Flamming through the Cederberg

The Cederberg is a mountainous area where dry mountains raise fantastic rock formations above thin ribbons of intense green cultivation of fruit and vineyards. Made for great hiking, but the real adventure started after the afternoon hike as I was in the car heading back to the campsite: suddenly a red light I'd never seen before blinked balefully on the car dashboard, and soon afterwards acrid white smoke was pouring out of the bonnet. Yikes! I stopped the car, openned the bonnet and woosh: flames came out of the battery case. Meltdown.

I huffed and puffed and used my last half litre of water to put them out. And then, in a cell-phone dead zone, I had no option but to leave the car on the side of the road and walk in the dusk to a nearby vineyard to use their phone. The people at the backpackers I was staying at (The Oasis) were really good to me: they came 20km down a dirt road to pick me up, and gave me the run of their place and, most importantly, a phone to use. Gerhardt and Chantel: thanks!

The next morning a mechanic came out 100km from the next town of Clanwilliam, and the best of all possible outcomes happened: a new battery and some tape got the car started again. Still, it meant that instead of getting away at 4am, I left at around 2pm and headed up through the deserts of the northern cape towards the Orange River.

I wish I had photographs of the car in flames ... and of the mechanics, they were really funny. But I had my hands full at the time.