Going to Prince Albert

31 January 2013 – Thursday

The cactii at Warm Waterberg are flowering.  And I have said so much about the peacocks here, that I didn’t say that there are many other lovely birds around.  I need a bird book, or my one time husband, Jonathan, to tell me what they all are.  

 We left Warm Waterberg Spa this morning and drove to George stopping at a roadside place which is famed for its excellent pizzas.  Bobby and Ria cook the pizzas and run the place.  Bobby arrives at 5am most mornings to get the dough started.  “We’ve made a lot of money”, says Ria, “But now we’d like some life.”  Her home is being pestered by large black and white crows.  They are vandalising her garden, pecking chunks away from her window frames. “But they are very cunning,” she says, “They fly away whenever we approach”.  The pizza was delicious.

At George we meet Trevor behind the counter of a company called First Direct who rents me a car.  “Some of the newer cars in Europe” I say, “Have built in SatNav.  Do you have any like that?”  Trevor just grins at me and shakes his head.   So I am to have no SatNav lady of my own to argue with.  But I do have a very nice little Ford Figo which goes well.  “Try” said Jenny, on the drive from George to Prince Albert, “To get past this lorry.  There’s only one stretch to do it, otherwise we’ll be stuck behind him all the way”.  It was a short stretc h, but it was clear, and the little Figo responded nobly when I stuck my foot down and we flew past.      

 

The drive to Prince Albert went through Meiringpoort winding through the middle of mountains and at some points there were tortoises ambling along.  European tortoises all belong to boys and girls and doze in boxes in the winter time but these tortoises are free born  and wander slowly by the roadside.  I also saw wandering baboons. I’m sorry I was driving and couldn’t photograph them -  the road was too narrow to stop, but also  I’m nervous about leaping out of a car to confront wandering baboons with my camera.  I’ll try and get some pictures of them before I come home.  

We reached Tony and Jenny’s home in Prince Albert about 5.30.  They have a wonderful African garden which looks straight out onto mountains and we ate out on the stoep last night