Our camping spot today.

I took this photo this morning of our camp. With Millie the big bus and Mildred her smaller sister standing proud at our camp.

Vryburg to Hartbeespoort dam.

The Vryburg show ended late Saturday night and after closing the stall we retired back to the bus very tired . Sunday morning we slept in and only started to pack up the stall after 10:00. While Anita and I where packing the stall away Aluschka started lunch and when we finally finished at 2:00 we all had a lovely Sunday lunch. The rest of the afternoon was spend taking naps and packing away the rest of the stuff and getting ready for  Tuesday's travelling.
We left at 6:00 on Tuesday morning after refueling the two buses at the diesel depo on the outskirts of Vryburg .The roads through the old "Wes Transvaal" had almost no traffic and we made good time driving through the old farm town's . It was a nice enjoyable drive all the way until we came to the small town of Hekpoort when we almost had a series accident. a Drunken native with a really small pickup came from a side road and drove rite in front off  the bus I slammed on the brakes and with stuff falling in the bus and the children  screaming I managed to avoid the accident . When we arrived at the campground I was still shaking and upset,the children was exited to be at the campground and already forgot the ordeal .

We almost lost the trailer.

It just show you with more than 20 years off towing one can still mess up.

Aluschka and
I fitted our first solar panel jipee

All packed and ready to go.

Karla doing her school work.

Aluschka consentrating

       Mignon and 
Tony where well mised at the camp.

Christians Diggers Festival 2014

We are still In the town of Christiana.
We survived the week at the festival whilst the surrounding towns and native settlements where in uproar. We really did not feel safe at this time. I spoke to the officer in command at the local Police station and to the show officials about our safety and they confirmed that there's real concerns for our safety but that they're doing everything in their power to keep us save. The towns of Christians and Bloemhof are the ones that's affected the most at this time.

The native people live in townships outside of the towns that is run and serviced by the town council, the town council is run by the ruling political party and that is the ANC GOVERNMENT. The counselors that is suppose to work for the PEOPLE are so corrupt that there's no real services in the towns  and townships. And that is way the people are burning the offices down and blocking the roads with burning tires and rocks. I must say that I don't condone the burning of buildings and closing of roads at all but what else is their YOU can do while your counselors are building beautiful houses and driving Mercedes Benz cars with stolen government money that was suppose to be spent on services in the towns and townships and the  ANC GOVERNMENT DOES NOTHING TO STOP THEM? Our State President Mr Zooma used R250,000000 to rebuild his own private home with stolen government money.
What else is their that we the PEOPLE can do ?

"Jallin the Drom" Taking the Road.

After our December, January stay at the ATKV Beach Resort we left Hartenbos on our way to Randfontein Gauteng. Our first stop-over was at Steenbokkie Caravan Park outside the Karroo town of Beaufort West. It was a nice drive except for the Outenikwa mountain pass that we  had to drive over  from George to the Klein Karroo. As we started to clime the mountain I realise the bus does not have the power to get over the pass and I could feel the stress mounting as the bus lost momentum and we almost came to crawling speed. The bus lost so much speed that I thought that there was something wrong with the engine I kept my ease on the heat and oil pressure gauges.We all most  came to a standstill before out of desperation I lifted my foot from the gas pedal and slammed it down on the pedal,  the gearbox kicked back to second gear and the big 8.9 litter engine roared like  the big beast it is. The bus  picked up speed and we went over the mountain pass without any  trouble at all, at some point I had to take my foot of the gas peddle to slow her down on the corners and bends in the pass.Yes I learned a valuable lesson this time and that is to make certain that the bus is in the rite gear when starting to clime mountain passes in the future, thankfully South Africa is reasonably flat with not to many mountains to trek over.
We arrived at the Karroo town of Beaufort West at midday and after refuelling the bus at the diesel deppo we set off to the Steenbokkie game farm and caravan park, after checking in and paying the R150.00 for the night we set up camp day. This time of the year is the hottest in the Karroo and the thermometer in the bus showed the temperature to be near 40c in the bus, it was so nice to switch the air con on and with in a few minutes the bus started to cool down a few degrease and Anita and I could relax on the bed for a hour or two. After a nap we went to sit outside and the owner of the farm came to ask if all is well with us and to inform us that they started to fill the cement dam not far from our bus out of the borehole and that the water is nice and cold. The girls did not waist any time and with the water barley six inches deep in the dam they went in for a cool down. It was not long after that that I sat down in the cold water and to our astonishment Anita went in to cool down the heat in the Karroo is just too much for us during this time of the year.
                          Relaxing after a long days drive.

 From Beaufort West we left the next day to drive through the Great Karo.The best time of day to travel through this area is very early in the morning. We left the caravan park at 4.30 AM and reached the N1 at 5AM . With the day breaking  I was overwhelmed by the beauty of the landscape around me and the smell of the veld that came to me through the open window reminded me of "Katbos and Kambro" as in the song by Connie De Viliers. This very special moments while travelling is what I will remember for years to come and is food for my wondering soul with out it I can not live.

We arrived at Kimberley at noon and stop for a wile at the Spar for supplies .We then left for our free camp that we always stay at when travelling this way. Usually we don't have electricity here but after refueling the bus and wile paying I asked the owner of the place if I could pluck in somewhere and she told me that I can plug in at the light tower witch made our stay even more enjoyable.

I love driving our bus.

Solar

We at last made a start with the solar power for the bus.

We bought a 80 v solar panel and a 105 ah battery for the bus,I hope we can ad to this later on. The plan is to get 400 v on the roof of the bus and 3 or 4 batteries to hold the charge.