Goin’ to Town
My return to the Cederberg would not be complete without a trip to the local town of Clanwilliam. Besides, I needed supplies. Wilderness life if great but there is no running down to the corner store if you run out of something. Planning and forethought are essential, as well as filling up at the gas station every time you pass one. One never knows when the notion to undertake an exploration into the mountains might strike and heaven forbid you should run out of gas in the mountain passes. That would definitely not be a good experience. So, off to Clanwilliam I headed on Wednesday.
Not much has changed in town in the year that I have been gone and I suspect not much often does. A wander down the Main Street met with the usual assortment of townsfolk, most giving a curious stare and a nod at a visiting stranger. I wandered through the PEP, the local clothing store and made a couple of purchases and then crossed the street to do some serious shopping in the grocery store.
I absolutely love the food here. Many things are very familiar although the cuts are all different and the spices! There is an entire isle dealing with spices and sauces of every imaginable type. Now what one does with them is absolutely beyond me. Once you get beyond my standard issue 15 or 20 spices, I am absolutely lost but I am sure going to have fun figuring it out.
Once again I found myself laughing out loud at my lack of prowess in the grocery shopping department here. Clearly I am going to have to hone my cooking skills and learn some new tricks of the trade. A quick stop at the wine store before leaving and I was on my way.
Even though I should have headed straight home with my groceries, I couldn’t resist turning right instead of left at the end of the street and doing just a little exploring before heading home.
Turning right send you up through yet another mountain pass, this one called Pakhuis Pass. The work “Pakhuis” means warehouse in Afrikaans and as soon as you traverse this road you know exactly how it got its name. The rock on either side of the road looks exactly like boxes of all different sizes piled one on top of the other. Even though there is no rhyme nor reason to the pattern, there is a strange symmetry to them that makes you think they have been placed there.
I stopped at a couple of “farm stalls” along the road. These are little roadside stores that usually sell everything from fruit to souvenirs to housewares. Often they have homemade jams and preserves and a bottle of orange jam from Traveller’s Rest was a must add to my shopping cart.
Satisfied with just a short excursion today for the sake of getting the groceries home, I headed back to Gecko Creek to enjoy a relaxing evening beside the fire in the Boma with the other guests. Always so interesting to hear the stories of the people who pass through here. We tend to think that we are all the same but when you see a constant stream of changing people you realize how unique and diverse each of our backgrounds really is.
A great meal eaten fireside, lively chatter and a spectacular, clear, starry night ended another great day.
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Morag