The possibility of a trip to the Cherry Festival has been bandied about within the club for some time now but when Ronnie came across the Koranna Getaway website and mentioned it to Malcolm the possibility became a firm probability. In his inimitable fashion Malcolm got on with promoting it to club members and eventually sufficient numbers committed for him to be able to book the entire site for our group. Many thanks to those who committed upfront – it made Malcolm’s job that much easier; to those who didn’t, you can organize the next trip!!
It was a long weekend trip involving about 14 vehicles and some 34 people. The first contingent of 5 vehicles met at the Rotunda on Thursday and drove together as far as Tugela-1-Stop where we had brunch at about 11. Then on via Harrismith, Golden Gate and Fouriesburg to Clocolan where many of us filled tanks after about 420km. Then on to Koranna Getaways – a further 30km.
The farm is a working farm with both cropping and livestock and is situated next door to a game farm which appeared to specialize in (breeding?) wildlife species. Whilst passing the farm we saw melanisitic forms of springbok, as well as bontebok, red lechwe, sable and white rhino. As an added interest we were woken (and/or sent to sleep) by roaring lions – quite an interesting experience hearing the lowing of cattle and the roaring of lions at the same time!
The grassed campsite was down by a river close to the start of a trail which lead up to a plateau. Some of us were in chalets, and some camped. A great lapa and also central “hall” made sure that we were comfortable, able to braai and keep dry when the rain fell. Eskom did it’s bit to ensure some interest by ensuring the power was ‘shed’ a couple of times which was a bore but we coped with normal equanimity.
We met up with Johan, the owner of the farm and Koranna Getaways and arranged to drive up the pass to the top of the plateau the following day with him. Interestingly he drives his cattle to the top of the plateau for summer and then down again in winter; Bryan remarked that whilst he knew that his grandfather did this he didn’t know this was still being done.
By 7.30 the next morning Johan had obviously had a problem and whilst there were some cattle milling around there was no sign of any movement up the pass so we decided to go on our own. It was a seriously challenging climb with stream crossings, rocks and boulders. Probably the biggest ‘obstacle’ was maintaining traction as there were places with a coarse gravel which presented some traction challenges – particularly to those without diff-lock. However we all made it to the top having taken about 2 hours. A challenging climb which we felt should be graded as 4. We had a breakfast at the top whilst enjoying the view and watching (and listening to!) the cattle as they wended their way slowly, and noisily up the pass below us.
Johan had driven up behind the cattle and was more than a little startled to see Lisa’s Suzuki Jimny with the rest of us – he simply hadn’t believed it could possibly make the climb. Congratulations Lisa (maybe ask Father Xmas for diff-lock!) and many thanks to those who gave a helping push where necessary.
We drove around some of the plateau with Johan who also showed us a fairly smooth, though steep rock incline that we could tackle if we wished. His wife showed us a video of a Jeep Wrangler (long wheel base) doing it but whilst a few us were quite keen, common sense (and our wives!) negated the idea and we left the slope untouched. Johan was a good guide and showed and told us a good bit about the area – fascinating. He also persuaded some of us into doing a time trial which involved a short descent of about 25meters, followed by a hard right turn straight into a steep climb up a rock face. The object was to do it in the MOST time – ie who could do it the slowest time. The trick was to spend as much time as possible on the initial downhill part and accept that a certain amount of speed (momentum) was necessary to get up the rock face. The competition was won by Ken Peckham – well done Ken. (Great to give the Ford owners something to crow about!!)
Soon after that we set off for home, after a few misdirections from yours truly we arrived at the top of the pass and managed to get down and back to camp without mishap. A good trip, challenging, rewarding and fun.
That afternoon most of the rest of group arrived and set up camp or moved into their chalets; John & Kotie had a cottage a few hundred metres away from the camp which we all dubbed the honeymoon suite – only to find that it was their wedding anniversary! We also discovered that Hennie and Ina were celebrating their 46th wedding anniversary this weekend – congratulations to you both too! The group that had arrived today decided to tackle the pass to the plateau the next morning but because they wanted to go to the Cherry Festival they decided to go up early and come down after a short period at the top. We braaied again that night – thanks to Bryan as a braai fire maker of note.
The Cherry Festival was quite an eye opener to us as regular attendees of the Royal Show; considerably smaller but with a very good range of exhibits. Interestingly they seem to have a great deal of support from the local municipality and other government organs. Obviously cherries were the flavor of the day with considerable emphasis on their use in alcoholic beverages of various sorts; one imagines that this allows the various farms to differentiate themselves in the market.
Most of us were back at the camp in the mid to late afternoon and were joined by Dudley and Desiree rather later than either they, or the rest of expected. We will draw a veil over the events – suffice it to say ‘thank-you’ to Ronnie for his retrieval operation!!
That night Eskom obliged with (another) load shed whilst the heavens did their best with a rain storm – fortunately we all managed to finish our braai in wet candlelight and manged to sleep to the sounds of rain and lion’s roaring.
We had all agreed to have a breakfast together the next morning before going on our way but the power the previous night had meant no water pumping and thus no water in the camp. We mostly decided to leave directly and have breakfast on the way – in most cases at the Constantia padstall whose kitchen was under serious (Cherry Festival) pressure but nevertheless managed to serve a very reasonable breakfast.
A great weekend with many thanks to all who put in their bit to make it all it was. Thank you.