Weekend in The Eastern Freestate, Bethlehem, Clarence, Ficksburg and Rosendal

After having just returned from a lovely weekend in Namibia, we accepted an invitation from Crause (My youngest brother who owns an Air Ambulance service and a flight school in Bethlehem) to spend a weekend in the mountains of the Eastern Free state.

We took the bike down in order to really enjoy the scenery and nature and it was really a good time of the year - right at the end of summer to enjoy the rich colours of that part of the world.

The first night was spent in Bethlehem and we were joined by another two friends Francis Smit (Doctor) and Spik, both old recce boys. The next day we cruised through Clarence the little arty village that had its Easter Bazaar on the town square,
On the outskirts of Clarence we buy drinks and biltong.

to have a lovely lunch on the Caledon river (the border between SA and Lesotho) with a majestic view over the Maluti Mountains.

After lunch we rolled further south through Fouriesburg to the village of Ficksburg where we parked the Bike at a new Boutique Hotel "The Morrison"
The Morrisson Hotel in Ficksburg

that belongs to an old friend of ours, Nick van den Bergh from the days when both Juanita and myself were flying for Executive Outcomes in Angola and Sierra Leone.

We were then given a lift in Francis's car to Nick's game farm a few kilometers outside town on a gravel road where we spent the night and most of the next day, enjoying catching up on old days with Executive Outcomes and doing a game drive with a fantastic surprise where Nick took us to a high point on his farm where a small monument is erected for the guys that was killed in Angola and Sierra Leone. We then had a real farm brunch on the neighboring farm where Bonny, Francis's wife, farms with a Jersey Dairy.

After lunch we hoped to take a leisurely drive to the town of Paul Roux where Juanita's Mother's ashes was recently placed at the feet of her parent's graves, this did not work out so well because we had a mishap by losing Juanita's handbag followed by a damaged oil sump from


Between Ficksburg and Rosendal with Visierskerf in the Background

driving on a bit of bad gravel road and we had to call for help to be saved by Crause who had to come and retrieve us from Rosendal.

We spent the night in Bethlehem again and returned home on Easter Monday keeping well away from he busy N3 and routed via Oranjeville in the middle of the sprawling Vaal Dam. Luckily the bike was fixed the next day and is going well again.