THE WATERSHED

Now I'm not referring to the buckets of sweat which I've been shedding on the uphills! Rather, looking at a map of the area we've been travelling through these past few days, it seems that the rivers flow away from us (N to the Orange river, and S to the coast). Also, the rain comes down with a force strong enough to feed all those rivers. Coming from CT we're not used to this sort of thunderstorm weather. At Steynsburg we pulled into the Redefin camp site where the owner (Mike) advised us to pitch out tents under the lapa roof. The sun was shining at the time, but that evening a storm broke loose which wet our tents even under the roof (and killed our fire). The following evening at Burgersdorp dam we became clever and sheltered under the protection of a shed (with train coach sides), thus avoiding the evening storm. Last night we camped at the Aliwal Spa (no shelter), where it rained for most of the night. The Spa (which was once a fancy resort) has now become so dilapidated that one could refer to the remaining indoor pool as a "water shed". Distances travelled since Cradock were: Hofmeyr (60k); Steynsburg (46k); Burgersdorp (78k); and Aliwal North (67k).