I wake up in the middle of the night in our room at Naries, and hear a distant rumbling. Usually it is dead quiet on the farm at night, but not this time. I can hear the rumbling approach and then, as it passes the house, you can hear the structure sighs as it passes underneath. The quiet returns but, somehow, not the peace.

We get up for our last day at Naries and, while waiting for breakfast to be served, read in the news that we had an earthquake the previous night! The epicentre was about 60 km away, about 10km deep and had a intensity of 4.2. Anette did wake up, but to her this was nothing. She had experienced the Wolseley earthquake in 1969 as a little girl when visiting her grand mother. It had an intensity of 6.3 (that is, more than a 100 times more intense than this one) and it basically destroyed the house – they were all lucky to escape unscathed.

We depart again on the Kleinsee road but turn left towards Komaggas just before we hit the dirt road. This is the way we returned yesterday from Hondeklip Bay. It is a beautiful drive on a tarred road. We spend some time in Komaggas. It’s a town with lots of character as our photos below show. We drive up a number of streets and talk to the locals who are very friendly.

Then we exit town on its west side and turn left on the road to Soebatsfontein. This is a long dirt road crossing many low hills on an otherwise flat plain. At times we pass along the Namaqua National Park borders. The park is growing with new areas being proclaimed – it stretches now to the West Coast. After a long drive we reach Soebatsfontein. I can see where its name came from (“soebat” in Afrikaans meaning to plead intensely). It is a very poor area and I guess its fountain was probably the only source of water in the area. The little village is at one of the entrance gates to the Namakwa National Park.

We enter the park. This route is marked as 4×4 only. Initially the road is just very corrugated but then becomes smooth again. We see some animals here and there and then we reach the Koeroebees ruins (Nama for “to dig for water”) where farmers lived years ago. SANParks have erected a picnic site on the terrain. From here the road becomes steeper and more uneven as we progress, and then we reach a point where a normal sedan car will not be high enough to make it. Here SANParks have cemented the surface of the road – when it rains it will be too slippery and steep if they didn’t do this. Approaching the main camp at the top of the mountain, the veld turns green with many little flowers everywhere. The park is a favourite site to observe flowers in spring.

We pay our day visit fees at reception and then exit the park at its main entrance on the N7 side. It is a beautiful short drive down to the N7 and the town of Kamieskroon. On our way back to Stellenbosch, we stop at Vanrhynsdorp. Anette’s mother was born here and she grew up in what was originally (before her time!) the town jail of which a part was converted to a house. Nowadays the building is occupied by a shop that sells antiques and succulents from the Namakwaland. Each little plant specie has its own Afrikaans name – most of them hilarious! Have a look in the gallery below and enjoy a laugh.