S1 - Ep 263 - Douglas - A Town at the Confluence of the Orange and Vaal Rivers!

It was once again one of those days where we only arrived at our overnight accommodation in Douglas late that evening because we got caught up at all our other stops throughout the day. The next morning we got an early start so we could see as much of Douglas as we could. It was raining on-and-off all morning, but that didn't slow us down one bit! We were very impressed with this town and found it very neat and organised. The highlight was our visit to the confluence of the Orange and Vaal Rivers. What a spectacle! This was amazing to see and a must-visit if you have not been there before. #DustBugs #adventuretravel #southafrica #southafricavlog #travelongravel #northerncape #douglas #hopetown
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[@phillipleboa5251]

THANK YOU for the EFFORT you guys are making for us to see all of this !!! Even though it is VERY SAD to see how things [ roads, parks, infrastructures, buildings, etc ] has DETORIATED, ARE BEING PLUNDERED AND NEGLECTED by the 'New South African Democracy of Freedom' [???] called the ANC - it is still HEART WARMING to see these wonderful places. Lotsa Hugs. :)

[@DustBugsTravel]

We're so happy to bring you these videos of our travels to this part of the Northern Cape! 😁🚗 We thought Douglas was a fantastic town. It may not have perfect roads, but the town has so much to offer its residents and we thoroughly enjoyed our overnight stay in town. 👌🏻🏡

[@trevormcvitty218]

​@@DustBugsTravel Bethulie

[@flodillon991]

Loved your accomadation very pretty, you can see they have a lot of water. All those trees all over fantastic. Where the two rivers meet astonishing. Thank you so much for this episode.

[@DustBugsTravel]

We really enjoyed our stay in Douglas, our accommodation was comfortable and we felt right at home! 🏡😍 When we approached the town, we only saw trees, which was a wonderful sight. The confluence of the Orange and the Vaal was a highlight for us nature lovers! I'm very happy you enjoyed it too! 🌊🚗

[@terrimeyer3815]

I was just as impressed with Douglas. The two rivers meeting was wonderful footage....as always fantastic...thank you 💕💓💕

[@DustBugsTravel]

We loved the confluence too, I'm so happy to hear you enjoyed the footage of those two forces of nature joining! 😍🌊 Douglas is a great town, we're so happy we got to visit. Thanks for coming along! 🚗😁

[@foxi-n2u]

My grandparents lived in Douglas. The mozzies chows you alive and it can get so hot that the tar melts. But it was a great place as a child. At night we would lie on the grass and watch the stars because it was too hot inside or sit on the stoep. It was great when it was your day to receive water, we would catch frogs in the leivoor, I don't know what it's called in English. In the olden days Douglas was a beautiful town, even had a zoo and a public swimming pool and nobody was allowed on the grass of the central park. I'm glad to see it's maintained and not looking too bad. It really is a town where everyone knows each other. I wish I was there to take you to the cool places, you missed the little Catholic church, and down the street you can get right down to the river. There by the campsite, sometimes huge monitor lizards jump out of the trees. It's quite a fright. I'm glad you drove past Pela Graca Friesian stud. The stables is fit for a king. I'd live there. Douglas is an interesting place for sure. I also think paying for something that should be open to all is disgusting. Thanks for showing it. 😊

[@DustBugsTravel]

We thought Douglas was a great place to visit! Luckily no mozzies the time we were there and it was high summer, so we lucked out big time by the sound of it! 🦟 You mention so many interesting things and I found the fact that no-one was allowed on the grass of the central park especially intriguing. It still seems to be the case today! We don't worry too much about anything we missed, we're just too grateful for all that we got to see and experience. Thank you for sharing all your memories of Douglas with us! 😁🚗

[@charlietreston4035]

