Foods the Journey, Enjoy the Ride

The sun is shinning, the cloudless sky is deep blue and we are surrounded by rolling hills. Mom lovingly passes around her homemade biscuits and cold pork sausages. Dad has a smile of content on his face as he sips from a plastic cup filled with warm, sugary flask tea. My siblings and I are in heaven, we are allowed our own cans of soft drink, for once not having to share one can three ways. It’s a perfect day for a picnic. If only we were on a picnic. It’s the December holidays and we are making the great Joberg to Plet trek. 

As South Africans, we are very fortunate to live in a country that is stunning. But with its beauty comes its vastness and it usually takes a few good hours to get anywhere. Often on these journeys, sounds of wild animals echo from ones stomach and that’s when the tradition of Padkos comes to mind. Padkos is translated into road food and was a concept pioneered by the Voortrekkers when they made their historic Drakensburg crossing.

The preparation of Padkos was a kind of ritual in my family. The night before our departure, Mom could be found in the kitchen carefully wrapping up mysterious tin foil food parcels for the days of travelling ahead. My siblings and I were in high spirits because Grandmas famous car goodie bags were stowed away in the bakkie.

At the crack of dawn the next morning we were on our way. With crusty eyes my sister was already car sick and my brother and I were demolishing our goodie bags whole. Forgetting about the colouring books and magnetic board games, we dived into the morish treats. A whole packet of hum bug sweets, sticky chocolate brownies, dry wors sticks and semi dried peach halves. Soon after, my Dad would be pleading starvation and soft bacon and chutney rolls would be passed round. A serious revelation. Throughout the rest of the road trip many more delicious parcels would make their rounds; sticky chicken drumsticks, Cornish pasties, a huge bag of sweeties and let’s not forget banana bread. 

With the divine aside, a word needs to be said about the less attractive side of Padkos. On occasion scary egg mayonnaise sarmies would emerge. I don’t think this was a good idea what with the sulphuric qualities of egg, causing innocent moments of denial and accusations. Today the joy of having a cold in-car beverage is made real by portable cooler boxes kept cold by the cigarette lighter. Back then it was the Karoo and a hot ‘cold drink’. It was like pouring syrupy acid or orange flavoured lava down your throat. And then, there in the distance a structure is spotted. Through the blazing heat and shimmering tarmac, emerges a petrol station with a shop. We have to stop at least to relieve near bursting bladders and Mom can be seen dragging three savage looking children away from the fridges filled with ice cold drinks. Terrible words escape her mouth; ‘We have enough in the car’. 

Last year my husband and I embarked on our first holiday together without the rest of the family. The decided destination was Jeffery’s. Thinking Padkos was to old school, the plan was to stop at the four or five petrol stations on the way if we got hungry. Armed with a bottle of water and a half gnawed rusk we set out. With breakfast long past its expiry date, we thought that at least one petrol station passing Bloem would be empty. How stupid were we? It was December and everyone living in Joberg was also going down to the coast. We stood in an extremely long queue outside a fast food establishment and an hour later we finally got our watery, cold coffee and a stale, 100% beef flavoured burger. Left with serious indigestion and dripping with envy I looked at the other families eating from tin foil parcels made with love and with tears in my eyes, I swore never to leave home again without the old favourite, Padkos.