19th May 2013

1^st May 2013   

Well here we are again.  Still in South Africa! and still trying to leave  but ‘They’ won’t let us!

After we left Annie’s place we drove down to Mossel Bay and had quite a surprise as we came across a railway yard that was crammed full of the rolling stock from the railway that I wrote about in the last blog.

This will be a special ‘blog’ bulletin and I really would like to make time and write about that, with lots of pictures.First, I must continue with our travels. We drove up to an area of South Africa known as the Little Karoo. It is a really interesting and picturesque part of the world.

What are you lookin at ?

Having driven up through the mountains, we eventually found ourselves passing the Ostrich farms for which the area is famous and then went to stay at a campsite of sorts. It was an odd and quite idiosyncratic place, run by a German woman who has set up as a so called eco-lodge, which is made largely of bamboo structures set out on stepped ledges. All the guests were also from Germany so we found ourselves in abit of a transient German speaking colony.

We moved on through the Karoo and found more abandoned railway, which eventually ended in Calitzdorp Station which is now a campsite!  We drove there and it looked so good but it was closed and deserted.    

The station was completely intact but for the drawing pin!

I was quite disappointed but we continued on to Warmwaterburg stopping for a short time at Ronnies Sex Shop. Warmwaterburg had been recommended to us as it has a hot spring bath. Wow! Never done anything like that before.  The location was stunning surrounded by mountains and wonderful semi desert .You just sit up to your neck in hot water and take it all in.There is hot water in every tap and interestingly even the toilet systern are filled with warm water which is a bit weird. Also it appears that the water is fairly heavily laden with iron as nearly everything looks rusty.We spent a happy couple of days in this happy well run place. The water I think was once thought to cure everything but now it it is a very pleasant experience.

Once we left  Warmwaterburg we drove on ad during the course of the day I became aware of a smell that was pervading the van. It was familiar but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. It was however definitely there.Then it came to me, it was the same smell as comes from the angle grinder when cutting iron and steel. I was really worried as there were no awful sounds coming from the van but it stank of iron oxide. It was after an hour or so worrying that I realised that we both stank of rust as we had been soaking in the spa bath for a couple of days, this was mixed blessing as we now could relax about the source of the smell but we really couldn’t carry on all day stinking of scrap iron.

Oh by the way, Ronnies Sex Shop deserves a better description. It is quite famous locally . Locally requires liberal interpretation as it is really in the middle of the desert.

The best chips ever are to be had here!

It is actually a rather quirky café. The story goes that the building called Ronnie’s shop was being renovated  and some bright spark added the word sex to the name Ronnie’s Shop while it stood empty.  Far from being outraged Ronnie decided to leave it be; now it is a regular haunt for bikers as well as tourists.  The place itself is adorned with underwears and other souvenirs donated by customers. It also serves up really quite good food. The chips are really the best I have had since Burrows fish shop in East Acton closed down.

So there you have it.

Puncture number 11 . Repair supervised by Fritz the Rotweiller

It was around this time that we found puncture #11. Not only was the tyre flat but on closer examination I found that it had worn bald in one place, this meant that the tyre was breaking up from the inside. This the 3^rd one to really break up. Fury does not describe how I feel about Vass and Co in Bedfordshire who flogged me a dud set of tyres knowing what type of journey we were embarking on!

We had been invited by our new friends Ken and Betty Moore who we met in Swaziland, to visit them at home when we got to their town.

I resisted phoning them to make an arrangement as we have found that time estimates are really impossible. So I said let’s be sure that we are in an easy distance and then phone.  I spoke to Betty from a place called Gansbaai  to be told by a quite puzzled Betty that Gansbaai is only about half an hour away!

So we took a drive down and went to visit. We spent a couple of days staying with them in the lovely town of Hermanus. Ken and Betty are wonderful hosts and incredibly knowledgeable about their area. They looked after us really well and ensured that we had a very pleasant and interesting time. We had difficulty explaining that we would like to have stayed longer but by now we really have to get going.

Dinner and such hospitality

Ken and Betty being very generous hosts, took us to a very significant place. They took us to Cape L'Agulhas, which is the most southerly point of Africa.

This is as far South as we were going today

We had for various reasons driven away from here  but it really does herald the halfway mark of our travels. Ken explained that the Portuguese name describes how Vasco Da Gama‘s compass had apparently gone crazy and led them astray when in fact all it did was indicate that they were no longer travelling South but were now going East.

Ken works running whale watching boat tours and what he doesn’t know about marine life in the area is probably not worth knowing. And although this is not the whale season we still learnt a lot from him.

Ken Moore Whale man extraordiaire

TYRES!

I really had to do something about tyres but found to my horror that replacing the tyres like for like for those already on the van would be prohibitively expensive.

Ken introduced me to a dealer who was able to advise on alternatives. I am afraid that I fudged the issue and decided to continue before making a decision.

8^th May2013 - So we set off to Cape Town.  Ken advised us that if we wanted to meet some African Penguins we should go to a place called Betty’s Bay. Apparently in the famous location near Cape Town there is   a proportion of 250 tourists watching about 8 penguins whereas at Betty’s Bay this proportion was reversed . Actually we had such an interesting time almost the only people gazing at hundreds of nesting penguins as well as lots of chicks it was in a lovely location too. Really great.

P  P  P Pick up a  Kit Kat

That evening we arrived in a seaside town with the unlikely name of Fishhoek, just outside Cape Town .There was a campsite there. It was run by the local council and we were greeted by a security guard who told us that the office is closed.  He was clearly in charge of a boom gate so I said (quite reasonably, I felt), ‘no problem, let us in and we can pay in the morning’.

‘Nope you have to have proof that you have paid before I can let you in’ he said.

‘But I don’t have proof because I haven’t paid yet’.

‘Then you can’t come in’. 

We to,d and fro,d like this for a while.

He then said, ‘ring the number on the gate ‘

I said, ‘It’s an answering machine’

‘Yes, that because the office is closed ‘ he said.

Eventually, I said ‘Ok, no problem, we can camp here in the car park’.

‘No you can’t do that’

‘Yes I can and I will’  ‘

‘No you won’t’ 

Yes I will etc etc .

Camping outside an empty campsite

I then tried to move things on a bit by saying. ‘What would you do?  Either I am allowed to go into this official campsite which is almost empty or I park outside in the car park’. This went on for a while so we decided to set up camp outside the entrance. He got his supervisor on the phone and I had a similar conversation which ended with ‘I will be with you in a few minutes’.

The supervisor never showed up and in the meantime we each went into the campsite and had a lovely hot shower, undetected. Ping cooked us a lovely dinner and then we went to sleep.  Woke up the next morning had breakfast and packed up and left. What a daft set up but not as daft as what happened a bit later! 

We set off for a trip up Table Mountain, and drove up to a toll road that had a height restriction boom. We drove under it and it just touched the roof of the van. The man would not let us go through. I said ok but what other route is there. The guy was evidently baffled by this question, so we were left to work it out for ourselves. 

That was silly enough until at the end of the day we were driving out of the City and took a route that took us along a particularly nice drive along the coast. Once again we found that it was a toll road. We had a row with the person in the booth who refused to accept that the van is a camper and not a commercial truck. I quickly got into a rather pointless and upsetting nose to nose conflict with her. Her supervisor refused to leave the office to deal with it. The result was I paid the much higher rate after about 20 minutes of nonsense.

The roadway is carved into the cliff  I guess it must be the same heights both ways.

We drove along the scenic and beautiful road which was carved into the cliff face.  I did start to wonder about the height of the rocks above our head but we continued. Then blow me - a man popped out in front of us and demanded to see our receipt for the toll. Of course in the short time the receipt had gone AWOL. I was not surprisingly getting a little bit irritated. Eventually the ticket was found and we pressed on, rounded a corner and found ourselves driving up, from the other side this time to the boom we had not been allowed to pass earlier. There was no indication at the toll booth that there was any kind of height restriction. Apparently it only applies in one direction.

What is important is that we had a really great day up the Table Mountain celebrating Ping’s birthday. ‘Best birthday ever’ she said. The cable car ride up the mountain was thrilling and it was absolutely lovely at the top, magnificent views and very good walking trails, making it truly one of the new wonders of the world.

On top of Table Mountain that's me on the right

TYRES! 
Now, I was still worried about the bloody tyres so again I went to a reputable tyre company, and had a long and very helpful consultation with Gavin who clearly knows his stuff. He first of all looked at our tyres and without prompting he was able to read the date code and told us that the tyres were over 12 years old and really shouldn’t be used. This was before I had told him all our tales of tyre woe. He again enquired about replacing like with like. They were again hideously expensive and would take several days to arrive. He also said that he felt that the design is really rather dated and gave us a quote for a set of better tyres. We were sufficiently impressed by his knowledge and agreed to spend a stonking amount of money on a new set. Once they were fitted, I felt an immediate sense of relief. Once again having added Gavin to our list of nice new friends, we drove away.

