To camp or not to camp

About 3 weekends ago Brad & decided to go camping. I typed out this blog and have been trying to upload the accompanying photos for the last 3 weeks but I'm not having any luck. Every time I upload a photo it says it has sucessfully uploaded it but when I look at the blog post it is not there. If anyone knows what I should do then please let me know. Anyway, I thought that I would share the story of our funny camping experience with you anyway. Not quite the same without the photos but I can't keep delaying this or we'll already be in 2007 and this will be old news.

We found a lovely place on the internet in Tulbagh called the ‘Wild Olive Farm’ – it situated on a working wine and olive farm. http://www.wildolivefarm.com/

We had some things to take care of at home on Saturday morning so we headed off on our adventure at around 11am. We ventured through via Malmesbury and arrived at lunch time.
The wind was blowing and it just seemed to pick up in intensity – at which point we realised it was going to take some serious team work if we were going to successfully pitch our tent (and remain sane).

At that point there were only two other tents up and the one nearest to us seemed to be taking some serious strain. With great teamwork and effort we managed to successfully pitch our tent (with the added help of 4 rocks which I positioned inside the tent at each corner. Brad realised that it would also be necessary for us to tie the tent down to stakes in the ground (and around a tree) in order to keep our tent from blowing away.


After a light lunch we decided to read and catch a snooze in the tent. Upon awakening from our snooze we discovered that quite a large group had arrived and had sent up their tents on the other side. Apparently they were down in that region of the Cape because they’d come to see the “King of the Mountain” – an annual event where they race fancy cars (Ferraris, Lamborghinis etc) down the mountain pass.

Brad was desperate to watch the rugby so we headed off in the car to find a suitable venue (all the while praying our tent would be there when we got back). We found a great tree-top bush pub just out of town and settled down to watch the rugby (which we unfortunately lost – a tragic turnaround at the end of the game between South Africa and England).

We headed back to the campsite and to our relief discovered that our tent was still there. Unfortunately a little while later we noticed that one of the fibreoptic poles had broken and had pierced a hole through middle of the rain cover. We dismantled the tent & Brad managed to make a plan. That was a close call – if we couldn’t fix it we would have had to head back to Cape town or sleep in the car.

In true South African style we decided to braai lamb chops and boerewors for dinner. The wind was terribly strong and as a result there were little coals blowing all over the show – which resulted in us hopping around trying to stamp them out - considering the grass was covered in dry pine needles.

I went to fetch something in the tent (which was just a few metres away from the braai) when I noticed a spider on the tent. It wasn’t too big but a spider nonetheless – and we all know that I am NOT a fan of spiders. I tried to beckon Brad over but he couldn’t leave the braai. I attempted to zip the front of the tent shut as I did not fancy the idea of the spider roaming around the tent with me in it – but the spider just started running down the tent towards the entrance – I had no choice but to smack it off with my shoe.

I went over to Brad – uttering my disapproval of his lack of support in the spider-catching endeavour. He said that it was probably just a tiny spider and nothing to worry about – at which point I turned around to look at the tent and to my absolute mortification discovered an ENORMOUS spider on the tent. Of course I made a screeching sound – to which Brad looked over & this time he sprung immediately into action. Upon closer inspection of the spider we discovered that we were looking at it’s silhouette (our tent was lit up from the inside by our camping lantern) and that it wasn’t on the outside of the rain cover. Eeeeeeek – we checked inside the tent and to our relief saw that it wasn’t inside the tent – it was between the tent & the rain cover. The problem was that we couldn’t lift the rain cover off because the wind was blowing too strong and it would have blown away. So my brave husband had to try and get between the two layers. Mr spider played hard to get & ran over to the other side. I was freaking out because I imagined that it would disappear and there was NO WAY I was sleeping while the spider was around. Brad managed to find the spider on the other side of the tent and, well, lets just say that spider won’t be bothering any other campers – ever again.

After all that we finally got to enjoy our braai as we sat huddled up in the tent – keeping a watchful eye on the centre of the tent to make sure the poles held up. The large group of campers that I mentioned earlier were drinking quite large amounts of alcohol and put some really loud music on – which became a real pain because it wasn’t even decent music – just a loud doof doof doof bass beat. Luckily the owner of the farm came out from his house & told them to shut off the music or pack up their tents as the kind of environment he has created on his farm is one of tranquillity and relaxation.

After cleaning up and a nice warm shower we decided to hit the sack. Easier said that done. Due to the direction the wind was blowing (which had increased even further in intensity) the tent was blowing in on us – we tried swopping around and sleeping with our heads the other side but discovered we were on a slight angle and couldn’t sleep lying downhill.

It was a rough night. The ground was hard and the wind was strong – we kept wondering if our tent would hold. Eventually at 4am the wind died down and it was still. Amazing. Peace and quiet. Until the roosters that is. They decided to make their way down to the tents and come and personally make sure each tent had a good ‘cock-a-doodle-doo’ wake up call. Reminded me of camping at Baisha in Kenting (Taiwan). Eventually they wondered off again. Peace and quiet. 6am, we hear something in the distance, but what. Oh no – the grown of thunder approaching. 8am, its pouring with rain and the sky is alive with thunder and lightning. Great. We pack up. Once we’re all packed up we sit in the car and enjoy our weetbix & coffee.

We were disappointed because we’d had plans on going for a little hike & a swim and we had no idea it would be raining (neither did the weather report for that matter). Since it was only 9am we decided there was no way we were going to head back home and so we decided to see what the little town of Tulbagh had to offer.

There are only really two main streets – and they are lined with very old cape dutch style buildings. We walked through a few little gift shops and galleries – which were unfortunately all in darkness due to the power failure. We finally decided on a lovely looking restaurant/wine shop called “Paddagang” (a padda is a frog in Afrikaans). We were all excited about ordering cappucino’s – but had to settle for regular tea & coffee since the coffee machines run on electricity. We were about to order some scrambled eggs on toast when we realised that we wouldn’t be able to pay for it since we didn’t have any cash on us and the we couldn’t draw money at the atm or pay with our credit card since all those facilities were down due to the power failure.

After tea&coffee we headed out into the garden and discovered that the weather had completely cleared up and it was indeed a sunny and warm day. We walked up and down the quiet street again and soaked in the sunshine.

Since Tulbagh is such a small town and we’d seen pretty much all there was to see we decided to head off and take a nice slow drive back home.
Just outside of town we spotted a lovely looking place which we’d seen advertised called “Things I love” and decided to see what it was all about. It was such a beautiful place. It consists of a deli, wine cellar (where you can taste wines from all the wine farms in the region), a restaurant and lovely gardens. The lady that worked there was most friendly and took us around the property telling us all about the place. It is really just filled with things that the owner, Lyn, loves (hence the name ‘Things I Love’). We were about to leave when the power came back on. Set on making the most of the rest of the day we decided to sit down and enjoy a nice brunch in the garden. We had the most delicious meal – toast, cream cheese, smoked salmon and scrambled eggs. It was just what we needed.

It was finally time to head back home and face the least favourite part of the weekend – the unpacking and packing away bit.

I’d say it was probably our least favourite camping experience thus far – but we managed to make the most of it. It was certainly a team-building experience for the two of us and I think we work together perfectly.