The Car-mad Namas

I am just back from a few days of holidaying in Concordia with my Uncle Albie (Boeta to me) and his family. It was quite sudden. He came by one evening with his family for supper and the next thing I know I am in Namaqualand, two years after my last visit.

Like last time, this was also a nostalgic trip, but with a difference. This was a trip about coming to terms with my childhood, making new memories, bonding with an estranged family, and most of all, having fun.
And fun I had. My car-mad, twenty-year old nephew, Heinie, is quite a sight to behold behind a wheel. His car-mad dad has had the same impact on him now as he did on me in the seventies. All he can talk about is cars and bikes. And the real revelation was how car-mad the rest of his friends are. If I wasn’t a petrol head myself, I would have fled their company long ago.


The highlight of the visit was me and Heinie dicing (with his father’s BMW 325i) with a BMW Shadowline 2.7 through the main street in Concordia. The Shadowline driver could not get past us and threw in the towel as we hooked up fourth gear!


The Saturday night there was a promise of a dice between a guy from Springbok with a turbo-charged Nissan 1400 bakkie, and a youngster with a normally aspirated, ported and gas-flowed Honda Ballade. It was a disappointed to find that we arrived too late for the dice, but I was even more horrified to learn that the Honda won. I was so sure the turbo-Nissan would have it for supper. Would have lost money on that one! We met up with them after the dice, the Honda still ticking hot and in need of oil. They were rather shy about where all that speed was coming from, and both the car and the engine looked dissappointingly "standard". As the car sped off, it was an unbelievable sight to see the exhaust spewing flames with each gearchange.

There aren’t that many bikes in Namaqaland. I was looking forward to meeting Werner, a friend of Heinie living and working in Aggeneys that rides (apart from a customised Mark I Golf), a prestine looking Suzuki GSX-R750 Pre-sling. Werner was at work when I came around, so I stole a few snaps of his spotless bike instead.


We don’t really know each other that well, Heinie and I, as we never had a chance to spent time together with me being in Cape Town while he grew up. I remember him as a stubby toddler, and all of a sudden I have this youthful testerone-charged ex-school rugby captain staring down at me. So it was a time to begin a new chapter in our family. A chapter that promises great fun.


Perhaps, as a testimony to that promise, Boeta committed to fix my neglected BMW 525 for me, provided I can get it down to Namaqualand. I was considering putting the poor thing out its misery in some car graveyard. But Boeta went to show me an almost rust-free 525 tucked away in a yard in Okiep. Provided we can by that car, I would have one neat Bee-Em someday soon.


Boeta is quite a slave-driver, having to help him in his garden all day long, and with all the car-madness, it was a challenge to find time for some peace and quiet. I spent an afternoon tracing my favourite walks through the veld and koppies around Okiep, but felt a bit detached. I was gone for so long, yet it seems like I never left. The overwhelming sense was how small everything looks. The mountains are lower, the vast plains shrinked, walks that seemed to take hours takes minutes. In the end, it was perhaps just a tribute to the child I am leaving behind. Live has taken me to borders beyond what I could ever imagined as a barefooted kid roaming through this shrub-veld.
I did not spent all that much time with Ouma in Okiep. And maybe that is fine, as I formed new bonds with other family members. But it is shocking to see how old she is getting. And fooling around with Lucille’s two kids, well, they are too cute for words. They are where I was 30 years ago, well physically at least. The influences of those times in Okiep molded me into what I am today. I can only wonder about the experience they have at the moment. I can only hope I am a positive influence on them.

I ended up back in Cape Town two days ago. Satisfyingly exhausted, I went blasting with Eddie around to Houtbay with the sunset; him on is new Bandit 400 Limited Edition, me on my “restoration aborted” Katana. What better way to bring closure to a quick, intense but wonderful getaway.


15 October 2004