Tent Travels: Storm in an arid place

BEFORE we resume our virtual road trip, let’s linger a while in the gorgeous Tankwa Karoo National Park to experience one of it’s more spectacular emanations, a thunderstorm in a dry place.

And, mama mia, what a storm it was. We watched it all from our tent verandah in a natural amphitheatre, our mountain-encircled, sweet thorn-ringed campsite at Perdekloof on our first evening in the park.

It all started rather innocuously with the arrival of a few wispy clouds, tinted candyfloss pink by the setting sun, as we were preparing for an evening braai. These wispy little fellows were followed by a slightly more formidable band of cloud, rolling over the nearby mountains and intensifying the pinks and oranges of the evening light show. How beautiful it was. For a while the surrounding mountains took on a vivid golden glow then the colour faded as a little rain began to fall. Not much, though. We’d hardly ducked onto our tent verandah before the pattering on the canvas stopped.

For a while, all was silent and the clouds seemed to be dispersing. “That’s that then,” we said, a bit disappointed, as we continued with our evening chores. Rain is always such a blessing in a dry place like the Tankwa.

In the distance, lightning flashed, just a short, quick zigzag across the darkening sky, but the solitary flash was the harbinger of the drama to come. Within minutes, the reinforcements had arrived – jagged forks of lighting, drum rolls of thunder and heavy, indigo, rain-filled clouds that had us running for shelter. As the rain bucketed down, pouring off our tents in sheets, we watched the natural spectacle with growing awe. The horizon was on fire, the sungold light glowing more and more more vividly as the sky darkened, the clouds turning a deep bruised purple, then black.

The rain continued to fall as thunder crashed and lightning lit up the sky then, as quickly as it came, the massive storm seemed to lose its strength. The downpour changed to a light patter then stopped altogether and the clouds dispersed to rain upon the distant mountains. Soon the intensity of the lightning and thunder had decreased, the magnificent light and sound effects of the storm reduced to a flickering horizon and a distant growl.

We came out from our sheltering tent verandah, a bit shell-shocked, and were surprised to see how little the storm had affected us. The campsite needed a bit of mopping up but we were soon back on track with our evening meal, the braai fire lit and the meat sizzling on the grid. The after-storm evening air was cool and fragrant with the scent of newly dampened soil. All around us, rain continued to sweep across the distant darkening mountains.We went to bed and slept soundly, undisturbed by any dramatic weather.

When we took an early morning drive the next day, it was perhaps our imagination, but already the landscape seemed a little greener. Two days later, when we left the Tankwa, heading south towards Worcester and the Breede River Valley, the air was crisp and clear until we reached the mountains ringing the elegant Western Cape town. Clouds were marshalling at the foot of the range and it was misty and rainy as we drove over the summit.

It seemed we’d caught up with the weather that had brought the welcome rain to the arid Tankwa.