On 30 August 2023, a super blue moon was
rising over the Langeberg mountain range as we were traveling from Cape Town to
Towerwater. The significance of the lunar spectacle in the sky while we were keeping
an eye on the speedometer of the Toyota bakkie that was approaching its 500 000km
milestone, was not lost on us.
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| 500000km and counting |
Maybe it was a sign from the universe
wanting to make this milestone extra special and memorable. We realized that
the speedometer was going to click over to 500 000km at a random point on the R60
between the towns of Worcester and Robertson in the Western Cape. It happened
on the bridge over the Nuy river and as we captured the event on camera after
coming to a safe stop spot, the super blue moon was rising over the Breede
River valley.
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| Once in a super blue moon |
A super blue moon is quite a special lunar
event. It is three lunar phenomena all occurring at once. A simultaneous full
moon, a supermoon and a blue moon.
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| A road less traveled |
A full moon occurs when the moon is
directly opposite the sun with the Earth in between. When the moon is full, the
sun reflects off the moon’s surface and beams to Earth. It takes the moon about 27.3 days to complete
a revolution around the Earth.
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| A vygie scattered track |
The moon does not orbit around the Earth in
a perfect circle but does so in an elliptical fashion, which is always closer
to one end of the ellipse, never directly in the middle. This means that at
times the moon will be closer to the Earth on one end of the elongated circle
than it is at the other side. When a full moon is at the closest point to Earth
it is called a supermoon. The supermoon appears 14% larger and brighter in the
sky.
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| Loading stones in the meadows |
A blue moon is when two full moons occur in
the same month. The moon is not actually blue, but the phrase does inform the idiom
“once in a blue moon”, where an event happens very rarely. A blue moon occurs
because the moon’s orbit is slightly less than a full month, and two full moons
will occasionally take place within the same month.
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| Undiscovered horizons |
It was quite prophetic that the bakkie
should reach 500 000km once in a super blue moon. The more amazing thing is to
try and recall our journey spanning four decades to reach the 500 000km
milestone. The circumference of the earth is 40 075km that means that we
traveled an astonishing 12.5 times around the world.
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| A gravel road to adventure |
We bought the trusty bakkie as a new
vehicle in July 1996, making it 27 years old this year. Most of the kilometers registered
on the bakkie result from the process of restoring Towerwater. The bakkie
really worked hard over the 27 years. Carting loads of bricks, stone, terracotta
and slate floor tiles, wall tiles, wood, manure, broken pips, compost, plants,
furniture, art, ceramics, appliances, and everything else required to make
Towerwater what it is today.
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| The bakkie arriving at Towerwater with a load of fire wood |
Without the bakkie it would have been
impossible to do what we have done at Towerwater. Apart from bringing material
to Towerwater we also regularly cart tons of garden refuse to the local
municipal dump and recycling to the local recycle plant.
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| Wheat fields and big sky |
Luckily, the trips in the bakkie were not
all work and no play. We have taken time to explore the roads less traveled. We
have studied maps and found gravel roads that take us to places that we have
never before seen, finding architectural gems and charming complexes in the
middle of nowhere. The robust bakkie allowed us to take any road that
interested us.
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| Springbuck grazing in the veld |
Some trips gave us a glimpse of what William
John Burchell must have experienced on his explorations of Southern Africa in
1811 and 1812. This was just one of the many travelers that came to explore what
our amazing country had to offer in terms of fauna and flora.
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| Portion of a map circa 1781 |
Owning a classic (Southern African Veteran
and Vintage Association dating category Class G) Toyota bakkie allows one to
meet a lot of people. Wherever we might go with the bakkie there will always be
somebody that will admire and compliment the bakkie before enquiring if it
might be for sale. Our make of bakkie is very popular and there will always be
somebody hooting and giving a thumbs up as they drive past us on the road.
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| A pit stop on a road trip with the bakkie |
Unfortunately, not everybody is polite
enough to ask if they might buy. The bakkie has been stolen (or at least an
attempt to steal) 17 times. But we got it back every time. We usually always
found it immobilised within a kilometer radius from where it was stolen,
patiently waiting for us to take it home. The furthest the thieves got away
with it once was as far as a roadblock on the N2 (National Road) near
Swellendam after it had been stolen in Cape Town. Clearly, there is a guardian
angel looking out for us and the bakkie. Reaching 500 000km under the spectacle
of a super blue moon as proof of it, did not go unnoticed.
