June 6, 2021
Lord's Wine Farm, south of McGregor
It has been just over three weeks since the end of our second tour of the year through South Africa, most of which was spent catching up with family and work matters.
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However, at ten pm on the night of Monday the 17th of May (which just happened to be my sixty first birthday) my 'phone beeped to tell me that I had a message. Being that late at night, I ignored it so it was only at seven thirty the next morning that I discovered it was to tell me that I needed to report for the first of my two COVID-19 vaccinations at the Provincial Hospital in Port Elizabeth. The problem was that we were visiting my daughter and her family in East London, three hundred kilometers away.
All plans made for the week were promptly discarded and we hurried the old Landrover as fast as it could go to get us to Port Elizabeth. The scene at the hospital was reminiscent of South Africa's first democratic elections in 1994 with a long queue of patient people making new friends while they waited to be vaccinated. I was told to be available for my next shot in three weeks time so we were in a bit of a quandary as to how to occupy our time.
Initially we hung around in Port Elizabeth dealing with work matters but then Phizer issued a statement recommending a wait of twelve weeks between shots. The South African health regulator took the middle ground and mandated a six week wait. This meant we had a bit more time on our hands and with no news yet when Leigh's age group would be invited to be vaccinated we headed for the Western Cape.
Three days ago we arrived at the Lord's Wine Farm, just over ten kilometers south of McGregor, a picturesque little village on the south-eastern end of the Robertson Karoo. The simple room we had booked into had been kindly upgraded to the use of an entire house, at no extra cost to us. What's more, the farm's owners have generously allowed us to leave the Landrover and all our other bits and bobs at the house while we enjoy a mini cycle tour of the eastern side of the Robertson Karoo.
It is going to be good to be back on the bicycles again.
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