When a friend heard I was going to Verneuk Pan he insisted that I visit a small settlement called Granaatsboskolk. He gave me a GPS and the co-ordinates and sent me on my way rejoicing. Why, I hear you ask do you need co-ordinates? Well simple, look at the pictures and you decide how you know if you have found Granaatsboskolk.
And no, there isn’t a place called Lus 10. I couldn’t find it so I had to ask. It is the special cell phone station for the Sishen Saldhana Railway line.
By the way, the locals didn’t ask why I needed a GPS, they just wanted to know why this mad Englishman actually wanted to go to Granaatsboskolk.
Half way there I found a hill. Mind you in this type of country, a hill can be just a gentle rise in the road. This picture was taken from a rise that the road prudently went around. The hill was huge. At least 10 metres high and about 500 metres long.
That is the way back to Brandvlei.
And then I was there. Uhm, correction, I drove straight through the place and when the road curved which it hadn’t done much that day, I knew I had missed Granaatsboskolk. So I drove back. Checked the GPS and the road signage and decided where to stop. And this, ladies and gentlemen, is Granaatsboskolk. It is a cross roads, one clue that you have arrived.
Looking toward Brandvlei.
Off to Kakamas.
A Telkom installation.
The only dwelling in Granaatsboskolk.
And if you don’t have a GPS, how do you know you have made it? Simple really. The sign boards stop talking about it.