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, that I was a nature guide and trip leader before the pandemic struck. I drove guests from Cape Town through Namibia and Botswana, into 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 both 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 hybrid stopped for me on this day, and the driver was happy to let me sit in front.
In South Africa, most people only stop for you if you are waving a currency note. So me, a bit bashful, offered him a token payment. But such a gentleman was he that he refused to take any money from me and drove me to Swellendam for free.
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 Swellendam’s 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 me, I would hike in that direction.
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 Swellendam’s industrial complex.
I strained my eyes down the intersecting roads and realized that the one intersecting from the west, was lined with dense shrubbery. “Foliage is my friend,” I thought, and crossed the road again, to the western side of the main road and went for the safety of the bushes.
Darkness is My Friend
All this took time, because 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, and darkness, I decided, was my friend too.
My motivation for keeping a low profile was that 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 really did not want to happen. If fate pointed events in that direction, I would write this story differently and it would not be named “How I found Infanta.”
Contact!
Rafael Gonzales, Pexels – Dark City Outskirts
When I arrived at what I thought would be my destination for the night I could tell that I was in a rather deserted part of the Swellendam. “This,” I thought, “will work in my favor,” and I proceeded to hide my bags. Because it was pitch dark I turned my flashlight on and 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. This was even more alarming to me because I had knowledge of three major gang hierarchies in South Africa, and I knew that the most murderous of them claimed the night as their own.
Like A Deer in the Headlights
They came at me from all angles and the dark, whom I thought was my friend added to the disorientation. I legged 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 east. The third I could hear was thrashing through the bushy marsh 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? Admittedly, one of the things that slowed me down was the thoughts of my bag still in the bushes. I didn’t want to lose that – but I didn’t want to die either – not in Swellendam at least.
Stay tuned for more