Great to see railway working high school with great sports fields beautiful park Rhodes library love the iron work on stoep also the little caravan and market stall. Crossing the vaal River and orange River a real treat. Bet it's great camping by the vaal. Frestian horses are beautiful. Fantastic drone footage it's great you could drive right down to river's. Just a quick bit of information Friesian dialect spoken in the North of Holland is the closest language to old English. Thanks for showing me Douglas great video cheerio till the next one

[@DustBugsTravel]

Very interesting info about the Friesian dialect! I didn't know one gets Friesian horses and certainlly didn't know that there was a Friesian language either! You live and you learn, they say! 🐎🗣️ I'm glad you enjoyed driving down to the rivers with us, it was fantastic to see two mighty ones come together as one! I always have to smile when you notice the architecture of the buildings in a town we get to visit! 🏡🚗

[@ingeborgvanderveer789]

We even have our own Frisian national anthem as well as our own Frisian flag ! The actress Jane Fonda is probably the most famous girl from Frisian decent. That is, apart from our horses 😉

[@hannesvanniekerk9675]

Oh thank you for a lovely visit.

[@DustBugsTravel]

Our pleasure, I'm glad you enjoyed! 🤩🚗

[@jonathanhopkins4042]

It's interesting how fate works, I am also travelling to Douglas today, although its a very different Douglas. Douglas or Dhoolish in the original Manx is also at the confluence of two rivers the Dhoo and the Glass, neither of which compete with the majesty of the Vaal or the Orangel. I do enjoy your channel. Hearingy ou speak reminds me of the many good people we met during our four years in Southern Africa. We mainly stayed in Johannesburg and the Gaborone, however we did get the opportunity to travel, and visit some of the smaller towns like Craddock. Its 15 years since I was last there, your travels make we want to jump on a plane and hire a car. Thank you so much.

[@DustBugsTravel]

Wow! What an incredible series of coincidences, thank you for sharing your Douglas with us. I hope you have a safe and enjoyable trip. Any confluence, no matter the size of the rivers, is always impressive to see, so I'm sure the Dhoo and the Glass put up a show for those who come and look at them. 😍🌊 You've left our shores too long ago, it's high time you do jump on that plane and visit! ✈️🇿🇦 I hope you will give our best regards to Dhoolish today!

[@naughtydesigora]

Awesome I am a Saffa Manxie by DNA and residence....

[@1812nico]

Hi you two! Thank you for taking me on this cloudy trip. Cuppas ! And some gravel roads. And drone views with music. Three ticks on my list! This town again has a character of its own. It seems to be widely spaced with spacious garden areas around the houses, some of which are really beautiful. But it can not be denied that the potholed streets are neglected. I could not really make out if the station is in a good working condition, but the grain silos we saw must need grain trucks, of which there were quite a few. I am so glad that you decided go to the confluence, albeit at a price. Your wonderful aerial views really did justice to the two big rivers of our country -- in one shot. I is a spectacular sight! The farmers in the area must be grateful for the rain February has brought them. I am holding my breath for the next trip -- Keep safe!

[@DustBugsTravel]

I'll start with the roads. Since we prefer gravel any way, roads in poor condition don't jump out at us like they do at most, unless the potholes are really deep and dangerous. 🚗🛣️ The station appears to be in working order as far as the transportation of harvests and such to and from the silo's goes, but I'm not sure about the rest of it. It looked pretty desolate to me. 🤷🏼‍♂️🚉 We missed the Orange and Vaal in flood by about a week or ten days, I can only imagine the confluence now! 😱🌊

[@doraduplessis2727]

Thank you again for showing us all the little towns where we almost never get to. Have been to Douglas for a one-day fishing trip more than 20 years ago.

[@DustBugsTravel]

You're so very welcome! We look forward to showing you many more small towns and places! 🚗🛣️ That fishing trip sounds awesome, most probably the Vaal, but the Orange isn't a bad second option! 😁🎣

[@pietergroenewald6333]

I enjoy watching your videos. Ek bly ook in die Strand. Dit sal nice wees om julle te kan ontmoet. Groete.

