campbell, in the Northern Cape province of south africa is about 60 miles (100 km) due west of Kimberley along route 8. This photo was taken from northeast of the town. We camped here for a few weeks back in 1986, having moved on from Reivilo and Taung.
Although not marked on Google Maps, campbell is famous for Bartlett's Church, built in 1831. It is one of the oldest churches north of the Orange river and both Reverends Robert Moffat and David Livingstone preached from it's pulpit. Moffat became Livingstone's father-in-law when Livingstone joined him in missionary work in this general area and marries Moffat's daughter, Mary.
Bartlett's church is not the white-walled red-roofed church in this photo. If my memory serves me, Bartlett's Church is behind the tallest stand of trees to the left of the red-roofed church. Strangely, I don't have a photo of it.
The reason I came to capture this image was because I'd just learned a lesson in complacency. In Libya it was drilled into you (and you duly drilled it into those who followed) to check everything about the vehicle. The relatively populous region of the Northern Cape and North West provinces belied the value of a quick check before setting off on a journey.
I'd been humming along the dirt road that runs through the lower part of the frame when suddenly the hood (bonnet) of my hilux just lifted up and crashed back into the windshield! I was stunned. Stunned and blinded. Where was the road?
I gingerly applied the brakes, not so hard as to lock the wheels on the dirt surface but as hard as I dared and tried to pilot my way by looking at the edge of the road as the vehicle slowed.
Fortunately I knew there was nothing coming towards me because there had been no trails of dust approaching before my world went dark.
When I pulled to a stop I was able to close the hood once more. It latched fine and the mechanics never found anything wrong with it. So I guess it was never latched and if that was the case, I'd have noticed that if I'd performed a routine check before setting off.
As I stood there, looking around, I noticed this view and since I had my camera with me, I took a couple of shots.
When I was in campbell, the town had no electricity. The townsfolk were hopeful they might get electricity in 1988 or 89. The locals thought it strange when we were camped there with all our bright lights powered by our generator. Pumping gas by hand from the general store in town was never fun so within our first week we sent a mechanic out to Kimberley to buy a portable generator and donated it to the general store's owner so he could power the gas pump. I'm not sure who was happier, us or the store owner!
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