Mount Stewart (E 15)

Name: Mount Stewart

Google count:
Date:

Historic fact:

Other interesting info:
The Route for the day
Having come through Kamferspoort because we were told that the road from Mount Stewart to Jansenville would be too busy we were advised that, it being pension day, there would be a lot more traffic between Klipplaat and Jansenville and the route through Mount Stewart would be preferable. The distances being almost equal we reverted to our earlier plan.


Mari’s birthday
It was in the course of the morning that Mari announced that the day was her birthday. She had previously informed us that it was tomorrow. So we were ill prepared for celebrations. But we still managed an impromptu party with a specially baked cake and candles when we reached Jansenville. The rest of her day was taken up in being delighted by many sms’s and calls and with some determined running on her part. As a present we decided she can cycle tomorrow.


Mount Stewart
Nestling below a couple of koppies Mount Stewart held much promise. However, this failed to materialise for us or the previous occupants. Standing now as a virtual ghost town at a railway siding, Cawoods, the general dealer standards empty as do most of the other houses. The church, with its cornerstone laid by a Cawood, also looks desolate although the arrangement of rocky paths in the grounds suggests recent use.


The rest of the run
The rest of the day was not particularly eventful. The road was straight and flat. Fields of noors and karoo vegetation stretched to the horizon. We ran past farms with names like Karoovlakte. Apart from a few vehicles the only other traffic on the road was Boetie, returning from the day of walking fences with his dogs Sheba and Fire.

It was late in the afternoon when we got into Jansenville for Mari’s party. As a consequence it was dark when we headed out on the tar road towards Aberdeen before turning off towards Pearston.

There seems to be little like the onset of darkness to take the strength out of one’s legs. The lesson for the day must surely be: don’t start late.

Reduced to walking and with trucks bearing down on us on the Aberdeen road, this part of the run proved quite intimidating and provided a timely reminder of the need to avoid tar roads and busy traffic.

The turn off to Pearston then took us on to the farm of the Charles’s. This part of the trip was further frustrating in that the distances that we were given and therefore anticipated were less than what they actually transpired to be. There’s nothing like a few extra kilometres in the dark at the end of a long day to take it out of one.

However, the tedium was interrupted by Owen Charles who stopped to point out a position on the roadside where with the advent of television in the mid seventies it had been possible to receive reception. Armed with a TV, generator and antenna linked to the fence line the farmers of the area would gather once a week with their beer ostensibly to watch tv.

We arrived late in the evening and prepared a birthday supper of pasta and klippies. It was well after midnight when we finally ate.

But we’ve now done over 1000 kilometres at a daily average of about 50 kilometres a day. We can surely be happy with that.

http://www.crosskaroo.com/cat46.php?catID=47
Where to stay: