#alucab – HippySquared

Travel Diary: Wild & South Coast

Knowing that any possibility of setting sail for South America was at least 6 months away and with a rapidly dwindling list of possible new places to visit in South Africa, we slowed our travelling down to less than a snails pace over the winter. Initially heading back to the Wild Coast where we stayed much longer than planned and then further up the coast for a month in Tania’s hometown.

We had really enjoyed our time over December 2020 at Mdumbi on the wild coast and with the knowledge that the wild coast is even more magnificent during the early winter months we took the decision to head back there for roughly a month. Stuart was more than happy as that meant a month of unlimited surfing, of course Mother Nature doesn’t always play along and initially seemed determined to disrupt the surfing plans.

Roughly 2 weeks into our stay, a chance conversation over sundowners resulted in Tania returning to gainful employment for the first time in 2 years. Employment is perhaps a bit of a stretch for her volunteer role, as part of the reception/office staff, but it was gainful as in return for her time we received free camping and whenever she had an evening shift we also received free dinner. As her shifts either required a short stint opening in the morning or working the evening it left our days largely free to do as we please, i.e. visit the beach.

Wild Coast beaches where animals outnumber humans

Feeling a little left out from the working scene, Stuart took on the responsibility of daycare for Zanzi, the owners 1year old Swiss German Shephard. Zanzi would go home at night but be back outside Mr Jones door in the morning waiting for us to get up and then spend the whole day with us: following us to the beach, on walks and even to the kitchen when we went to wash dishes. If Stuart popped down for a surf when Tania started her evening shift, Zanzi would come along and once even followed him far out into the water only going back when she got shouted at!

Winter on the East Coast is synonymous with the Sardine Run where large shoals of sardines push up to the surface along the wild coast and then head northwards towards Durban. Along with the arrival of the sardines come many predators in the form of Dolphins, sharks, game fish and birds plus further north around Durban – Humans. Often on the beach we would watch a flurry of activity out to sea in the form of large pods of dolphins circling and diving gannets and instantly know that the sardines were in the area. If you wish to learn more about the migration and “the greatest shoal on earth” the Natal Sharks Board have a nice write up found here: https://shark.co.za/Pages/Sardinerun

When the dolphins weren’t eating they were playing in the ocean and Stuart got to share the lineup with these gorgeous creatures on more than a few occasions with the most memorable time being when they swam around within metres, for over 20 minutes, even sometimes swimming directly underneath the group of surfers.

Our planned one month stay quickly turned into two when Tania offered to help out for a further month and it would have been quite easy to extend our stay even further as the lifestyle is very idyllic, serene and almost meditative, in which days and weeks can blend into each other and pass almost unseen but we did start to miss the feeling of freedom you get from moving every few days and having constantly changing vistas.

Apart from a wonderful two months spent at Mdumbi our one takeaway from the time there is that the hospitality industry is not for us, way too many people (but certainly not all) think they are very special and should be given extra attention even if they are only paying to stay at a backpackers.

Having finally uplifted ourselves from the campsite and left a rather forlorn looking Zanzi in the rear-view mirror we took a gentle amble up the coast on the backroads, including a rather interesting and technical track which we had to backtrack on (thanks to the GPS leading us astray), to a lovely little spot called “The Kraal” which is just south of Port St Johns. The Kraal sits in a small little depression between rolling grass hills overlooking the ocean and has been built to be totally off-grid and sustainable, from composting toilets, harvesting the rain water into huge catchment tanks and finally solar power for all electrical requirements.

Aloes, rolling grass hills and ocean = Winter on the wild coast

While at Mdumbi we had taken the decision to take an Airbnb in Tania old hometown of Warner beach for the month of July which meant for a change we had a deadline to meet and so only spent 2 days at The Kraal. We did however still make one more stopover for a couple of nights at T.O. Strand near Port Edward.

Apart from our forced long term stays in family homes thanks to the Covid lockdowns and a couple of short stopovers at friends along various parts of the journey, we have lived out of Mr Jones for almost 2 years and certainly have never paid for accommodation with four walls and a roof so the Airbnb stay was somewhat of a new experience. Mr Jones is our home and because he is so small we have to be very clever and efficient with our packing which means everything has a specific place and is easy to reach when needed but this also means that when we move out of him for a short stay we invariably make multiple trips back to him because something like a toothbrush has been forgotten, there is no grabbing of a suitcase upon arrival at a destination. Our first few days at the Airbnb were exactly like this, with us running down the stairs to fetch this or that but once settled we also enjoyed the convenience of a bathroom en-suite etc.

One of the reasons for choosing Warner beach for a long-term stay is the great beach and good surf break it has and so our days very quickly settled into a routine of walking down to the beach to spend the morning surfing and reading before walking back for lunch and then sometimes down again in the afternoon for a beach walk. Roughly a week into our stay, we commented halfway through the morning on how we were basically the only ones on the beach, little did we know about the chaos that had erupted behind us and throughout the province. When we got back to the Airbnb we learnt of the civil unrest that was underway and sadly would continue to take place over the next week with shops, malls and factories being looted and often set on fire. A really sad blot on our history and certainly the worst unrest the country had seen since 1994, all in the name of #FreeJacobZuma the former president found in contempt of court and imprisoned. As things settled down it would come to light that the unrest had even more sinister undertones. The one positive that come from the whole experience is how communities across the country banded together to initially protect property and then to later help each other out as food supplies and other essentials ran critically low. Even the commercial sardine netters offered their catches free to the community on the days subsequent to the looting. See our July Captain(s) log for the roller coaster of emotions experienced during that period.

