Monday 19 January 2015

Tsitsikama and Storms River

I had a nice stay at Pletenbergbaai at the beach during the day and parked at the Wittedrift .NG  Church courtesy of DS Du Preez for two nights. I left on Saturday morning. I stopped at Keurbooms  beach for breakfast and met Lee the owner of the only snack shack at this beach. It's  a beautiful village overlooking the ocean.
After breakfast I drove to Nature's Valley and spent the rest of the day watching the other tourists swimming in the river and reading. Later on I went for a walk on the beach. Late afternoon I left this Paradise to search for a night camp. I stopped at Nature's Valley campground to enquire about their prices for camping.  They changed R260.00 per day for two persons way to much for me. Further on not far from the campground is the Rangers camp and offences,I stopped there and asked the Ranger if I could park their for the nite. Although he was friendly the man said no. He explained to me that it was against the law to camp in a National Forests and that I could get a fine if I decided to do so. I accepted his explanation and did not say anything about the peopeI I met in the Knysna Forest, they live their permanently, off the grit and only go to town to get necessitys.
I found a campground at the Storms River Koi-Sun Village thats not bad. They charged R140.00 per ningt for two person's. I said that I'm traveling alone and paid only R70.00 for the night with electricity. I had to wash my clouths and enjoined a nice shower before leaving late Sunday evening to search for a nice free camp for the night.

Thursday 15 January 2015

Spending the day on Leisure Island

How lucky can I be.
After a restless night close to the Knysna Lagoon,not that it was unsafe but because of all the mosquitoes  I decided to move on.
I left the town and after only a short drife on the N2 I took the turn off to the Knysna Heads to the right. The road is narrow and a bit bumpy but a easy drive with the camper, would've been a different story with the bus.
Not to far on the road to the Heads I came to the turn off to Leisure Isle and decided to go and see how the Super Rich live on the Island.
I'm overwhelmed and amazed .... The place is beautiful with aqua marine sea water surrounding the Island. Some people where enjoying the cool water with almost no waves.
Million dollar mansions are everywhere you look with spectacular views of the lagoon and the Knysna Heads. One can see into some of the houses through the panoramic windows, every detail inside speaks of class and money lots of money.
As I drove slowly past some of the residents on their morning walk, I realized that my old camper must have looked totally out of place here,it being a old ambulance I converted year's ago.
And then, what do you know there it was a picnic area just for me at the waters edge, to spent the day at my LEISURE, with a million dollar view.

Tuesday 13 January 2015

Expensive diesel cap

I left Hartenbos river resort yesterday morning after I made arrangements to pickup the trailer later on when I pass by agane. It's easier to wild camp without the trailer.
After leaving the camp I drove to the Midas shop in Voorbaai to buy a diesel cap for the camper and a headlight bulb. They had a bulb at but not the diesel cap, so I bought the bulb for R60,00 and went to their other store in Mosselbay to get the diesel cap but they also don't keep truck spares. They advised me to drive to GP Spares in George so that's what I did. And yes they had the rite diesel cap but very expensive at R359.00 and no it's not made of gold. I decided to buy the cap because I don't want to loose another tank of diesel to thiefs or to water in the diesel. As I walked back to the camper I noticed something dripping from under the bonnet of the camper. I kneeled at the camper and took some on my finger to see what it was and it was diesel. After a bit more investigating I found that the diesel filter was leaking at the water trap. So back into the store for a new diesel filter, that set me back a another R100,00 for the day.
I left George and ended up at Wildenis beach for lunch and a walk on the beach. It's a nice place to spent the day but it's  not my kind place for wild camping because of the beach bar and restaurant. I drove to Buffels Baai and thought it might be the place but after a hour the wind picked up and it started to rain so I left. I got on to the N2 and remembered that we once visited the Knysna forest years ago and decided to see where the turn off leads me. I ended up at the Goudveld Farleigh Indigenous Forest for the night. I parked the camper and relaxed for some time before I went to bed at 22h00. I woke up at 5h30 this morning listening to hundreds of birds singing in the forest.



Monday 12 January 2015

Packing up our campingspot

Anita and the children left yesterday for our home in Grootvlei and I spent the day doing nothing. No not entirely nothing I spent the day tracking their progress on the tablet and worrying about their safety on their 1200km journey back home. I was very relief  to hear that they arrived home safely today after a sleep over at Colesberg  the half way mark.
I started my day this morning by cleaning the big white tent we use for our patio.  The tent stood under a pine tree and was covered with bird droppings,so I had to scrub the big roof with a  broom and left it to dry in the sun.

I packed it in the trailer with all our other camping gear later on. I finished up around four with packing and then decided to drive in to Mosselbay with the camper for some groceries and other stuff I will need for my free camp expedition that I am undertaking for the next month or so. 
I stoped at the 
Agri shop and refueled the camper with diesel at 
R10.00 p/l its nice to see the price of fuel coming down so fast.
After all the shopping I drove to the point and had a lovely dinner of roasted chicken and salad  over looking the bay as the sun set over the sea.

Sunday 7 December 2014

Our spot at Hartenbos beach resort.

This is how close we are camping to the beach. At the ATKV beach resort Hartenbos block E. 




Aluschka and Boeta.


b
 Karla 
Boeta and me having fun.

a
 Anita and 
Boeta covering Karla with sand.

R
egard and Pascal came to the sweetstall to visit with 
Tony our oldest sun and Boeta our lastborn.


K
arla making a rare apearince at the sweetstall.

Our annual trek down to Hartenbos .



T
he view from our site of Mosselbay




Our camp at Hartenbos 50 steps frome the beach. 
At R120 a day.
l

B
oeta and I spending some qwality time on the beach.
m


A
nita and the children playing in the sand.

T
he fritge is having a hard time keeping our food fresh in this heat so I 
installed two 12v computer fans behind the ventelator of the fritge to  that runs of our solar.