In December (2019) I decided to do something I haven’t done in years. An epic road trip from Johannesburg to Prince Albert. The trip would take 11 hours there and 11 hours back.
I could not wait to hit the road. I had come out of a challenging year of renovating our new head office building in Melville in a record time of 1-year. If you have renovated a house or a room or live through a building project, you know that this is probably one of the most testing things to do, I left the office on my last day of the year. I had more than enough of building suppliers, late delivery, and the like. My mornings started with a faulty piece of office equipment, which was the last straw on the camel’s back.
I grabbed my colleague at around 10:30 and said, “Let’s hit the road. We need to go say goodbye at our client”. Raf looked concerned. It was Friday, his prayer day. We would never make it from Melville to Sandton, and then back in time, I did not take no for an answer.
After speeding to Sandton, we did a whirlwind tour through the stock exchange, wishing our client the best for Christmas.
At 11:15, I dragged Raf to the left, and by 12:00, we were back in Melville.That evening I packed my car, and I was ready to leave Johannesburg at 10:00. Johan agreed to drive the first leg. I was delighted as the vehicle has an excellent back seat which I had my eye on for a month. I literally created a travel nest. I had my earphones, my iPad, and water. I was ready for the long road.
We decided to stay over in Kimberley. I haven’t visited this town since I was in primary school. We visited the Kimberley mining museum, which brought back wonderful vivid memories. It is interesting how you can remember small details for so many years. I could recall the saloon quite well, and I stood in the same venue back of the last time. At that stage, they still played typical saloon music. My mother loved the saloon, and I had to literally drag her out. When I asked her why she enjoyed this exhibition too much, she said that she got the feeling that people had a good time – that they were jolly.
The next day was a long stretch from Kimberley to Prince Albert.
I slept most of the way to Prince Albert and only woke up as we came around the bend to see the town far in the distance. We had arrived.
The last 30-minutes of the drive felt like a lifetime. Struggling through the last stretch of gravel road. The excitement to see our home was unbearable.
And then we stopped.
My friend Annette walked out of the small Karoo cottage and created loudly – “Julle het dit gemaak. Welkom in die Karoo”.
