Tent Travels: The magic of an Afsaal sunset
Although the shepherd's hut had been upgraded, its special magic remained.
THE first time we spent a night at Afsaal, the remote shepherd’s cottage in Karoo National Park, the surrounding mountains were covered in snow. This time round it was pretty cold, too. It had been raining on and off for the last few days and although the rain had stopped, quite a few clouds were still hanging around.
When the sun did come out the lemon rays were weak and thin, hardly counteracting the nasty little chill carried in the wind. The light was beautiful, though, soft and mellow, bringing out the golden tones of the harsh, rocky mountains and surrounding stony plains.
Bill and I hauled out our winter woollies, lit a big braai fire, opened a bottle of good South African red and settled down on the sheltered verandah to relax and breathe in the crisp Karoo air. We were so happy to be back at Afsaal. Although we had stayed there at least ten years ago we’d always wanted to return, for our visit there had been a very special one.
Much had changed since our first visit when we’d spent the day in our Landy negotiating a pretty hard-core 4X4 track to get there. Arriving at the cottage, weary after the bumpy ride, we’d been charmed by the simple cottage and its wonderfully remote setting. That night, apart from the millions of dazzling stars, the only light we could see was the red glow of a distant radio mast.
Now the extreme offroad section of the 4X4 route we’d followed had been replaced by a good tourist road linking Klipspringer Pass and Potlekkertjie Loop and access to the cottage was via a short, easy 4×4 track across the stony, game-rich plains. Before, Afsaal furnishings had been absolutely basic and we’d had to take everything, including bedding, cutlery and crockery that we would need for an overnight stay. Since then Afsaal had benefited from a major revamp and had been very comfortably furnished and well-equipped. It even had a gas cooker and fridge and solar powered lights.
Once simply offering overnight facilities it was now a lovely little cottage suitable for a more extended stay. And, judging from the visitors’ book, many Afsaal visitors seemed to spend quite a few days there.We were sorry we’d only booked one night.
One thing that hadn’t changed, though, was the splendid isolation and all the untouched, Karoo beauty that the cottage had to offer. We spent the afternoon and the evening on the verandah watching the passing show. A little waterhole at the bottom of the ‘garden’ was visited by a constant parade of kudu, springbok and, in the late afternoon, three elegant young eland. They stayed for quite a while and we had a lovely view of them.
The birding was interesting too, with some Karoo specials and quite a few mountain wheatears (or chats, to older birders like us) flitting around the veld next to the verandah. We even had acouple of Namaqua sandgrouse visiting our waterhole.
Karoo National Park had recently re-introduced lions and we would have been delighted to have seen a big cat or two strolling around – although with Afsaal’s outside loo-with-a-view, a feline visitation might have been a trifle inconvenient. Best of all though, was the incredible sunset, the blood red sky eventually mellowing to tint the mountains and plains warm pinks and glowing gold. Sunsets are often so spectacular in our more arid areas.
On our first visit to Afsaal, perhaps because of the lonely splendour of the place, then even less accessible than it now was, we’d somehow conjured up a shade. Klein Willie, we called him, imagining the old shepherd who had once lived there some 100 years ago. If he was more than just our imaginations working overtime, he’d certainly made us feel very welcome then. It is hard to explain but there is something so magical about staying in the little stone shepherd’s hut in the middle of no-where.
If Klein Willie was still in residents, did he approve of all the changes, we wondered. In spite of the Afsaal make-over, its magic remained unchanged and, yes, we were sure that Klein Willie was very happy with his upgrade. The solo-powered technology must have puzzled him, though.
