Fun With Floyd!

Last week we went camping!

For ages we have been thinking and planning and deciding whether to hire a Mobile Home and spend a week trundling from camp to camp, spending one night at a time and moving on each day. We wanted to see whether we preferred a Mobile Home to the caravan, so Rob did some homework and sent off an enquiry to see what the costs etc would be.

Well.
Back came a very nice mail confirming that the dates we wanted were indeed available, and after Rob had deposited R48 000 (that is forty-eight thousand rand) into their account (for insurance you understand, returnable when we dropped the vehicle back), we could organise a day to come and have a quick lesson, pick it up, and drive off into the sunset.

As you can imagine, we abandoned that plan and loaded up our trusty Hyacinth!

The campsite we chose was one of our very favourites, 'Koningskop' on a working citrus and rooibos tea estate. We went there last year, and vowed to return!

So, last Monday we rolled into camp just after lunch (a brilliant burger at Piketberg), and went straight to the site that we had last time. Grassy, shady and right next to the all important Ablution Block!

Home sweet home! Ablution block to the right!

As we stopped we heard a cat! And from out between the trees came a beautiful pink tabby! I kid you not, he was a pale ginger tabby, but so pale that he really had a pink tinge about him! He came straight over to us, said hello, sniffed noses with Alfie who was more than happy to welcome him and waited quietly while I found the cat food and a bowl and gave him a wee snack!

Floyd in the tree.

The lady who cleaned the ablution block told us that he did have an owner and a home, but that the cat spent all his time in the camp and was fed by everyone and most people wanted to take him home! She didn't know his name! So, because he was Pink, Rob named him Floyd! I shall leave you to work out why!

We had a wonderful few days.

The Cederberg..... stunning.

The Cederberg are beautiful and rugged, and change their personality as the sun moves and the shadows grow. I could see baboons, camels and a dozen faces in the rock formations, and a kind of Mount Rushmore effect with a bad-hair-day Trump. (Is there ever a good hair day?)

Footprints in the dry Olifants river bed.

We drove the back routes where we could, once to Citrusdal where we stopped at a small farm stall on the way back and bought honey, rusks and naartjies (tangerines).

Happy donkeys!

We went to Clanwilliam via a tiny settlement (at the bottom of a really scary road) called Algeria where we saw a donkey cart. We stopped as the cart had stopped, and I was very happy to see three healthy donkeys having a rest at the top of the hill! We chatted to the owners who told us that they had been fetching fire wood and always let the donkeys rest at that place. Clawilliam dam is currently at 6%......... that is 94% empty and no sign of any rain. (As I write this I hear that the Western Cape has just been declared a Disaster Area due to the drought.)

Part of the once huge dam.

We had lunch at a lovely coffee shop cum nursery called 'Yellow Aloe' and Alfie met Maggie the daschund and Jack the rescued sheepdog!

The Yellow Aloe.

And we spent a lot of time lazing around the camp as we had it all to ourselves!

And Floyd?

He stayed with us for the entire time that we were there. He chose a chair, he ate his food next to Alfie and then ate Alfie's too! He slept on the bed with me and he even came for a walk with us through the camp. He sat on Rob's lap, he star-gazed with us and he sat and watched the genet visit every night......

Floyd and Alfie on my bed, ready for a good sleep!

But, on Friday when it was time for us to pack up, he moved away, he went back into his little space in the lean-to where the geysers were housed, and he didn't say goodbye.

I was so worried about him. But on the way out we saw four caravans booking in and we knew that Floyd would be there to greet them all!

And... we'll be back!