So time for a story .....I've been travelling again and this time I came back with a present for myself . So the story starts.....
Waking on Wednesday 20th May at 7am
, I jump into a friends bakkie that he's lent me for 2 days 
. I travel all the way to Somerset West and collect a car trailer. Why I hear you ask.....be patient please. As usual, the lights don't work on the trailer so the first job taking 1.5 hours is to rewire them 
. Next it's back to home dragging the trailer to collect the Beetle that Chris kindly delivered to my house from PE for spares. That was delivered to Jurgen in the Strand and it's already 12pm. 
Balls I think, I better get on the road, got a long way to go. So off on the epic journey we go. Driving from Somerset West up the R44 to the N1. The turning left and heading away from the seaside and family.
I hit Beaufort West and guess what happens.....
Why everytime I take a road trip do I get stopped??? I was glad I had spent the time fixing the lights as they checked everything over
.So then I take a left on the R381 and all's going really well....Sat Nav saying 118km's to my destination, 5pm and I think an hour and I'm there. I was warned that the road was not tarred all the way but I had misunderstood what that really meant. I'm used to English country lanes being called not tarred. So about 8km down the R381 I hit the grave and a mountain pass.
. I hit the first corner and I realised what had happened a few months ago to Bugger and the 
that resulted. The trailer was along side and this was a single tracked, grave mountain pass. 
. Suddenly, the trailer snapped back, I think it caught the rut in the road and my god I prayed and thanked the lord 
(not you Vader sorry). So that woke me up and I slowed down and decided that I had all night.And what a road it was. I'm not sure how many (probably most) have spent over 2 hours in the middle of nowhere, no lights, no other cars and just being on your own with your vehicle (in this case my friends vehicle) on a grave road surrounded by mountains. Well I found it amazing, pure concentration, talking to the bakkie and working through the dark. I LOVED IT!
So guess where I am and what time this is.....picture was taken with the flash....the only darker I'm been in was a cave in the blue mountains in Australia when we walked in for 75 mins and the guide switched off all the lights.....you couldn't see a think...nothing. Try it next time you are in a cave, ask the guide.
So finally after over 2 hours and pitch black (and by the way, the last 20km of that road are really ruff.....I think I bounced most of it! I arrived at my overnight stay in Loxton. I had a room booked in the Four Season Guest House. It was brilliant, R200 for the night with DST, bathroom, kitchen, 3 beds and a sitting room! Now that's value and the landlady "Roline" was lovely.
I even had some dinner supplied from a local!
I cracked a beer open and sat looking at the stars.....I have never seen stars like that anywhere in the world! AMAZING!!!!! Couldn't take a picture as it didn't do justice. Then I realised I had frozen to the spot starring into the sky....it must have been close to zero degrees.
I then settled into the sitting room, opened the laptop to start this story only to find the connection speed was
and I mean . Well there has to be a downside to such a beautiful place. 
. So I though, time to catch up on work emails (as they are locally stored) and I did 233 whilst watch discovery. Then decided to replicate whilst I when to bed at midnight!Thursday morning at 6:45 and the sun wakes me up but I'm not uopset as I have a date with a lady called Brent!
Here's my accomodation
and after the road and my close call the night before, I wasn't surprised that the view from my guest house was.....
And here is the reason for all the efforts for!
Here are Steve and Brent who were the owners and very kindly sold me the beetle, made me coffee and we had good conversation. They are professional photographers and are really lovely people.
Ok, car loaded and it's time to set off back as I need to get back to pick up Vader's parts car from Jurgen as the engine's already out and Jurgen's worried about the rust infecting the other cars in the shop
So decision time.....do I take the tarred road to Victoria West and then to Beaufort West or do I take the dirt track? So sense sets in and I head off down the tarred road. The Sat Nav pops into life and shows I'll arrive home at 7:35pm and it's 9am
Ok, that's it.....I swing the bakkie around and back I head down the R381. I get 5km down and bouncing all the way, I stop and have to tighten all the straps and I think to myself this was a bad idea, but once committed.......
Remember I sad the last 20km was the worst, well it was now the first 20km and they took 50mins.
but then it all got better.
I found 60kph and driving in the middle not the bit the other vehicles had driven is was good. I started to enjoy again and now I could really appreciate the views that last night were replaced with nothing but darkness.
So anyway, made it back to the N1 after around 3 hours and then stopped at the Brent Oil service station as I had to do a conference call for work....had a coffee and relaxed for 30 mins. Then back on the road.......all the way home. I got back at 5:30pm, unloaded the car and put her into the garage.
Then I had to shoot off as Vader was waiting in Strand (in a bad area) as we needed to collect the spares car and take to HR. Nice to see you both again
. Home at 8.20pm, wife says "You here to stay now for a while?, Dinners burnt!"Home safe and sound, I really bounded with that Bakkie and I'm actually sad that I have to give it back.....we spent some realtime together and she never faultered.
Brent, sorry this pictures aren't as great as yours, but if you have one of your pictures on the R381 or the stars from your house, can you send me a copy and I'll post on here to share what I mean?
congrats on the new bady 
