Day 71 - ‘De Hoop’/Richtersveld

The gushing Orange River, still bank to bank, lulled the whole world, that we knew of. There are a series of rapid right where the'De Hoop' campsite is situated. The swollen 'Orange' gurgles all night as the brown water crashes over, even louder, than all the nights spent next to the sea.

A sharp crack of the whip and there along our bank in the early hours, came a flock of sheep and goats being herded by Joseph, 'Die Veeherder'! What an exact name for a shepherd! He and I, (as you know, I chat to all sorts of strangers), he asked if we had enough firewood? Now Ted (my Dad) had a ‘Dorper Sheep Stud Farm’, those white numbers with the black heads. Here was a flock of Dorpers with all sorts of coloured heads and even goats with black heads? Over the years, I have learnt enough of Dorpers to know their pure characteristic’s…. non of these qualified for either! The Rules if the Park are explicit... "No collecting of fire-wood in the Park"!!! Thinking he was actually asking for firewood, I truthfully told him we only had three pieces leftover for tonight. When we got back from our day drive, there was a proper pile waiting for us. Feeling obliged to pay for his stash of previous campers old leftover firewood, all I had was R100 note.... which we departed with💸😖😳🤣

Yesterday we felt that we needed a day off today, but Karen and I decided to checkout the lower half of the Richtersveld National Park. Leaving with ample time, we drove a +- 100km round trip, all the time through amazing passes, gorges and ancient river sand beds. Though plenty dead bush, there are so many varieties of living succulents just hanging in there. The illusive 'Half-Mens' still remains.... just that! 100's of 'Kokerbome' have died as a result of 12 years drought here in the Richtersveld. The recent rains upstream, have rendered some roads in the park inaccessible, there by limiting our trip but only for a small area, next to the river. Brent told us before we left that he had personally measured 60mm of rain on total, over the past 7 years he has been there. The average annual rainfall is recorded at 30mm p.a! All these millions if mega litres per second pouring past in these beautiful gorges, is just not justice!

We did experience some moments where my navigator momentarily lost us and the plot, but regrouped and saved the day😘 Although we did have several maps with us, when there us no Cellular connections, no Google Maps, no cellphone connections and my best, no people, and absolutely no one aware of our position, the complete isolation, almost becomes fearful. In reality, it could be days before anyone even misses a soul! During our full day's exploration, we didn't meet a single person, not that I minded, but seriously this is proper alone, solitaire!

After a delicious braai of 'Springbok' (towns) best lamb chops and wors, we sat out in the wide open dry river-sand next to the river (in Karen's ghastly blue beach chairs) and watched the stars for hours. Although the Moon was only a slight 'fingernail', it hadn't risen yet and the sky dark, the 'Milky Way' like confetti, full and abundant.

By now we had already packed up camp, ready for and early morning getaway. Our journey tomorrow, was to be long and certainly to start with... epic!

Love, Peace and Light!

M&K
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