The cape of Good Hope with Ant Helen and Ping  That's me on the right

This really is the Cape

The next day we met up with some friends whom we had met at The Wild Spirit Lodge.  We spent a wonderful day with Helen and Ant, visiting the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point. In fact, we had such a good time that we ended up leaving the National Park rather late, and got shouted at by the park security officer who threatened us with a 1000 Rand fine!

BLOODY TYRES!

Having made our apologies to the man at the gate of the National Park, we headed back to Cape Town on the motorway. After driving for about an hour and almost exactly 24hours after our new tyres were fitted we had a double blowout! The first one we changed the wheel in the dark, on the motorway and very, very ticked off, we drove on. Ten minutes later the second one burst. And I now no longer had a spare to use and serious sense of humour failure! 
As might be imagined, we were pretty cheesed off. I called the AA (South Africa).I explained that a clause in my insurance gave us breakdown cover. The operator was very helpful and clearly identified with our special circumstances.(ie we live in the van). 

Unfortunately he put me without my knowledge on a conference call with the insurance company. I was on a conference call to a woman, who in my opinion was unusually unsuited to deal with the public on the phone. She insisted that “we are not covered for breakdown”. …but then went on to a rather bizarre tac  that a double puncture was classed as an accident and therefore she was only able to have us towed to a garage which is not bad as she reckons we are not covered at all.

I was on the phone for about 40 minutes and getting pretty irate while the helpful man at the AA managed to elicit that as I am a member in the UK and on that basis agreed to send us a garage and covered the cost. It was cold and dark and I was unhappy. I decided that I would see if I could remove the tyre and put in a new tube. I have watched enough people doing this after all and I did have everything that was needed to do the job.

JP and me struggling with the repaired wheel

Had just got the tyre off when the garage arrived. JP, for that was his name said that he would only be able to tow us,  but he then started to help me to fix the tyre. He explained that he hadn’t done this before either, but his help was invaluable and between us we got it done. In all, we were at the roadside for about 3 hours. Ping rustled up dinner and tea for everyone in the meantime.We returned to the campsite at 1am, having woken the security man to open the gate.

The next day was Sunday,so we could not go to the tyre shop, instead we put our feet up and had a much needed rest.

A nice Braai on our day off actually we had T bone steak that could not be beaten

On Monday, we went to see Gavin.  To his credit he was horrified to hear about this.  However, this didn’t stop Ping giving him what for!  Any how I eventually managed to pull her off him.  She was drooling a bit and had a very unpleasant gleam in her eye!

On examination it was found that the tubes were defective they had split along their length which should not happen. Gavin suddenly turned his attention to the realisation that he has a contract to fix ‘Cash in transit’ vans and that a number of tubes from this batch had been used for them. He had to arrange for all their vans to be recalled. It further emerged that this whole thing was probably caused by some kind of fraud  where the tubes had somehow been substituted.

Ripped inner tubes

While the tyres were being changed it was discovered that the drive shaft covers were split and need to be replaced. So that was our job for the next day. Not too bad,  as I have a complete set  which we brought with us.

We went to a specialist shop who set about the job and then said that the spares I had would not fit. Ahwell!  They had others and did the job in just one hour. So the next day we set of on our final leg in South Africa .  I am sorry to say that by now we are really both feeling the strain a bit. Having had one disaster too many. Not sure how we will respond to more problems. But we pressed on!

As we do press on we stopped at yet another local authority campsite and our 'neighbour' has come up to us and by way of introduction, he presented us with two huge (the size of small lobsters) crayfish, freshly cooked. It was such a lovely gesture and good eating too!

Tomorrow 

So Let's round up a bit.

As I write we have just had lunch in a café quite a long way from anywhere. It was an odd experience helped a long by a particularly humourless lady. The food was an all day breakfast and  it was ok but really nothing great. However the caff itself was an experience .

It was a café, O.K. it was also a wool shop and clearly stocked anything and everything needed for knitting. It was also a temple to Kittens!  All around were huge murals and tapestries depicting kittens in all their cuteness. They sell jig saws and lots of other things including all manner of pretty souvenirs. Bibles were there too and a background of New age music. A huge  TV screen  showing a boxing match in every gory detail. An idiosynchratic array!

South Africa has,  you may realise has really captured our attention. It is a really surprising place. It was very difficult to come here without some preconceived images based on past politics.

Our first experience was of course The Shoestrings Lodge in Johannesburg where we had a warm welcome and now we have new and firm friends.

Tabitha ad Ping at the Shoestring

The Kruger was such an extraordinary experience not easily put aside.

But the country and the people has been an education. This is a place where political correctness has no real place. Where  people express their views frankly when asked without fear of offence. The level of expressed mutual respect among the people we have met, is striking.

