Monday May 5th, 2014 Port Nolloth, Northern Cape, SA – 162
km
After a leisurely start to the
morning and a quick grocery shop we started the trek to Port Nolloth. Before
leaving Springbok we stopped at Wimpy’s (fast food franchise) to use the free
internet (30 minutes only!). We did buy breakfast too - $6.00 for ham and eggs
for both of us! The drive was along a very barren, very windy, unpopulated area
with red/pink tinged hills in the background. We are at the edge of the great
Kalahari Desert which stretches up into Namibia/Botswana and beyond. We had
seen the wind sock sign on the highway but at one point weren’t prepared for
the sudden gusts which pushed the motorhome sideways. As there are virtually no
trees in this area we were seeing lots of bird nests on the power poles. As we
got closer to the coast you could see Port Nolloth from over 15 km away .
Port Nolloth was a point for
shipment of copper for the inland mines and for offshore diamond mining from
the Namaqua coast. Since the 1970’s the principal activities here are fishing
and tourism. It is a sleepy little town with numerous holiday homes and lots of
take-out places – good old fish and chips. We think we may have finally found a
fish shop. Will see tomorrow.
This will likely be our last
night camping on the ocean. We are pretty much as far west as we can get here
are at McDougal Bay, which is 4 km south of Port Nolloth. The wind blows
continually here (we’re guessing 70 km/hr. just now) so the sand is flattened
off and so dry it doesn’t even stick to our shoes. We can feel the motorhome
rocking in the wind. The waves are spectacular – 20 ft. high just off the reef
in front of us. This would be a great place to collect sea shells if you were
so inclined. There seem to be an abundance and a great variety.
There is a group in campers next
to us from Cape Town travelling up the coast. Their rigs are very typical of
the SA camping crowd – very well equipped tents with what appear to be utility
trailers which then fold out into a kitchen, etc.
This is not as secure a
campground as some of the others thus this evening we had our first encounter
with “being bothered” as a beggar knocked on the door just as we sat down to
dinner. It is two days until the SA national election so besides the ubiquitous
elections signs we have been seeing for weeks this evening we were startled by
a mobile election rally – horns honking, people yelling, etc.
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| Kalahari Desert |
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| Port Nolloth Wharf |
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| South African Camping |
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| 20 ft Waves |
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