[@DustBugsTravel]

I'm always happy to hear from a fellow Strand resident! And glad you enjoy our videos! 😁🚗 I run into some of our viewers almost every day while I'm out and about in Strand, Somerset West and Gordon's Bay, so perhaps that happens to us too one day. If you do see me, please let me know, it'll be great to meet you! 👌🏻

[@charlietreston4035]

Hi guys nice accommodation lovely garden great to

[@DustBugsTravel]

We were very happy with our accommodation too! 🚗🏡

[@benlubbe7875]

Beautifull! Thank you DustBugs Travel

[@DustBugsTravel]

Thank you, always happy to hear when you enjoy a video! 😁🚗

[@ronnykenny3965]

Beautiful town, those potholes are nothing new to me, East London's roads in Eastern Cape where our children live are just as bad but Douglas is really gorgeous, bad roads & all. Thank you, safe travels

[@DustBugsTravel]

I agree with you, Douglas is a pretty and green town. 🌳 We almost didn't even notice the roads and it's by no means the only place we've visited that have bad roads. 🤷🏼‍♂️🛣️ We found them a little bumpy, but completely passable. That's probably because we're used to bumpy gravel roads though! 😁🚗 I'm glad you came along today!

[@jontysdriver]

spectacular spot

[@DustBugsTravel]

Indeed, we loved Douglas too! 😍🚙

[@frederikbrits9559]

Between Hopetown and Douglas is Salt Lake, biggest refinery of table salt in SA, close where the 1866 Eureka diamond was discovered. Not sure if my national service buddy in the mid 70's Pierre Burger is still in town. Mooi video Curtis a Sonia

[@DustBugsTravel]

Thanks for the info about Salt Lake. I saw it on the map and I wanted to take the R385, but it was just too late already. It looks massive on Google Earth, so I completely understand that it's the biggest refinery in the country. 🧂 I'm glad you enjoyed visiting Douglas with us! It would be cool if your army buddy sees our video and, even more so, your comment! 😁🚗

[@lulamantshephe5595]

Looks like a peaceful, safe laid back town.

[@annawitter5161]

Lovely place you stayed in. Was it Air BNB? Nothing like coffee and Ouma for breakfast! Another beautiful town with all the trees. Enjoyed the station, with that magnificent sky in the background. Looks like an approaching donderstorm. It was awesome to see the river confluence. Rather a high entrance fee I would say. Hope the money goes towards keeping the area beautiful.

[@DustBugsTravel]

It was a stunning place we stayed at, we booked this one through Lekkeslaap. 🏡 The sky was rather grey and gloomy that morning, but the clouds are always so gorgeous! I'm so happy you appreciate cloudscapes too, no matter the weather. 🌧️ We were keen to see the confluence and picked paying R27.50 over a fight with the gatekeepers. And it was worth every penny of that amount to see these two mighty rivers join! 😍🌊

[@mariusroos]

Thank you for taking me there. Well done and spot on. I love your efforts

[@DustBugsTravel]

Thank you! We're happy travellers and are so glad you enjoy our videos of the places we get to visit! 😁🚙

[@davedevilliers]

Jo,the roads in Douglas.

[@DustBugsTravel]

If bad roads had to keep us from travelling, we wouldn't leave our house! 🤷🏼‍♂️🚗

[@PetraMyburgh-vr1kj]

Die mooiste gesig waar die Vaal en die Oranjerivier by mekaar aansluit. Dit is droommooi.

[@lulamantshephe5595]

Beautiful

[@desh7120]

I absolutely loved the drone footage 32:40 - I could stay floating up there for ages! The music accompaniment was perfect 😍 Were you given a ticket/receipt? Sounds to me as though he was chancing his luck. R20 per person seems excessive.

