Swellendam – How I found Infanta: Part (II) –

In Part I of “How I found Infanta,” I covered what set me off on the journey: I was evicted during the lockdown, so I hitchhiked in search of a place near a river where I could have access to water and build myself a shelter far from the cops, crooks, and anyone who could infect me with Covid. What I did not mention was; I was a nature guide and trip leader before the pandemic struck. I took guests from Cape Town through Namibia and Botswana to Zimbabwe on camping tours, and while I was not a bushcraft expert or survivalist, individuals who were, were never far from my thoughts. So when I got kicked out in the middle of a national hard lockdown, embracing the lifestyle was a necessity and an opportunity. 

I digress:

A Night in Swellendam 

I stood at the side of the road the next morning with a thumb up and my baggage hoping against the odds that a truck or pickup would stop for me. I did not believe that anybody in a car would pick me up because of the Covid scare, but despite my doubts, a car stopped for me on this day. 

In South Africa, most people only stop for you if you are waving a currency note. This gentleman refused to take any money from me and drove me to Swellendam. 

I knew there was a river close to that city, what I didn’t know, was that it was at the Infanta turn-off, and I also didn’t know it was more than 70 kilometers from Swellendam. 

My lift dropped me off along the southern extremes of the city. After getting my bearings, I realized that on the eastern side of the road, hidden from view by an embankment, was a township and that I was relatively far from the city center. So, after some cogitation, I decided that since the turn-off that led to the Breede river where I wanted to go was south of where I was, I would hike south. 

I crossed over to the eastern side of the road and started moving my bags south, keeping to the inside of the tree line. When I got to an intersection, I realized then that I was at the northmost extremes of the Swellendams industrial complex. 

I strained my eyes down the intersecting roads and realized that down the road going west, there was dense shrubbery on the corner of its second intersection. “Foliage is my friend,” I thought, and proceeded to relay my burdens to the western side of the road and then down the intersecting road for another block.

Darkness is My Friend

Remember, all this took time, as I only moved when there was no human or car in sight. When I reached this point of my journey for that day, it had been dark for almost three hours. Darkness was my friend too. 

My my source of motivation for the latter was: I feared getting picked up by the police for breaking the lockdown protocols. If that happened, my belongings would get wheels, and I would get dumped back at my housemate, and that was something I did not want to happen. If fate pointed events in that direction, I would write this story differently and not name it “How I found Infanta.”   

Contact!

While hiding my bags, I turned my flashlight on. At that moment – for all my efforts – I was discovered by elements on the wrong side of the law. “Hey!” I heard someone shout, followed by a stream of expletives delivered by another voice in a colored slang and accent and chorused by a third. I was as startled as they probably were. And then the fear gripped my chest. I bolted. 

Before I was fully aware, my brain had completed the math and concluded that this was not good: It was way past curfew, the time was close to 23h00, and never mind me. What were these guys doing outdoors? 

I soon realized that there were three of them, and they were calling out in gangster vernacular. There are three major gang hierarchies in South Africa, and the most murderous of them claimed the night as their own. 

Like A Deer in the Headlights 

They were coming at me from all angles. I had managed to leg it through the foliage into a marshy patch that sucked at my feet as I ran, slowing me down tremendously. When I got through the bush onto the road again, two of them came at me from the side. The third I could hear was thrashing through the marsh and bush in my wake, but getting close. These three individuals, it seemed, stood between me and my continued survival and the river near Infanta. Was I to fight or flee? I was not yet ready to die.

Stay tuned for more