Wednesday, 29 June 2011
Another geological trip with Angelique, this time to the Uniondale area for three days to prepare for a poster on her doctorate project. This meant of course stopping at every rock formation with a fault, fold or other (for her) interesting feature.
It is always important to have a scale with the photographs so we had the added role as model. Here is an interesting hourglass formation about which the geologists have different opinions as to how it was formed.
It was quite cold at night with thick ice on the car every morning and we were quite glad to be ensconced in a b&b complete with heaters and electric blankets.
While Angelique was busy with her rocks we took the opportunity to do some botanizing and found quite a lot of different species of Pelargonium in the Uniondale Poort.
For most it is a bit early to be flowering but some have made the most of the recent plentiful rains and put on a show for us.
On our travels we also had a nice view of the Kamannassie mountains with Mannekiesberg not so visible.
Two days were enough to cover the area for the purpose of the poster so we decided to return through the Baviaanskloof to see if there was something of interest there and Nuwekloof provided plenty of that. The road was in good condition and we proceeded further down the kloof in good spirits enjoying the views and the lush vegetation. Almost every establishment along the road is now some tourist establishment, overnight stay, curio shop, hiking trail head so gone are the days of parking your car at a friendly farmer and get lost.
We arrived at the western gate in good time, I specifically asked if the road ahead was good and we could get to Patensie and was told “No problem” but already when we got the the first of many crossings of the Baviaansrivier we could see that there had been a major flood recently and the water was still flowing strongly.
The level of the debris was more than a meter above the bridge. Just past Coleskeplaas the road surface started to deteriorate but what I was not prepared for was the total wash away of the road past Drinkwaterskloof with deep pools where the road once was. The only other vehicle we met were two Parksboard rangers and they assured us that we could get through, the only problem might be the long drift at Smithskraal. On we went on our merry way, the road still resembling a tough 4×4 trail until we got to Keerom where the pass was reasonably driveable except for some deep gullies in the beginning.
At the bottom of the pass we made a nostalgic visit to Doornkraal,
The place we have spent many happy weekends in the early nineties restoring the place from a near ruin to a very comfortable cottage. Unfortunately is has now once again fallen into disrepair and is in a sad state.
The long crossing of the Baviaansrivier at Smitskraal, though worryingly deep, went off without a hitch and we thought that was the end of the obstacles.
Little did we now what was waiting for us past Doodsklip, another total washaway of the road where Waterpoort had come down in flood. low range, first gear stuff until thankfully we got to the bottom of the pass and the concrete strips had withstood the rains very well. Once again we though it would be plain sailing from here on but then we paid the price of one moment of inattention and did not follow the tracks of previous vehicles through a puddle and got horribly stuck in the thick gooey mud.
We desperately tried to dig ourselves out to no avail and I walked to Bergplaas to see if there was somebody there who could help but unfortunately the two ladies who are based there to study the zebra had no vehicle. At wits end I decided to call both Rob for Mountain Rescue and Mervyn from Friends of Baviaanskloof and through them we had two vehicles on the scene about an hour later and with a concerted effort we managed to get free, quite a relief and very grateful to our helpers.
Instead of the planned 16:00 arrival me made it home at 21:30 exhausted but very happy to have come through the nightmare trip unscathed.