• 

• 

Yay for Level 1 of lockdown, back to traveling and the reason for the blog! We had been wanting to visit the Richtersveld for about a year and with the easing of the lockdown it took less than a week for us to be out the door. The Richtersveld is true unspoiled wilderness and absolutely beautiful. It is a World Heritage Site and encompasses a large amount of territory in both South Africa and Namibia. Originally, we planned to do it all at one time, but Covid ruined that plan. This trip was 12 days and 11 nights. Most of the area is very desolate and off the grid, so the excursion required a lot of strategic planning, preparation and careful packing. You have to be fully self sufficient. We took two vehicles, one with the caravan and the other with the rooftop tent. Q also joined us, so that was an additional consideration, but it all worked out great. These posts will be a little longer than normal so grab a drink!

This trip will be done over a few posts so I’ll start by giving some background information. We started researching and planning this trip before Covid came along. Lockdown just gave us a good excuse to finish the plans. The Richtersveld has a few areas. They are the Richtersveld National Park, Richtersveld World Heritage Site, and the Ai-Ais Richtersveld Transfrontier Park. We went to all three areas. Most of the journey was on the Namakwa 4×4 Eco Trail, which has two parts and runs through most of the area. Twelve days is a long time without water facilities, so we planned the route to include a few places to restock the water supply. We also took all of our food with us, so I prepped ahead of time for meals. Here’s our menu for the trip!

Lian is still a part time pescatarian so she put in some of her own meals. I also planned in desserts for the first time ever. A note on food – I make most things ahead of time and freeze them. I take things out one day ahead to thaw and it works great. The caravan has a fridge/freezer, as does the Land Rover. The Pajero has it’s own fridge. I quickly discovered 12 days is the max for planned meals! I may do a post in the future on meal planning 🙂 Ok, on to the good stuff!

• 

• 

We had good intentions of starting early, leaving the house at 8am. The first day’s drive was six hours. Within thirty minutes of leaving we had an issue with the Land Rover’s air suspension and the Pajero’s coolant. Both cars had just been serviced and had a thorough checkover, so it was pretty annoying. We got everything sorted out within an hour and a half, and finally got on the road. Once you get out of JoBurg, the scenery is fantastic. South Africa is a beautiful country and I never get tired of it. Just after lunch, we came across a guy waving us down on the side of the road. There was almost no traffic as most people were not traveling yet. We stopped to help him and discovered he had left home without a crow bar. He had an epic blowout on his trailer. The only rubber left was the sidewalls. Good thing we stopped for him! We got into Red Sands caravan park in Kuruman around 6pm. We had a quick setup and an excellent dinner. It was the first of many chilly nights….

• 

• 

The next day we were up early and got on the road by 10:30. As we traveled into Northern Cape, we ran into a wicked wind. We had to eat in the car when we stopped for lunch. The scenery just got more beautiful as we went. We got into Klein Pella guest farm in Karsten Farms mid-afternoon. Unfortunately, the wind had gotten worse. It was a bone-chilling cold wind and it was a miserable setup. I had an interesting time cooking dinner! No sooner did we finish eating, the wind stopped. It was like someone flipped a switch. It was not the last time we would have a windy day. This was our last day with running water for a while so we refilled the water tanks and took a nice long, hot shower. It was also the last of the paved roads. It was gravel or rock from here on out.

• 

• 

• 

Karsten Farms is the largest date farm in the Southern Hemisphere, and the dates were unbelievable. I don’t even like dates, but I liked these! Since it is a working farm, they were only open for two weeks after level 1 started. They closed three days after we were there so they wouldn’t risk their employees getting Covid.

• 

• 

• 

• 

Klein Pella also happens to be the start of the Namakwa 4×4 Eco trail that runs through the Richtersveld. The real adventure starts from here! Stay tuned for part 2.