Couple Departs For Stellenbosch; Returns Having Processed Several Unresolved Issues
R44 CORRIDOR — A Somerset West couple who set out for Stellenbosch on Saturday morning for what they described as “a quick trip to the market and maybe lunch” arrived home Sunday evening having experienced what relationship counsellors are calling “an involuntary intensive retreat.”
The couple, who asked not to be named but whose bakkie has been seen on the R44 enough times to be considered part of the road furniture, departed at nine-fifteen with the optimism that characterises all Somerset West Saturday morning departures and the wilful ignorance about R44 weekend traffic that also characterises them.
They reached the Firgrove turnoff at ten-forty.
“We talked,” said the driver, with the expression of a man who has talked more than he had planned to. “We talked about things we haven’t talked about since 2019. We talked about things we had specifically agreed not to talk about. We talked about the holiday in 2016. The car is very small when you’re on the R44 for an hour and a half.”
The R44 on a Saturday morning, flanked by wine farms owned by Europeans who are largely in the Netherlands and therefore not experiencing the traffic, has a quality of enforced intimacy that couples therapists charge considerable sums to replicate in a clinical environment. There is nowhere to go. There is nothing to do but sit, move slightly forward and talk or not talk and both options have consequences.
Several Gordon’s Bay residents who use the R44 regularly have reported unexpected personal breakthroughs while stationary near the Vergelegen turnoff. One man resolved a fifteen-year disagreement with his brother during a forty-minute delay near Firgrove in March. He does not recommend the R44 as a therapeutic tool but acknowledges it is effective.
The Stellenbosch market was closed when they arrived. They had lunch. It was fine. The drive back was quieter, in the way that things are quiet after something has been said. The R44 farms looked beautiful in the late afternoon light. Several swallows were visible, heading back toward Harbour Island, having apparently managed the journey more efficiently than anyone in a vehicle.
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