Day 10 - McDougall's Bay to Hondeklipbaai
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Distance: 163km
Moving Time: 2h31
We packed up in the morning, and took the road Southwards to Hondeklipbaai. The first bit is good - heading East on the R382 towards Steinkopf - for the first 13-odd kilometres. From there, one turns South onto a dirt road towads Kleinsee.
The last time I travelled this dirt road (December, 2018), it was in absolutely shocking condition. Corrugated, sandy and very, very, very rough... So in preparation for this, we stopped and deflated to bad gravel road pressures. Strangely enough, the road was a pleasure to drive. It must have been graded recently. Reinflated again when we hit the tar in Kleinsee, after which the road is tarred again up until Koingnaas.
Strangely enough, in December, 2018, Kleinsee had a massive issue with illegal diamond mining. It was so rough that the folk were blatantly pegging out claims right next to the road, and the entire area looked almost like the start of Kimberly. This has changed now. The illegal diggins were all but deserted. I'm not entirely sure what is going on there - the rumours I'd heard was that it was a problem that had not been solved, but there were also rumours of one of the diggers having been shot at some point. I have no idea what to believe, and it is not really a problem that is well document, or which hits the news regularly. If somebody here knows what is going on, I'd be curious to know too...
After Kleinsee, the next place is Koingnaas - another semi-ghost town. Like Alex Bay, the last time I had been there, there were booms and a security gate. There are no booms anymore. So I took a drive through Koingnaas too, before we turned out again for the destination for the day - Hondeklipbaai.
When we arrived at Hondeklipbaai, we were still to early to check in, so we took a drive to see the Hondeklip, as well as to see the wreck of the Aristea. I was a little bit disappointed. The last time I had been there, there were informational posters detailing the history of the hondeklip, as well as the wreck. Whilst the posts for these boards are still there, the posted are gone. Furthermore, I presume the wreck is on it's last bit of rust now. It is looking more and more broken up than it last looked, and the sand and rocks around it are littered with bits of rust.
This all done, we headed into town. We had an excellent lunch at the "Dop en Kreef" restaurant. This was a little bit marred by the appearance of a dozen-odd drunken older men from the Free-State. They were obviously having "old man's rag". The sight of a drunken 60-odd year old Free-State guy ambling around in his jocks in a restaurant and arbitrarily sampling wine from other peoples' tables was not one which appealed to me much. Thankfully, we were pretty much done when they arrived, so we headed out and checked into our pad.
What a surprise. The place we were staying was a *huge* three bed-room place with several different outside entertainment areas and similar. And a lovely view over the bay...
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Where we stayed: Honde Hemel Self Catering Accommodation - Bachus Unit -
https://www.lekkeslaap.co.za/akkommodas ... /resensies
Approximate cost: R250 per person per night.