Nobel prize winners

If you walk through any of the numerous shopping malls  you will see people of all classes and colours  going about their business with noticeable humour It is quite normal that any kind of contact is accompanied by a greeting, people rarely walk past another without some acknowledgment or greeting.

It is not appropriate for me to comment on deeper issues and I have no place to criticise. So I don’t . One might feel that my viewpoint is naïve and it really is taken from the standpoint of a wide eyed visitor. What I find is that there are still wide ranging views of how things should be and indeed how they might have been. It is interesting that almost everyone I have met speaks in terms of great respect about Nelson Mandela, FW de Klerk and Archbishop Tutu. So something has been got right. It is also interesting that nearly everyone I have spoken to black and white has said that the same things need to change in order for the country to move happily forward.

• Stop once and for all political patronage and corruption
• End positive action
• Take drastic steps to reduce the levels of criminal violence and the fear of same.

There are nevertheless all kinds of other issues including grinding poverty still in some quarters, that need to be addressed but these are fundamental and are stifling growth and development.

I have addressed these matters here only because they are impossible to ignore I have no intention to make further political comment. I may do that in private and when I feel qualified to do so. I do however genuinely feel that this country has a huge amount to shout about and to teach the world. I am unsure if many South Africans realise that yet.

Now onto the important stuff. It is with great relief that I find that along with ‘political correctness ‘ The wholemeal police ‘have not yet landed on these shores, Hooray!  There seems to be a Wimpy on every corner and a ‘Milky Lane’ in every mall, lovely milkshakes and ice cream!  The very first bowl of Kellogs I had in South Africa had full fat milk in it. It was a  gorgeous surprise. If you go to a supermarket and ask for wholemeal bread someone will quietly take you aside and suggest you might alter your  expectations a bit and please keep your voice down. We had one difficult situation when Ping went up to the bakery counter and asked for a granary loaf!Concerned for the reputation of the store someone called security and it took me some time to persuade them that it was all a horrid misunderstanding and that 4 loaves of the white stuff that sticks to the roof of your mouth is what we really wanted. This seemed to satisfy honour. 

Nice Food

Apparently , we learned later there are certain shops , if you know where to go where they do keep  a few loaves of wholemeal under the counter for ‘special’ customers.(The editor has allowed for this small piece of imagination, as she's been able to locate delicious, seeded wholemeal bread and 2%fat milk which Noel has had to accept)

As overland travellers it is always difficult to deal with the inevitable question ‘Which is the best country you have been to. This is because we are travelling for its own sake and all our experiences are part of that patch work.

Having said all that,  our time in South Africa has been far longer than we ever intended. We have had experiences that we could only ever imagine. We have met kindness friendliness and respect at all levels. We have met with old friends  Most importantly we have made new friends that we shall always remember.

Friendly doves

As I write this I am sitting in the glow of the braai (BBQ) as the sun sets and it is like something out of one of those old Disney films. There are two pairs of doves mooching around my feet having their dinner, completely undeterred  by my presence, a small flock of brightly coloured finches have landed a few feet away. You really couldn’t make this up - a mongoose has just stepped into view clearly looking for food. Two huge shiny black beetles are passing through.  A couple of bright yellow birds are circling close by.  Stone me  the neighbour's jack Russell is now sitting on my foot staring balefully at me.

Do you think I should buy a gun?  I feel like a cross between Snow White and the Pied Piper!

Anyway It is time to get up close and personal :

Ken + Betty thank you for your hospitality and for you patience and fortitude in dealing with our inadequacies as tourists

Sheryl + Gary thank you for your generosity and good humour  we very much enjoyed staying with you.
Susan, thanks for introducing us to Sheryl and Gary

Rob, Thabitha and Jackie at The Gstrings ,+ backstabbers  Shoestrings Backpackers Lodge. We are coming to take over !

Have you met Rob?

We have just arrived in Namibia - not sure about access to wifi, but we are feeling very cut off form home. Please, please keep the emails coming!

Love
Ping and Noel

pingbow54@gmail.com
noelbow51@gmail.com

5th May 2013

Swaziland

Swaziland is the smallest country in the Southern Hemisphere. It is bordered on 3 sides by South Africa and on the fourth by Mozambique. It has a warm sub tropical climate, a rural economy mainly based on agriculture. The rich fertile valleys are dominated by acres and acres of sugar cane fields. In spite of being a poor country, it is a truly beautiful kingdom ruled by King Mswati III. The Swazi people are open and friendly. We enjoyed our brief stay in this relaxed friendly place where the culture is markedly different from that of South Africa.

