Road Trip Days14 and 15. More adventure.

We had realised when we were trying to plug Cubby in at the municipal caravan park that something was wrong. We couldn't get any power even though my egg boiler worked at the plug. (the 4th outlet we tried)

After breakfast we went trying to find an auto-electrician that I had googled. He said he could help with the battery side of things but not the 220 volts. He was busy in the morning and short staffed but we could bring it in during the afternoon and he would try to help us. We asked if he knew of any electricians in town. He directed us to one next to the Pick n Pay parking. There a friendly and  efficient black electrician diagnosed the problem as being in our lead and made a new lead for us.

While we were waiting, we went to look at the Jan Rupert Centre where there was an exhibition of tapestries by Jean Lucrat who revolutionised the tapestry industry in France by cutting down on the number of colours and avoiding the gold and silk threads thus making tapestries more accessible to ordinary people and not just monasteries and castles.

After a hurried lunch in Cubby we went to see the Urquart House which had a collection  similar to that of Reinett House but not as big.

In the same grounds was the Military Museum. Graaff-Reinet was garrisoned by imperial troops but also had experience of the later guerilla warfare with its conco-militant problem of colonial rebels. From April 1901 the trial of Cape Rebels and captured Boers, accused of atrocities, was in the hands of the military.

We briefly rushed through the library museum because time was running out and we wanted to make Somerset East by nightfall. We learned about fracking, saw fossils and bushman paintings and learned about slavery in the Cape Colony.

We had chosen to travel to Port Elizabeth via Pearston, Somerset East and Cookhouse and not via Jansenville and Kirkwood - Brian was keen to show me the town of Pearston as he had relieved as teller/accountant at the Standard Bank branch there for two months at the end of 1972, hadn't been back and wanted also to see how the town had changed. Not only was the branch no longer in operation, but there was very little he could reminisce about. The only interesting thing was the church.

We had identified a place to stay near Somerset East called Die Kaia, from our caravan and camping book. We phoned the number given but there was no answer and so we decided to go there, but after traveling 8 km on a gravel road we found a notice saying there was a private function and it was closed. We phoned again, then followed the farm road a little way towards the caravan park but turned around when we saw how steep and bad the road was.  We thought the owners might even be away for Christmas so we went back into Somerset East and followed a sign to another caravan park. This was another municipal park, very isolated with broken and unattended ablution blocks and lights that didn't work so we decided to give it a miss.

We had passed a Methodist Church (Brian's uncle was at one stage the minister here) so we thought maybe we could phone the minister and ask whether we could just park in the garden and plug into the electricity. It was getting dark by this time and I had just got the number of the Methodist Manse from Telkom when the lady phoned back from Die Kaia. We agreed to meet her at a petrol station and follow her (quite hair-raising in the dark, down a steep and rocky road).

By now it was so late that we decided to eat biltong rolls for supper and go to bed. leaving the setting up for the morning.

So here we are now on a beautiful farm, on the banks of the Fish River. We have spent the day recuperating and catching up with business and just enjoying the view, the bird-life and the peace.

Tomorrow we head for Port Elizabeth. I won't be doing daily posts - I'll only post when we have been somewhere interesting.