Lady Grey – A Night In The Middle Of Nowhere

Optimus on a rivers edge

You know what most people think of when they go on road trips?  The chilly darkness of the early mornings as they get up really early, pack their car and then head off on the open road.  They stock up on padkos for the journey and enjoy it while spotting punch buggies, counting white cars between the red ones and arguing with their parents about not singing so loudly along with the music.

For us our road trips are really different.  Mostly because we have to do it every 3^rd or 4^th day.  So that magic of waking up at dawns crack got old really quickly.  In fact I don’t even remember one day that we actually did that.  We tend to wake up when we need to, have breakfast and then pack up.  With this in mind we knew that there was no freaking way that we would make it to the Strekspruit border crossing into Lesotho in time to find accommodation there.

Lady Grey

Which meant that we needed an in between point to break up the trek.  Ever heard of Lady Grey?  Neither had we when we booked our spot there.  But it looked like the best spot, right next to a flowing river and surrounded by nature.  Little did we realise that when they said surrounded by nature, they weren’t faking it.  We had to drive about 4km down a winding gravel road along the river to find the spot.  Yes there was an ablution block, but there was absolutely no electricity or signal.  Like we were in a huge black hole of outgoing signal.  No data, no cell reception.  Niks. Nada.  Nothing.

And I know you’re wondering and yes.  Yes I did totally freak out at the lack of being able to communicate and the serious lack of electricity.  I also freaked out at the huge spider hiding in the doorway and the state of the ablutions, but if I was in a better mindset, I would have been able to admire the amazing place that it was.  Like on a lovely Summers day.  But we got there on a cold and windy evening.

Still the sunset was flipping amazing.

Sunsets

We first went back into the town to connect and wrap up some last minute work (being Friday at least we didn’t have to worry about it the following day).  We stopped at a lovely little restaurant and had some pizza and stuff while we worked.  Then we headed back out to the campsite to enjoy the sunset and play around the river.  After that we wrangled up some food (because kids are always freaking hungry) and then headed for bed.

There was another couple staying at the site with us who we chatted to before bed.  Once we got into bed the wind started picking up as it went through the ravine (that’s what you call it when there’s a river running through hills right?).  Anyway, it was flipping hectic.  I honestly thought the whole van was going to fly away.  Needless to say we had a pretty rough night although the kids didn’t seem to notice.

Early the next morning (well, earlier than usual) we had the van packed and ready to hit Lesotho.  Finally heading into a brand new country!!