Day 87 Swellendam

This campsite was my worst nightmare, the amount of people up and down means their is a community of locals living within in the site, a whole host of people shouting and yapping up and down between the gate and the ablutions so right past the van each time, they played their hip hop music from 8pm until I got up this morning, groggy from lack of sleep, and when I say played it, I mean full blast, Worcester could have heard it 5km away. What is it with people who simply don't think of anyone but themselves, anyway, not a campsite to visit again. I did get connected so it was great to be able to catch up with sports results and e-mails.

We did get up early enough to watch yet another stunning sunrise, very quick one, and then packed up and left, no reason to stay as the hip hop is still on the go. Into town to do the laundry, nearly everything is dirty so good timing on a self serve laundromat, the lady who runs it said she would do it all for me so I could take the dogs off into town for an hours walk, came back to washing not et dry but it can dry as we go along or at the next stop.

We drove through the lovely little town of Robertson, then Ashton, stopped at a roadside farm stall for something fresh to eat, lots of bottles and knick knacks but no fresh food, ended up in Swellendam where I had to drive all the way through to the end of town before finding a campsite sign, ended up in a site just outside of the CBD, lovely spot, pay when you go out the lady at the first chalet told me, dogs no problem, even though a sign prominently displayed says no dogs, but I am the only camper in a large well laid out camp site with clean ablutions and green rolling lawns so I guess the dogs are not a problem. The site is snuggled under the Langeberg mountains and we could park the van, hang the washing and take a walk into town about a kilometre away to stretch our legs and get the camper out of our system.

langeberg mountains

sweet campsite in swellendam

lots of chalets

The site has a lot of sweet little chalets, one bedroom with 2 beds and a lounge kitchen also with 2 beds and a shower, about 4 of them seem occupied, friends and relatives and people all over the place up from Cape Town to visit, braais going, rugby blaring on the radio and a kiddies football game on the go, weekend campers clearly all having fun. One Cape Town couple, a young coloured couple, spent all afternoon trying to befriend Pepi before she finally let them stroke her, they tried a few times to make friends and gave up on Jos but Peps became their friend after a stroke and a cuddle.

The walk through town was grreat, if I end up finding my plot in this area then this will be my local town, I love it, old charm, I also had a wonderful fresh meal at the OLD GAOL, which is now a stunning restaurant where we could sit outside with the dogs and eat a delicious home made chicken pie with crunchy fresh vegetables and delicious hot mashed potato that did not come out of a packet, clearly the food has been bought from a fresh source. The town has old well preserved buildings, museums and stately charm and is well laid out and pretty and the majestic Langeberg mountains add to the colour.

John phoned me from the eco village near Jeffreys bay and gave me all the details of what he is doing, he owns about 800ha of which 100ha is for agricultural use and the rest is part of the Baviaanskloof Nature Reserve, he is selling 50 plots from 300m2 to 1 ha to like minded permaculturists who want to farm collectively and live independently on a great piece of land that can be adapted to suit each persons needs. Sounds great and I would love to be part of it, plots sell from R350 000 to R650 000 which I think is quite reasonable, he wants to recoup the money he spent when he bought it 9 years ago and live on it in a self sustainable way.

I will try and get their to Wwoof once I am done with these two farms and see if I get drawn into the concept at all, it sounds like something similar to what Ruth bought into without all the attached politics I hope. I'm not too sure how it will work with as many as 50 households, but I guess I will know once I have stayed there for awhile.

So it turned out to be a lovely day, it was also clear and fresh after a cold start and this campsite is a lot less noisy althought the crowd with the visitors look like they intend to party for awhile. Could not get a connection in this town so just enjoyed having electricity to read and a hot shower.

Night