Kagga Kamma

We were up at 7am and atlast we had,had a descent nights sleep.
After breakfast of eggs and avocado on toast we slowly started packing up until at 10am we were finally ready to leave.
Our first stop today was the stadstal rock art and cave which a 20 minute drive away. The rock art was first and they have been beautifully preserved.
The rock paintings at this site were done by the San (Bushmen). These hunter-gatherers, whose more ancient ancestors lived in the Cederberg for over 500 000 years, began painting on the walls of shelters in the Western Cape at least 5 000 years ago.
Rock paintings, like these, were inspired by San religion. They were done by medicine-men or shamans who had supernatural powers. The paintings illustrate the experiences of the shamans who used their power to make rain, heal sick people and control game animals. They do not illustrate the everyday life of the San. The shamans, like religious leaders in their communities, kept the San people together through their beliefs. The paintings were part of this important social process in much the same way as Christians, Jews, Moslems or Buddhists decorate their churches, synagogues, mosques and temples to inspire their followers.
The San stopped painting about 200 years ago in the Cederberg and Koue Bokkeveld because their economy and society was disrupted by European colonists. European farmers began to settle in the Olifants River Valley from the 1720s. Historical records tell of fierce confrontations between the San and the settlers. Boer commandos killed many San who were feared because they stole the farmers' livestock and defended themselves with poisoned arrows. The descendants of the San hunter-gatherers became farm labourers or moved to mission stations, towns and cities.
From the rock art we moved to the cave 5 minutes up the road where parking was tight and we had to unhook the trailer and spin it around and then reconnect it.
Obviously the cave dates back to even before the rock art and the formations of it were amazing.
At 10:45am we finally left and made our way out of the cederburg wilderness and into the Karoo. It was gravel the entire way and we crossed low bridge after low bridge which would have been flooded had it rained and then we drove the Katbakkies pass, it was slow going at a top speed of 35mph.
At 1:30 we reached our next camp. Kagga Kamma and we are now in the middle of the Karoo desert. For this camp we will be completely off grid. No power and no water.
We checked in and we were at camp 5, the most private and out of the way camp here. We hadn’t booked it that way we were just lucky.
We drove down the deep sand tracks passing little chalets and huge rock formations until we came to a giant rock formation with the swimming pool at the front. From here we turned right and drove around the giant rock to the end where we found camp 5. This place looked like bedrock from the flintstones. We have the most amazing view of the desert with mountains as a backdrop and we quickly set up the trailer.
I went for a quick swim and then at 5pm we decided to hang out new awning sides as the temperature was dropping rapidly.
We’d had toasties as soon as we had set the trailer up and didn’t fancy dinner do we popped to the bar for a couple of drinks and to use the Wi-Fi and got back to the trailer at 7pm, then we had an omelette each for dinner.
The wind was now getting up and it was cold. Even I had put trousers and a jumper on and Ellie was now wearing 5 layers and her coat. We even put the new awning doorway on to close ourselves in.
At 8:30pm we headed in to watch the kindle and it was freezing.Baca lagi