Snakes

We spoke of the wildlife in our campsite in Swaziland in our last blog but just before we left we had a visitor in our camp. I spotted a chameleon on the ground, it certainly had every appearance of being dead and thought little more of it until a short while later where there was a bit of excitement as a snake had appeared. No one, including the rangers, were sure what it was or if it presented any danger.

I have always had a bit of an interest in snakes and I find that I am more interested than afraid. This specimen appeared quite agitated and unhappy about the attention it was getting with people edging closer and taking pictures. Eventually, one of the rangers got a pair of lazy tong, caught it and took it out to the bush for release.

I have no idea what the story was but I noticed my dead chameleon had gone!

We looked up the snake in a book and found this about the Twig snake. Or that is what it was:

“The Zulus believed that this snake strikes and wounds like a spear because of the blinding speed of the strike.
It seldom bites unless provoked, moving gracefully and swiftly when disturbed.
Although it is a timid snake, it will inflate its neck to display the bright skin between scales when threatened, followed by lunging strikes while the bright tongue flickers in a wavy motion.
Although often called bird snakes, they prey largely on chameleons and lizards but small birds are frequently eaten by larger specimens of 1.5 meters long. Their grey-green blotched coloring blends perfectly with foliage in which they lie motionless for hours.
Venom
Slow-acting Haematoxic, acting on the blood, disabling the clotting process and causing internal and external bleeding.
Symptoms typically occur 24-48 hours after being bitten. Venom is similar to that of the boomslang, nevertheless potentially dangerous. A number of deaths have been recorded. Bites are rare.
                           At present no antivenom is available.

One very cross Twig Snake

Duly despatched, alive, back to the bush, still cross!

I have to say that I got very close to take a photo of this little fella.  Ah well!

And on to Mozambique

We met Betty and Ken, in Swaziland and shared some good stories about our adventures. We will catch up with them on our way to Cape Town as they live in the beautiful town of Hermanus along the Garden Route. Before we left Swaziland, we met with Terry, who was very keen to recommend that we take some time to visit Mozambique. Ping was keen, I was not so, but our friend was persuasive and I am sure very well intentioned.   As we had no specific itinerary we said "ok let’s do that".

We went up to the Swaziland /Mozambique border and found that visas can be bought for £60 each and a further £20 for car insurance. Once committed it also became apparent that unless we were to tour the whole country the only practical option was to spend a couple of days driving up to the capital Maputo and then to return by a fairly circuitous route back to South Africa.

The road to Maputo was good the backpacker’s hotel that was highly recommended was not.

Other Overlanders!

Despite being lousy accommodation, we were delighted to find that

there was already another British vehicle already camping there. We met Ben and Jen (I continually craved ice cream while in their company). They had been travelling from England for a few weeks more than us and had driven up the Eastern side of Africa in a Land Rover Discovery. We spent a very interesting evening exchanging stories and information from our travels.

I am sure that we were the net beneficiaries of their experience. They were leaving the next morning. We really enjoyed our meeting and sincerely hope to catch up with them again.

Downtown Maputo

Amazing architecture in Maputo

We decided to just drive around Maputo, a former Portuguese city. It was an early Sunday morning drive, we did not feel much like really doing any touristy stuff so just took a leisurely drive around it was really nice, despite being stopped by obnoxious cops who were so amateurish in their style and conduct that I initially was not sure who they were and asked for their identification. They did not appear to have any, so when they told me to get down from the cab I declined. At this point one of them developed enough English to bark at me that “you do not tell a Mozambique police man for his badge”. So I said, “In that case I am going to drive off”. The result of this was some bafflement, followed by one ‘cop’ producing a badge. It transpired that they had one badge between the 3 of them.

“No problem”, I said and got down. It then became clear that they did not have much idea about what they wanted of us and so they let us go - just like that. We then carried on with our drive to see a lot of interesting and lovely (past its prime architecture).

Mozambique is a quite poor country which is heroically recovering from many long years of a failed utopian Marxist plan to reform the country.

Back in the old days of the white South African government,   they set about establishing a puppet political party and unofficial opposition army whose purpose was to destabilise the Marxist government, eventually bringing about its downfall. There followed a long drawn out war which many believed was a civil war but which had in fact been engineered from abroad.

The damage to the country and its infrastructure was vast and devastating and even now the country is struggling, mostly successfully, to rise up and flourish.

Our drive around showed evidence of the rule of the Portuguese and their subsequent hasty flight.  The (probably) ill conceived, attempt by the new revolutionary  Marxist government to establish a popular communist government, was then brought down after the bloody and long conflict that followed.

Mostly though we saw a bright and lively city albeit severely impoverished.

