Tag: N2

Nogulhas

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We gave up on going down to Agulhas this weekend. The thought of having to do the detour through Hermanus on the first weekend of the school holidays, together with my not shaking this damn virus (it’s not that virus, by the way, I did check), was just too much. Add to that the upcoming final exams and the thought of sharing a car for a few hours with an upcoming final examinee: it just seemed silly.

There’s also the issue of whether the Struisbaai road is open yet. No, says the municipality. But everyone’s using it. Including one guy in a Chevrolet Spark. And if one of them gets through, then you know it’s ok.

We’ll make a plan when we can make a plan.

So instead, we’re stuck at home, watching another “good, but not good enough” performance from United and not going to horse riding (not me), because it rained again last night and there’s just nowhere left for that water to go. I can’t really say that I was looking forward to going out though, so maybe not such a bad thing.

Another early night then, and let’s see if I can get myself mended.

The Journey

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The journey to (or from) Agulhas used to take 2 hours and 40 minutes. Every time. Exactly. You could set your watch by it.
Those days are gone now. Yesterday was close on 4 hours as the outrageous slings and arrows of roadworks, accidents and traffic made life about 1 hour and 20 minutes more difficult than it needed to be.

Once down past Napier though, it’s a whole new world. Open roads, open fields, and wildlife galore. Ostriches, including chicks, storks, baboons, grysbok and even a speedy caracal racing across the road in front of us. And the large evening light, bathing everything in watery primrose yellow.

I should have stopped so we could see and share these things (the caracal was long gone though, sorry), but every time, the destination takes precedent over the trip down here. It’s sad, because I think we miss a lot that way, but we either want to get here, or we don’t want to leave here, meaning that we have limited time to get back: stopping is not a favourable option.

Thus, what’s needed is a week here, and a planned slow drive down. Taking 8 hours to get here when you have fewer than 48 hours before you’re due home – ready to resume normal, stressful life – seems ridiculously wasteful. But 8 hours of different experiences to begin a week of relaxation seems to make complete sense.

So now all I need is a week off work. One that I’m not spending elsewhere, doing other exciting things, that is.

Sadly, that’s not happening anytime soon, but hey, we shouldn’t complain about such #FirstWorldProblems, right?

More average speed cameras coming for Cape Town?

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UPDATE: 6th October – this is now CONFIRMED

Eagle-eyed motorists will have noticed some new cameras going up on the N2 and the M3 in Cape Town. They’re on the footbridge at the Searle Street junction of the Nelson Mandela Boulevard in Woodstock, and then, heading further out of town, the footbridge on the M3 at UCT and the Main Road bridge over the Settlers Way bit of the N2.

I’m no expert in speed enforcement camera technology, but this has got ASOD written all over it:
Average Speed Over Distance.
What that means is that your number plate will be read by the camera and your journey from Woodstock to UCT (or Mowbray on the N2) and vice versa is going to be timed. Once they know how long it took you to get from A to B, it’s a simple matter to calculate how fast you were going. Since the speed limit on these bits of road is 80kph, if you average more than that, you’re going to be in trouble.

These schemes have already been used (successfully, we’re told) on the M5, the R27 and the infamous R61 near Beaufort West – the longest ASOD in the world at 72km.

Transport MEC Robin Carlisle’s office said: “Prior to the initial implementation on the R61 stretch from Beaufort West to Aberdeen, there had been a reported 509 crashes in total, 75 of which being fatal crashes resulting in the loss of 149 lives – this over the previous 12 years.
Since the implementation of Asod on the R61 stretch, we have received no reports of any fatal crashes on that stretch.”

And we were also told that this bit of road was one that they were going to be targeting in the future.

I don’t think that the rush hour traffic will be affected by this – you’re lucky if you can get up to 20kph, let alone 80. But that nice long hill down into town down Nelson Mandela Boulevard and the equally tempting dash down Hospital Bend on the way out are going to make this a big money spinner for the authorities out of hours.

Not that I’m saying that speeding motorists shouldn’t be prosecuted. Of course they should: they’re a danger to everyone around them. But given this quote from Carlisle:

“We’ll have a nice nanny state,” he said. “It’s going to be a pleasure to drive in the Western Cape once we’ve got these roads covered.”

I just wish that it wasn’t being done by such a smug twat.

Gabrielskloof

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Here’s somewhere we’ve driven past on many occasions and finally managed to drop in on: Gabrielskloof

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Just outside Bot Rivier on the N2 – beyond the Hermanus turn, but before the over-rated Dassiesfontein – it’s a wine and olive estate, has viewz for dayz and serves up some pretty amazing food, by all accounts.

It was a bit early for lunch,  so I had the food pairing with some of their red wines and Mrs 6000 did the wine and chocolate pairing, R70 & R60 respectively. Both were superb.

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I’ll put the full details of what was what on here once I’m back in Cape Town (taking a photo being easier than documenting the tasting menu any other way).
UPDATE: Here it is! 

We had a quick look at the restaurant: fairly kid friendly and the food looked fantastic; we’ll give it a go next time.

Cape Party in Sense Of Humour Shock

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We’ve had “a few” run ins with the Cape Party over the years here on 6000.co.za.

We suggested that they wanted to turn the Cape into France:

Normandy is a bit out of proportion, but that Southern coast looks dangerously familiar.

We questioned where they got their logo from:

Did all three of them sit down and have a meeting about it? Was it a rough doodle? Or was there some other source?

And then we roundly mocked them when they did badly in the 2011 elections:

It’s not just me, it’s the entirety of the Western Cape that thinks your idea is a bad idea.

But fair play to the Cape Party, when the wicked weather over the Eastern Cape effectively removed a large chunk of the N2, they stepped in with this comment:

 

Nice try, guys. Nice try.
Keep dreaming.