The Burn For Beginners

ANN GADD heads into Tankwa Town in the Karoo to tick off an age-old item on her bucket list. The wild and wonderful celebrations of AfrikaBurn.

- Ann Gadd

I'm driving north on the longest piece of road in South Africa with no towns in between. It's the R355 — 215 kilometres of tyre-eating gravel. Just after Ceres, when the R46 and R355 split, it becomes a dirt road that continues unrelentingly through the Karoo to Calvinia. This road, I have been told, is the penance one pays for the pleasure that is AfrikaBurn.

We pass other 'Burners' changing shredded tyres. The road rolls out hot, with dust so thick at times it's hard to see, and my initial enthusiasm starts to wane. Here's where the dreaded Stofadilus flatulenticus and the klipvis — tyre demons deluxe — strike, leaving your tyres and your ego in tatters. (Local farmers offer repair services along the road during The Burn).

I've heard stories of wealthier participants flying in to the site of the event — a private farm called Stonehenge next to the Tankwa Karoo National Park — and avoiding this right of dusty passage. Right now, it seems like a splendid idea.

On we trek. Roughly 80 kilometres from Ceres, we find an oasis in the form of the Tankwa Padstal, owned by the Langes — Hein, Wally and wives Susan and Henrietta. Burnt to the ground by an arsonist in 2014, its resurrection is a heart-warming story of public generosity and participation.

Bikers, cyclists, Burners and the general public donated money, building supplies and a bizarre mix of items (from pitchforks to tractor parts), to create an eclectic general store, bar and restaurant that sells everything from relishes, to banjo strings, to hats, to boerie rolls. After an ice-cold brew has quenched my desert-parched throat, we continue north.