Over the water and into the country

We then crossed over the river by ferry, in order to take a longer route through the countryside back to South Africa.

That's me on the left

Crossing the river from Maputo

On the ferry we met Cameron Smith, a Scottish man who was very interested in our van as he owns the Iveco agency in Mozambique.

We drove down the rural route and stopped at a hotel, recommended by Cameron. What a lovely lunch we had!  We needed it as the drive we faced was quite challenging. We drove for 4 hours of poor quality unmade road, with almost no signposts.

As the afternoon drew on we came to a sign post, ‘Frontera’

Which one is the road to the frontier?

I think it's this one

You might think this was a helpful confirmation. However what followed was a rambling sandy track across overgrown grassland. The track often split with no warning, with tracks going in several different directions. The sandy tracks were unstable and the area was very hilly. It was an unexpected and difficult drive and it really did not bear any resemblance to a road for the border with South Africa.  As with so many of our adventures, it was getting dark. We were really getting to feel unsure that we had the right road. (a sense of de ja vu! )

Of course we pressed on even, we were not quite sure where we were going…..........for a further 15 km.  
Suddenly there it was! The border post! 
The crossing turned out to be the most informal and easy crossing - pleasant officers who mostly wanted to chat and who explained that many South Africans make this journey every day without any problems.

KwaZulu Natal

As soon as we crossed into South Africa the road magically turned into smooth firm tarmac.

Since returning to SA we have found that we were both becoming a bit unhappy about no longer having much of a travel plan.  South Africa is a fascinating place as well as being quite comfortable, there's lots to do and see. We have been finding it difficult to leave, thus becoming aimless which has proved to be quite unsettling. We decided to make some positive plans to move on. We are currently en route to an area along the Cape coast known as the Garden route. It seems that it would be easy to spend a month exploring this in any way thoroughly. We will spend about 2 weeks between here and Cape Town and then move on to Namibia Then we intend to spend no more than 2 weeks in any one country,  so that we can make some progress in roughly homeward direction.

Where next? 

How about!

So back to our adventures so far,

We have travelled down from the extreme north of KwaZulu Natal. Meandering a bit we passed through another game park and we still didn't see any lions. Make no mistake, Ping is becoming something of a sore loser about this. However we did see something cross the road in front of us. It was furry and with a long tail, too small to be a big cat and too large to be a squirrel.    I stopped to see where it had gone, and what it was. It was long gone. I heard Ping gasp and realised that I had failed to notice the two biggest black rhinos who were calmly sitting at the road side, almost close enough to touch and totally ‘not bovvered about us. Wow!

We drove through the park and enquired about somewhere to stay. We were told that the only place was some 20 km away. Around this time, we had some more electrical problems.  The windscreen wipers and washers decided once more to switch themselves on and stay on. No problem, I knew from experience that all I had to do was take the fuse out for a while and it would be fine.  Not so!  I took out the fuse but they stayed on. I was a little startled by this, so I rushed to open the bonnet to turn off the master switch. Still they stayed on.

I disconnected the positive side of the battery and still they persisted. This was getting a bit freaky.  In the end I disconnected them successfully but I was very twitchy and not a little annoyed.  

Any how, we were able to press on and eventually found the lodge we wanted to stay at. They were not willing to let us camp there but did a very good deal for a lovely room. We were really exhausted  and so we stayed. 

Roy the electrician did his best

Part of the deal was to join all the guests for dinner in the open air where we had a lovely dinner of “Pap with Impala stew”  and the very good company of Rex and Cato Dukes who own the Muzi Bush camp. It was a mixture of being seriously tired at the end  of an exhausting day together with a really lovely accommodation,  run in the style of a bush camp.  Rex and Cato recommended a friend, Roy who is reputed to be an excellent auto electrician. 

So off we set, to the town of Dundee. Only 200 km away!         Roy agreed to look at the problem but he was unable to give it his full attention as he had numerous commitments with local mines. The next day he had ony been able to patch us up so we can drive safely which was a real shame as we set our hopes on solving this problem once and for all. He told us that the fuse box was faulty and we would have to find a replacement to fix it further.

Rex and Cato

Dundee to East London

Dundee is a very interesting town. It had been the site of the first battle of the Boer war. There is an excellent museum that is very big for such a small town.  The museum is probably the best I have seen among those that are not fully professional and well funded.  This place is very much dependant on subscriptions and entry fees.  It was an extraordinary mix of displays of farm equipment, a train and by the way the graves of those who died in the bloody battle for the hill that towers above the town and the museum.

The scene from Dundee

Fallen British soldiers in the shadow of the hill

It is very hard to fully understand the various layers that make up the conflict between the British, Zulus and the Boers.

