Time travelling with Artie

One of the movies I recall fondly from my youth is If It’s Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium (go, Google it) … as much for the title as for the fact it starred the utterly delectable Suzanne Pleshette. Sometimes, as a travel and road tripping journalist, I don’t – as the phrase goes – know my arse from my elbow.

It has been a hectic couple of months but this week, even by my own lofty standards, my discombobulation reached new heights.

Everyone who has missed a flight and suffered the consequence vows never to repeat the experience and gets to the airport on time or even early for check-in. I’m one of those folk. But never have I arrived at an airport a full day before I was due to depart – that is until Wednesday this week.

Unexpected change of plans

I’d been at Cape Town international on Tuesday to drop off my girlfriend for her flight home to the Eastern Cape, before racing home to Stellenbosch because I had to hand back a test car and pack (as discreetly as possible because my cats abhor the sight of my suitcases) for a week-long trip to the northern Drakensberg.

Actually, I was quite pee’d off with myself for not allowing more time to get my life squared away.

“Mr Freeman, you’re only supposed to be flying tomorrow,” said the amused check-in staffer at the Airlink counter.

I’d woken at sparrow’s to finish packing, check my camera gear and strap the lot – including Artie, the cutest-ever bat-eared fox stuffed toy I bought in Botswana last year – onto my motorcycle for an extremely chilly peak-hour run to the airport.

I listened to the Airlink lady’s words and thought: “Sod this, I’m not going through this again tomorrow.” So I forked out R2 289 and caught the flight anyway. That was the easy a bit.

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Embracing the road less traveled

Luckily, the fleet manager for Suzuki Auto SA is used to journalists being numpties and brought my booking for the new Grand Vitara forward by a day.

Ditto the marketing crew for Dream Hotels and Resorts at whose Little Switzerland family hideaway outside Bergville I was scheduled to start my (now) seven day-long journey to “The Kingdom”.

Artie and I got seriously gatvol of trucks and tollbooths and departed the N3 at Warden to take the scenic route via the R714 (Bethlehem) and R57 (Kestell-Phuthaditjhaba), before returning to the R712 (Harrismith) and, ultimately, the R74 past Sterkfontein Dam and the Oliviershoek Pass.

Exploring hidden gems and home comforts

Expect a lot more stories from this region in Saturday Citizen Travel over the next few weeks. I couldn’t resist detouring into Kestell, primarily because its sandstone Dutch Reformed Church steeple, pictured, was glowing warmly in the late afternoon Free State light.

According to Wikipedia, the stately church was designed by the same architect who did the Voortrekker Monument, Gerard Moerdijk, and was inaugurated on 31 March 1928.

I was delighted when checking in to my chalet at Little Switzerland that the in-room television featured a DSTV bouquet which allowed me to watch Man City’s penultimate 2022-23 Premiership game against Brighton.

This would usually not bear a mention, but I’m getting seriously irritated by hotels and lodges that only offer Internet-based TV offerings such as Netflix that require your own subscription.

TV preferences and complimentary quibbles

I’ve stayed at several plush and pricey establishments recently, and it seems this is becoming the norm rather than the exception.

I don’t have a TV on the farm and watching City on a big screen rather than streaming audio from my phone is something of a travel luxury.

Another travel bugbear is the carafe of “complimentary” sherry that greets you when you enter your room: they’re charging you the same amount every day of your stay, so why can’t they refill the damn thing each morning?

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