[@DustBugsTravel]

I'm glad you enjoyed the drone footage. It was rather rainy, so I took my chance for a few minutes! 🤩 We didn't get a receipt or ticket at the gate. As you saw, the gate was partially closed when we arrived, so I was certainly not going to strongarm my way in there. We wanted to see the confluence and ultimately saw it and that's all that counts in the end. Some folks in town did mention that they're negotiating with this community at the confluence to stop charging tourists, but clearly no breakthrough had been made by the time of our visit. 🤷🏼‍♂️🌊

[@deonzar]

It sounds like you had some very good distractions in Hopetown...mmmm...you should consider making say a short video of things that did not get into the episodes..Anyway...The roads around Douglas and surrounds are not to be driven late at night because of all the kudus...well that is how it was many years ago.. Any many years ago Douglas was a fine place and probably still is but seeing that you said nothing about the potholes I will also keep quiet.. 🙂. That confluence would look quite different today with all the water now coming down there. Next off to Campbell...lol

[@desh7120]

I had to bite my tongue as well 😐😶

[@DustBugsTravel]

@Deon Kotze Nope, no distractions. We just didn't keep quiet for a single second that day, so I opted to play music over our voices sometimes. 😇 Kudus and other animals on the road are one of the main reasons we don't drive at night. 😨 Douglas is still a fine place, let me tell you. It's the second time in five months that we missed the Orange (and now the Vaal too) in flood by a week to ten days. 🌊😳 On the one hand I'm grateful for still being able to travel on gravel, on the other I'd really like to see the rivers in flood one day! Onwards to the next stop! 🚗😁

[@munesumangava9751]

Beautiful cottage you stayed in….

[@DustBugsTravel]

Indeed, we were very comfortable that evening after a very long day on the road! 🚙🏡

[@VanessaBentley]

Wow, incredible footage of the rivers. Thanks for all your effort to show us these places that many of us don't get the opportunity to visit.

[@DustBugsTravel]

Thank you, we just had to go and see those two mighty rivers join and I"m glad we did! 🤩🌊 I believe it looks a little different today with all the water rushing down both rivers. We missed the heavy rains by a week to ten days, so we were still able to traverse the gravel roads in our little car. 🚗😳

[@BrendonSchaferCT]

Great vid. Looks like a place to go to. It was a place I was meant to go to during basics in Kimberley. '88 they had those floods. But I had the worst case of tonsillitis I've ever had and missed out on quite a lot. Thanks for showing us.

[@DustBugsTravel]

I'm glad you enjoyed our video of Douglas, it's a great town! 👌🏻🚗 It was rather interesting to read that you couldn't go to Douglas in 1988 because of the floods and I believe the town is on evacuation warning today because of both the Orange and Vaal pushing up. 😳🌊 Tonsillitis is no joke, Sonia used to get it every few years when she was a little younger, but she refused to have them taken out. 🤷🏼‍♂️

[@The_ElunduExpeditionProject]

The state of the roads!

[@DustBugsTravel]

The roads were indeed not great, but they were completely passable in our sedan. We actually only noticed how bad they were while I was editing. 🤷🏼‍♂️🛣️ Douglas is such a pretty town with more than enough other things to compensate for their roads. 😁🚙

[@ingeborgvanderveer789]

‘Fantastic’ en ‘stunning’ zijn mooie woorden om steeds weer uit jullie beider enthousiaste monden te horen. En het woord ‘stadig’, prachtig oud Nederlands om het tempo te duiden. Je kon bij ons ooit een boete krijgen als je niet stadig genoeg reed, met je auto of jawel, je paard 😅. Wat mooi, de stoethouderij met Friese paarden, ik ben ook van Friese afkomst maar dan op 2 benen 😊. De naam van de eigenaren is Steyn, zag ik op internet. Misschien nazaten van de oud president? Zou zomaar kunnen, zo vlakbij de rivieren Oranje en Vaal. Samevloeiing, ook weer mooi Afrikaans. Komisch dat jullie bijde poortwachters eenvoudig konden afdingen op de (inderdaad idiote) toegangsprijs. Fraaie drone film met heerlijke muziek, u heeft vele talenten qua creatief zijn. Fijn dat jullie steeds de overstromingen voor zijn. Keep safe, zodat we nog lang van jullie video’s kunnen genieten !

