A lush stopover for tired travellers in the green Kalahari

By Roxanne Reid
We were hot, tired and grumpy. So when the brittle brown landscape suddenly dissolved into a mirage of lush green grass, palm trees, ponds and cascading waters, we hauled a quick left and decided to bunk down for  the night and start fresh the next morning.

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We had left Cape Town at 5.30 am for what should have been a 10- or 11-hour drive to the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park in the Northern Cape last sumnmer. But 21 stop-and-go road-works between Niewoudtville and Kenhardt had had other plans for us. Each of them had held us up for 10 or 20 minutes, roasting our brains in the February heat, stretching our patience wafer-thin. After 11 hours we were only just driving into Keimoes – 310km short of our destination. 
 
And that’s when we saw De Werf in Keimoes and screeched to a stop. A small herd of springbok nibbled the improbably green grass and a spurwing goose waddled around, trailing a line of six fluffy goslings. So we booked in to one of the cottages and brought the
day’s troubles to a soothing end.

Our cottage was bliss for hot, hassled travellers. It was one of 18 double or family units with air conditioning and DStv, lots of shelf and hanging space, even thick crinkly white duvets – perfect for a winter visit. A small but well-equipped kitchen had fridge, stove (complete with mini oven), even a roasting pan, colander, sieves, toaster and coffee machine, and there was a shady porch for lounging or braaing.

A short walk away was an attractive restaurant and bar if we didn’t want to fuss with making our own food. That night there was a braai for about 15 Germans who were there to test camouflaged high-end car brands on the Northern Cape’s long, straight roads. (You do need to watch out for these chaps on the road between Upington and the Kgalagadi, though. In January there was a fatal accident involving one of the speed-test vehicles and staff members from the park.)

Two weeks later, on our way back from the Kgalagadi, we decided to avoid the road-works and go back to Cape Town via Pofadder and Springbok. Instead, we encountered 19 stop-and-go’s between Keimoes and Vanrynsdorp, and the whole trip took us 13-and-a-half hours! Although the red-rock koppies of Namaqualand make for a pretty drive, next time we’ll still choose the Calvinia/Kenhardt route – it’s a quieter road with fewer trucks and the difference in delay time from road-works is negligible.

I can highly recommend stopping over at Keimoes’ De Werf on your way to the park; I’m still working on a solution for the homeward bound trip…

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