The museum managed to explain very well to the person, such as me, who has no previous knowledge of this important piece of history.

The museum also has a great exhibition which sets out the place that coal mining has in the locality.

So we had travelled a long way to get the van fixed and were a bit disappointed but I think that Roy had been as helpful as he was able, and we did get to visit a very interesting and important place in South African history.

Off we went once more this time bound once more for Durban where we visited our friend Gary and Sheryl who were as welcoming as ever and we had a lovely stay with them. 

By this time we had found an agent in East London who was able to find a fuse box for us.  So off we set for East London not really very hopeful that we would get all our electrical problems laid away. By this time we had wipers that would not switch off unless the fuse was removed from the horn and the speedo did not work.

We arrived at Fleet Dynamics in east London and Mark Levy was incredibly helpful. He had ordered our fuse box but it had got lost in the wash on the way to them and had disappeared into the ether. Mark however was not happy that this was the problem and insisted on getting Justin and Donovan their tame auto electricians to examine the problem.  They firmly diagnosed that the problem was possibly the switch mechanism. Fortunately, Mark was happy to order one of these and it would be here the next morning. It was further decided that the speedo problem required a tachograph specialist to look at it.   We found a campsite quite nearby which, really quite bizarrely was sited on a racetrack! Oh yes a real racetrack with grandstand pits and everything. It is mainly used at weekends so is open as a road in the week  and ‘enjoys’ a reputation of being the local hotspot for violent street crime. Nevertheless, it was a very nice place to stay.

The next morning we returned to Mark at Fleet Dynamics. Speedo man arrived immediately after us he took our tacho away to test it and came back and told us it was a dodgy earth. So we now had our speedo back.  Justin returned at the same time as the new switch arrived. It took him very little time  to assert that ‘It’s not the switch, must be the fuse box’. He then took the fuse box away and spent a couple of hours  taking the layers of printed circuit apart and repairing it. I do hope you are keeping up with all this! I’m not.

Anyhow, what counts is that for possibly the first time ever everything is working. Our grateful thanks to Mark Levy who is possibly the most helpful person in the motor trade in the whole world and thanks also to Justin and Donovan for their patience and expertise.

Justin and Donovan flushed with success

Supertubes, Railroad and good guys

We drove down to Jeffreys Bay which is famous for surfing as it is often has the so called Supertubes . Just to explain these are special wavy things that surfing types seem to like. We were told that they are truly spectacular and that they are predicted  to be up around 4 pm  so we went to look they were not so big and there were a lot of disappointed surfing dudes. However we did get to look first hand at people doing surfing and it was kind of easy to understand why they do it and to see how skilful they really are. Having said that it s not for me.

We camped at The Hard Rock Backpackers Lodge.

 Its just Rock and Roll dude!

Here's my mate Jimi
another fallen hero

This is a place that hardly does itself justice. The owner is a nice guy who says that he wants a lodge that is pleasant, restful and welcoming to all comers although he loves the ‘rock and roll’ theme

The description published in the various guides shows it to be the kind of place where heavy rock will be played into the small hours for the benefit of surfer rocker dudes who never sleep and need a place to consume their stash. In truth it is a rather tastefully decorated place  with excellent photos of rock greats adorning the walls, nice people running the place in a very professional style. I would definitely be happy to go back there.

Next Stop

I sometimes get to feel that my ramblings get to sound a bit like a review of all the places we stay. In truth it has turned out that a lot of the most interesting and positive experiences have been in the various places we have stayed.

Wild Spirit is possibly the best example of  How experiencing people ‘doing it their way’ can be such a blast.

I may have mentioned previously that The advice in some guide books is that you usually get better value for money from ‘Backpackers lodges’ than from low price hotels, or in our case the lovely campsites that are all over SA.

 What this advice does not convey is what extraordinary experiences one can have on the Backpackers circuit.

Incredible is the only way to describe Wild Spirit

We had been given a recommendation to stay at a campsite in a place called Natures Valley. As we followed the directions  we took a wrong turn and found ourselves pulling up in a place called Wild Spirit. As I drew up I saw what I labelled in my mind as,’New age,  crystal worshiping , lets all live in the forest with the fairies’   but this was one of those occasions where I was too tired to argue having been on the road all day. So it was decided we should stay just one night. 

Wild Spirits official ride   Taxi!

This one broke out     You're comin with me son!