[@DustBugsTravel]

Thank you so much for your comment full of humour! I'm very happy to hear that you enjoyed our visit to Douglas! We were very enthusiastic about the town and the confluence, it was a great visit! 🤩🌊 Very interesting to hear that you're of Friesian descent, just like those beautiful horses we saw at the stud farm! 🐎 I have no idea whether the owner of the stud farm would be related to former President Steyn, I would imagine there is always a chance! 😁🚗

[@mariannaskontorp5545]

please tel me who make this beautiful music?

[@DustBugsTravel]

I'm so glad you enjoyed the tunes! 🎶🚗 I choose all the music from the KZbin Audio Library and the names of the artists and the tracks are usually listed below the description of the video. In this particular video, they are 'Recess' by TrackTribe and 'Raga-Dance of Music' by Aakash Gandhi. 👌🏻

[@munesumangava9751]

Looks like a storm is brewing!😳

[@DustBugsTravel]

The weather was overcast, but the really big rains only came a week or so later which caused both the Vaal and the Orange to rise. 🚙😨

[@barryrahn5957]

The rivers remind me of the Rio Grande and right before you enter Douglas it looks like North Texas. SA has a doppelganger in the US!

[@DustBugsTravel]

How interesting! 🇿🇦🇺🇸 I thought the Rio Grande would a much bigger river than the Vaal or Orange, so I found that very cool! 🌊😎

[@barryrahn5957]

@@DustBugsTravel Actually the Rio Grande is quite narrow in a lot of places. I've only seen it in a few areas and it was more like a big stream. I may have mentioned in another comment section, but a lot of the old SA architecture reminds me of Austrailian towns in the Outback : the same low slung buildings, the wide sidewalks covered from the punishing sun. Do eucalyptus trees grow in SA too?

[@DustBugsTravel]

Eucalyptus grow wildly here in South Africa, but are considered an alien and invasive plant species because they consume so much water and South Africa is naturally a very dry country. So they are eradicated in some areas, especially areas where water is extra scarce! 🌳

[@cecilmoult1592]

GSD's for the win.

[@DustBugsTravel]

There's no denying that they're gorgeous! 😍🐶

[@MichaelJones-lh1ug]

It is so sad to be able to tell when a person leaves a well run area for an area that is poorly managed. The roads are in such poor condition.

[@DustBugsTravel]

There is so much more to Douglas than bad roads though! 🤷🏼‍♂️🚗

[@MichaelJones-lh1ug]

@@DustBugsTravel I agree. I think it is just sad that they did not take care of everything and take Douglas to a higher level. I would love to visit this part of the world after watching your current episode, for which I thank you most sincerely.

[@joaomartins-mt9mg]

The roads are a disgrace...mismanagement at its best!

[@PetraMyburgh-vr1kj]

Michael, I fully agree with you. Sad.

[@doneB830]

150 mm piston stroke is the same as a six inch piston stroke.

[@DustBugsTravel]

Thanks for that, I didn't even know a train car has pistons! 🤷🏼‍♂️🚆

[@nelsonchinasamy9857]

Looks to be a once upon a time beautiful town. The general infrastructure seems be on a downwards spiral through neglect, noting surprising here if you look at the general state of South Africa today. The powers in control should be ashamed but those guys don't seem to have any conscience at all.

[@DustBugsTravel]

We found Douglas to be a town in fairly good shape still and a pretty one at that! 🌳🚗 The roads are in desperate need of repair, but otherwise we thought the town has a lot to offer its residents.

[@robertadams733]

Why do you never see the wife ?

[@DustBugsTravel]

Because the wife, also known as Sonia, isn't keen to be filmed. 🚙🥰

[@vkaitakirwa]

Could be a very nice town if their roads were not so ruined.

[@DustBugsTravel]

It is a very nice town, despite the bad roads! 🚗🛣️