Last day in the Karoo. When it was raining so hard I considered moving to another warmer spot but, when I googled, I realised I’d pretty much be leaving a beautiful oasis run by kind-hearted people who rehabilitate injured buck, to stay at a hunting lodge, for comfort. So rainy days in a tent it was. And I was so glad I did when a huge tortoise came wandering into my campsite. I was sitting at my Karoo office desk and happened to look up from my computer and there he was. Ronel and Chris have setup a special stone bath near the tap so that during the dry months the tortoises can come through and drink. A literal tortoise oasis.
This camping is harder than I thought. My body has decided it’s had enough of being traumatised by the elements and is asking for Lemon Creams, not this healthy rubbish I’ve been force-feeding it. Every time I look the other away another five biscuits go down the hatch. I need to stock up on Lemon Creams.
Unbelievably, the clouds came in and it stormed again. Scary lightening and crashing thunder. In Jozi this would be considered mild but it’s been seven years of no thunderstorms for me, so it was exciting but eeek! And I was doing that measuring thing, where you start counting after the lightning strikes to determine how far away the storm is, and then you know how much danger you’re in. Every 3 seconds is a kilometre because sound travels at 300m/s. The problem is I’m so easily distracted that I would start counting and forget, then I’d carry on again, and so the final number was never correct. It was hard work. But I survived. I’m sure they never counted in the old days. I think I should just go old school with my lightning issues.
I realised today when I checked out that I could have spent most of the rainy days at the main roadhouse restaurant instead of punishing myself. I don’t know why I made the choice to be so uncomfortable. It’s something I really need to look at, because this is not a camping trip, it’s a roadtrip. Being indoors or staying at a BnB is fine.