The Road Less Travelled

We could have taken the tar road from Barkly East to Lady Grey. It was only 50 kms, and would have taken about ½ hour. We’d have arrived early in the afternoon, and been able to hole up in our old fashioned hotel bedroom, to get out of the rain ….
After a couple of hours fishing for Pete, we left Rhodes and drove through the countryside to Barkly East, listening to Wouter Kellermann on the i-Pod (He is a S African flautist who collaborates with other SA musicians to make interesting and unique local music.) Barkly East is a dull little town from the little we saw of it, but we wanted to add the Barkly Pass to our count, so drove through it towards Elliot. Amazing sandstone outcrops and caves in the area – I almost felt as if I would see Ayla and Jondalar from “The Shelters of Stone” come around the corner. The Barkly Pass is impressive on the Elliot side, but being tarred was a little less exciting than yesterday’s passes.
Back through Barkly East and on the tar road to Lady Grey – and that’s where I started this post. We took the scenic route through Joubert’s Pass. As we turned off the tar we debated letting some air out of the tyres – but decided the road looked fine – we’d be OK.
Obviously the Barkly East side of the Witteberg is the rainy side – a few km into the drive we started to see mud – and then we noticed the road had recently been graded. Loose soil and rain = mud! Lots of it! Lots and lots of it! We noticed tyre tracks slipping and sliding – obviously not a 4x4, we said – till we joined the slip and slide ourselves. Round a corner, and there were sheep right across the road and a truck stopped at the base of a steep, slippery incline. We stopped too – and had a long conversation with Frikkie – a local farmer, waiting for the sheep to go over the hill so he could take a run at it. Needless to say, we waited too.
Past the sheep and the mud didn’t let up. The road is obviously used by the local farmers - it went through a farmyard, past farms with buildings on both sides of the road, past people mending fences and chasing animals out of the way. Halfway up a hill we got behind a tractor – low range seemed the best plan and we crawled up behind him until he pulled to the side. We thought we could nip past, but then saw why he’d stopped – a herd of young bulls was being driven down the hill. Once they had gone, a bakkie came gingerly down the road and we let him go past. As we got over the crest of the hill, we saw why he had looked so shaken – mud like you have never seen!
Pete drove really well through the slipping and sliding, and we seemed to be over the worst – but then we got to a farm where there was a huge mud hole on the right – so Pete took the left side of the road, only to slip into a hole you couldn’t see – it was so full of mud. A few heart-stopping minutes later, we managed to reverse out of the hole and onto firmer (if not drier) land.
The mountains were covered with cloud most of the way, but as we got closer, the sky got lighter and the cloud began to lift, and we could see where we were going – quite a climb on road that was very rocky – normally I would have cried, but after the mud, rocks and gullies were tame. Up and up – and at the top, we reached a turnoff (locked) to Hemel op Aarde. I was worrying about getting a picture of the view back down the valley, but as we reached the summit, there was Lady Grey in front of us - far, far down the valley, but in bright sunshine! I can see why they call the cutting – Hemel op Aarde (Heaven on Earth) It was really like being on top of the world.
The road down to Lady Grey is a spectacular pass, winding right round the hills. Only the first part is steep, and this side of the mountain must be the rain shadow side, because it was mostly dry all the way down.
Lady Grey is as charming, as Barkly East is dull. We took 2 and a half hours to drive the 44km round on the dirt road. It would have been less than ½ hour on the tar. But I am so glad we chose the “mud, mud, glorious mud!”