Such a good decision.  The place was buzzing. Staffed by a small army of young people who stay for free in return for helping to run the place it is a truly happy place. The owners far from being New age idealist who are on a new journey. Actually they have been there for some 30 years or more., and there are three or more generations at Wild spirit. Ranging right up to grandfather who is 94 and still very happy in this idyllic setting.  The management  system is now sufficiently matured that  one gets the impression that they just gently oversee the daily running with a minimum of intervention.

Among the volunteers who work there were Ant and Helen a very interesting couple who took pains to make us comfortable and welcome. They have been travelling for ages  and we found so much in common.

Set in a large, beautiful and rambling rural setting. It is home to 5 horses that have been rescued from undesirable environments and now wander round like they own the place. Numerous dogs and cats,oh and a rooster, The place is made up of a variety of buildings  decorated with all manner of casual pieces of art. There are several walks and hiking trails. I have gone on long enough now but suffice to say that this  a active welcoming place where almost anyone is able to fit in  where casual guests like us  sit happily alongside people who came for a while and stayed. Ping was comfortable enough that she offered to cook dinner for everyone and what resulted was a very happy experience. Enjoyed by all.

Long may the Wild Spirit continue!

More nice people

So moving on! We have moved down the ‘Garden Route’ beautiful countryside and charming towns. We arrived in the town of Knysna, pronounced nicenah,

Towards nice nah!

Ping just loves mountains - here's some more

This town was until about 6 years ago the head of a steam railway that was fully functioning and providing a 3 hour trip across this lovely area. It also boasted a two day trip further afield.

Tragically it was struck by severe damage as the result of some terrible rains that washed away the tops of the cliffs onto the tracks and cause severe erosion.

It would take quite some effort to clear and repair the tracks but the real problem is making the cliffs safe from further erosion.

The tracks are owned by the national rail corporation but the government has declined to underwrite or even support the restoration of this wonderful railroad. To the undoubted benefit of the towns and communities it passes as well as being a superb draw for the tourist trade.

Beautiful railroad to nowhere

The railway runs through country side, with huge magnificent locomotves, it serves industrial towns and skirts around the fantastic coastline.  Its loss is truly devastating here having walked the track extensively it is really hard to imagine that it may never run again despite the enthusiast support of local people, communities and businesses.

We stopped at a Motor company in Knysna as they have just started to import Iveco Vehicles like ours and they also build specialist expedition vehicles.  We met with Tony who was very interested in our trip and of course our van. Shortly after we visited him, we developed some ,oh yes you’ve guessed it!, electrical problems. Neither of our new batteries seem to be holding a charge. We went back to Tony who sent us to see Norman at a company called LA Sport in the town of George.

Norman was very helpful and spent more than an hour trying to sort it out.

He eventually separated the batteries so that we would no longer have the vehicle disabled if we lose power.

I have to say that once again we are bowled over by kindness and helpfulness, Norman refused to take payment for his time.

Thank you Norman all we can do in return is make you famous on the web!

Our view from the van  at Annie's Place

Now we have spent a couple of days in Annie’s place a seafront lodge in the town of Wilderness , once more we have found a blend of beautiful location coupled with really nice and decent people running the show. Alan and Annie Van Rensburg run the place and have been considering making an overland trip themselves so have taken great interest in our progress.  We spent a lovely long evening talking things over. At the same time as them plying me with unnecessary amounts of strong drink.

The lodge is located overlooking the Indian Ocean, alongside the railway which runs around the cliffs absolutely lovely.  We decided to drive out for some lunch and to buy me a toothbrush.

Ping protested that we had some nice bread and ham and cheese so lunch wasn’t necessary. Wouldn’t it be nice to find a pretty spot and have lunch.  Any how the upshot was that we ended up driving 22 km and having a nondescript hamburger in a Wimpy  franchise in a petrol station and because it was a public holiday I didn’t get my toothbrush.

You may appreciate I am running out of superlatives, but that reflects the nature of the overall experience here in south Africa.

While at Annies, Place there were some musicians staying there Mike and Andrea brought a guitar and a ukulele for some music around the campfire. Seems like a bit of a cliché but this is, perhaps surprisingly the first time on the whole trip that this has happened. Any way as they are much younger than us it seems necessary to change from campfire sing song into ‘A bit of a jam.’ Altogether more hip.

After a while we were joined by Annies son Harry and his band. And the whole thing became an evening of good music and even I got to bash out a couple of songs.

The following day Andrea gave me some help with my Uke it may move me on to being able to play the bloody thing one day.

Some say Oscar Prestorious stayed here.
Lost  Property?

Cheers for now. 

Lots of love

Noel and Ping

PS We are still not getting enough emails, send us all your news, no matter how small, we love to hear from you.

noelbow51@gmail.com
pingbow54@gmail.com