of the pass and were welcomed with a sign that said simply, “Die Top”. No shit, thanks. As soon as we passed this point (Die Top) the wind picked up and started to howl. The temperature got darn cold. Amazing. No more than 50 yards and totally different climate. Coming down the back-side was steeper but simpler. Before we knew it, we were in the valley and speeding towards Oudtshoorn.

We found our backpacker hostel, “Backpackers Paradise”. It is certainly at the high end of backpackers that we have stayed at and we recommend it to any and all comers. Oudtshoorn is Ostrich central. Just like you think of Nebraska for beef, California for wine, Maine for Lobster, Florida for championship college football and New England for Championship Football Professional Football (YEAH BABY!!). This is why we have come here.



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0 responses to “A Cold Day In Hell”

  1. Nana Ganster says:

    Well, it there really IS a road from hell! Perfectly content to hear about it and see the photos. Now if I can just figure out HOW to get the video to roll….

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