Biedouw - August 2010 By George & Susan We were pleasantly surprised by the interest displayed in this outing and were heavily overbooked for the trip but eventually we could accommodate 11 vehicles and I think I speak for all when I say that we had a very pleasant weekend. Four vehicles drove through to Mertenhof Farm the previous Friday evening while the rest of us made an early start from the Engen Swartland gararge on Saturday. We made good progress to Clanwilliam were we make a short fuel stop and then proceeded over the Pakhuis Pass (which unfortunately has now been tarred). On the way we stopped off at Dr C.Louis Leipoldt's Grave where we saw a few faint Bushman paintings as well. He was a well- known Afrikaans poet and medical man from the region. He was also the grandson of Rev. Leipoldt, the founder of the Wuppertal missionary station that we also visited on Sunday. After arriving at Mertenhof and meeting the rest of the group, we made camp and set off on the 4x4 trail. Although the trail immediately starts off with a steep rocky ascent with loose stones and "oorkruis gate", followed by a sandy uphill it was a fairly relaxing drive with enough challenges to keep it interesting. Unfortunately there were very little flowers to be seen but the rest of the scenery made up for it. We stopped off for lunch at some interesting rock formations in the riverbed known as the "pot-holes". After lunch we continued with the trail and eventually reached a viewing point high up on the mountains with a superb view of the whole Biedouw valley and Cedarberg Mountains across the valley. After decending the mountain we arrived back at the farm in the late afternoon. That evening we all gathered around the communal braai fires that Chris, our firemaster kindly organised for us - thanks Chris. After everybody had done braaiing and finishing supper, most of us retired early for a well-deserved rest. Early the next morning, our host, Barry Lubbe took the more energetic folks on a short hike to see the bushman paintings on the farm. After they returned we packed up and bade our guests, Barry & Mariette Lubbe farewell and drove out to Wuppertal to explore the Mission station with its beautiful white-washed church and surrounding buildings. We then proceeded all along the back roads to Eselbank where we stopped off to visit the waterfall nearby. We continued along these back roads to Matjiesrivier, with a stop for lunch along the way. Eventually we met up with the tar road to Op-die-Berg and Ceres where we stopped to inflate tyres and say our last farewells. We then all made our separate ways home after what I hope was a very pleasant weekend in nature. Thank to all of you who joined us on this weekend and contributed to making it a success. I hope you all enjoyed it as much as we did. It really was great to see a whole lot of new faces on this trip and make new friends. George & Susan Warren