Anybody seen “2012” that Hollywood movie of the “end” of the world as we know it? The earth basically had enough of “us” and goes for a pole shift, creating massive floods… but man came prepared and built giant ship to save himself… and the first dry land the spot is… tadaaa: The Drakensberg in Kwazulu Natal.

Hence when Camps Bay is becoming an “Under Water Resort” and Table Mountain turns in to an island again, we should stay high and dry. So we thought… until the 19th of January 2012.

I was looking forward to a well-deserved weekend sailing at the West coast and by 16:30 my WWOOFer and I had everything packed and left Simonskloof under a bright sunny and blue sky. By the time I had gotten to the Robertson side of the Langeberg, the sky had darkened and halfway to Worcester it was black as the night with a stunning lighting display (in the direction of… Simonskloof) I was little concerned having forgotten my cell phone at home, it was my weekend off after all…

By 8 o’clock we had reached Cape Town ready for dinner at one of those trendy Longstreet restaurants… But little did we know, by then Mareletta had managed to get hold of Martin whom I was with and told him about Armageddon in the Langeberg… There was no need to abandon my weekend, the rain had stopped and the mopping up can wait, you’ll need the break and recharge, she said.

At first we did not believe her stories about a freak flash flood having struck our peaceful valley. In fact only the next day when we received photos over the Internet, while driving up the coast, did it hit home.

On Sunday after a rough sailing trip, we headed back into the mountains. But 3km before the farm one of the drifts was washed away and impassable, so we grabbed what we could and walked the rest. The pictures that greeted us were nothing less then the photos we saw prior. In fact nothing could capture there real event which both Mareletta nor I witnessed. I had left before the 150mm of rain literally had fallen out of the sky, and she had just come back from Montagu also missing the spectacle. But the result was a shocker never the less.

Now, almost a month later the world out here looks a bit better… water supply is re-established and with the help of a massive yellow monster (Mr Komatsu 220) we’ve cleaned up the rough stuff rebuilt the drifts, the roads, the campsite and then raked the remaining debris with a team of local WWOOFer, two tough Fine Art (!) graduates form Jo-burg, Jamie and Shannon. The new grass is already growing again, and so are the reeds… the Campsite, so nicely praised in the Burger article received a face-lift with a couple more sites having vehicle access now. The farm dam is still battling a bit, while we have a fantastic new rock pool up in the mountain. The hiking trail has a small detour, and the old WWOOF caravan is towed to our scrap yard to be flattened one of these days.

But most of all, from bad comes good: After 13 years – yes, it’s my 13th year here at Simonskloof ! – of complaining and moaning to the roads department about the state of our access road they have managed to tap into disaster relief funding and fixed the full 6 km gravel road to our entrance, making it a joy to drive! Thanks road guys!!!
In short we are back in full swing and to start off the new campsite, what better way then with a spirit cleansing Sweat lodge ceremony? But more about that in the following news!