Kimberley, the groot gat, call it what you like, I was glad to turn away from it, to see it receding on the rear screen. I tramped on the vacuum brake… Burp burp… Good bye.

Ahead lay the vastness of the Northern Cape… Thorn scrub stretching to infinity… Big, very big, & dry country.

There's really no excuse for the way some people are living along the N12, on the Northern approaches to Kimberley. I felt my soul retreat inward at the thought of living like that… here.

I'd been here once before, a particularly low point in my life. Perhaps this was a poisoned, residual effect from that time, lingering in my head, distorting my view, but I dislike this place…  A lot.

Eventually, after idling past the last speed trap on the city limits, just as "the Gypsy" stood on the pedal, a vista I couldn't have imagined, opened up, right there in front of me.  Everywhere, further than the eye could see, the thorn trees were flowering… Nothing bright, or loud. It's beautifully subdued, understated,  but quite magnificent & overpowering in it's simple, quiet vastness.
Yes, my breath WAS taken away. I had to pull over. WOW… Now THIS is different. This's what we're looking for. Of course I'd known about the Namaqualand spring flowers, still more than a thousand kilometres distant, but THIS ? this is something EVERYONE should experience… Kinda like the full moon, but once a year.

Someone, undoubtedly residents from the place behind me,  😉 had taken the cables from all along the road. The poles remain &, true to this amazingly big land, birds've claimed them & built their own massive nests. I don't know why, but I like it. I feel very happy ???? for them.

Nyati sailed along nicely, contented, real slow & easy… There's so much to savour.

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