We mentioned the sea and bird life activity around the sardine run during our time on the Wild Coast but it is on the beaches in and around Durban that the it really comes into its own as the little fish come closer to shore and the netters can catch and bring them up onto the beaches. Once that happens all hell breaks loose with fisherman casting lines hoping to catch the game fish following the shoal, the netters and their crew trying to pull the massive net in while battling the shore break, your average Joe Soap trying to scoop as many sardines as possible into any manner of receptacle (shirts, skirts, hats, cooler boxes, buckets, you name it) all while getting dumped in the shore break as a wave comes in from behind them. Being an inland boy Stuart had never witnessed this before and so when one day he spotted a fast growing group of cars and people, a sure sign of a catch, down by the beach he headed down to witness this first hand.

Before we knew it our month at Warners had passed and so we headed up to Jan & Nicole’s farm at Drummond with the intention of leisurely tackling a long list of maintenance and improvement items. We did this throughout the month of August interspersed with some day trips down to the beach and visits with friends and family. The maintenance log details most of the items we attended to.

Gallery: Winter on the Wild Coast

Captain(s) Logs: May – August 2021

Maintenance Log

Travel Diary: South Africa – Desert & Sea

And we are off again for lap 2! Last year after the first phase of lockdown we left Cape Town planning to cruise part of the Western Cape interior then head down to the Wild Coast before getting to Durban, that plan didn’t work out due to a tightening of the internal travel regulations so if at first you don’t succeed try again (just 38 weeks later).

After a busy but relaxed week in Cape Town in which we ticked off a number of jobs, caught up with friends and celebrated belated 50th birthdays, for Jan & Nicole, we hit the road again towards Montagu and the Klein Karoo. First stop was a lovely spot called Gecko Creek Nature reserve where we enjoyed 3 days of utter silence, apart from the constant chatter of birds, and a digital detox. At first glance the Karoo appears empty and barren but it always amazes in respect to the diversity of fauna and flora, you just have to pause and soak it up. At the end of the “hard” lockdown last year when we left Cape Town we had stayed at a similar place only 50km away, then the temps had been rather chilly with snow on the surrounding mountains and we had to wear our full winter kit whereas this time we were able to laze in the small splash pool at camp.

We are slow learners but have eventually got the hang of the Western Cape weekend getaway rush (or at least are aware of it) and so upon leaving Gecko Creek we were fully prepared to struggle to find somewhere for the weekend, surprisingly we didn’t! But before heading off to look for a campsite we stopped in Montagu to pick up cell signal and contact a mechanic in Hermanus, Mr Jones had been worrying Stuart for a while with quite wild temperature fluctuations and we had decided it was time to get it seen too.

We generally act like proper pensioners these days and try not travel on the busy weekender days (i.e. Friday afternoon and Sunday afternoon) but as we had an appointment with the mechanic for 8am on Monday, we hit the road around lunchtime on Sunday and joined all those rushing back to town for the start of a new week.

On Monday morning we were up bright and early (it was still dark!) to ensure we arrived at opening time and that Mr Jones could be seen too before they started on any other jobs. As it turned out they had opened 30minutes earlier than they told us on the phone and already had jobs underway when we got there and after a less than helpful discussion asked us to come back at 2pm that afternoon. Thinking we had no other options and needing to kill time we went and parked on the cliff tops overlooking the ocean near Hermanus town centre. We hadn’t been parked 5 minutes when this old series short wheel base Landy pulled in next to us and asked “do you perhaps need any work done?” The series of events that followed will be forever remembered and are a reminder that to us travelling is so much more about the people you meet and unplanned encounters rather than ticking off having visited physical locations and sights.

Having answered in the affirmative that yes surprisingly we did need some work done, our newly found guardian angel phoned his mechanic (who had restored the beauty he was driving) and then charged off across town with us in pursuit to the “workshop”. The workshop could have been a museum given the number of wonderful old series Land Rover they had parked there either being restored or already full restored. Upon arrival Mr Jones instantly fell in love and we weren’t far behind him. The first hour was spent drinking coffee, receiving a tour and just admiring the pride which Stiaan and his team had in the work they are doing. If you are even faintly interested in the old series Land Rover, check out www.karoo2point25.com for some serious eye candy and temptation. When lunchtime rolled around and because we were waiting for a part to be delivered from Cape Town, they lent us the “shop” vehicle, a partly restored open top long wheel base aptly named Picasso so that we could go out for lunch and do some exploring. We have often said that when we settle down that we would like an old short wheelbase Landy as a beach and shop run around, driving Picasso definitely cemented the idea. He was an absolute blast!

With Mr Jones back to normal and “sweating power not oil” (we wish) we headed out the next morning via the Tradouw pass which takes you up over the mountains and into the Karoo. Any pass built by the famous road and pass builder, Thomas Bain, is guaranteed to test the cooling system on a big old beast like Mr Jones, thankfully he passed with flying colours. After a stop in Barrydale for a decadent milkshake at Diesel & Creme we headed further along route 62 to a lovely lush campground near Ladismith and below Towerkop (English: Magic Peak). Towerkop is the first known rock-climbing route in South Africa, having been climbed by a local farmer in 1885.

The Easter weekend was approaching and based on all our previous weekend experiences in the western cape we were fearful of a large influx of campers and therefore a lack of availability at campsites. Although we were quietly hopeful that perhaps we were now far enough from Cape Town and its surrounding towns to avoid this, which as it turns out was to be the case. With a whole day to cover just 150km to our next chosen spot just outside Calitzdorp, we turned off the R62 and took a delightful detour through “Seweweekspoort”, another Thomas Bain road.

The pass winds through the Swartberrg mountains for 17 kilometres while crossing the Huis river 23 times with the mountains soaring for hundreds of metres above you. In places like this you cannot help but feel so tiny and insignificant.

Folklore is full of stories on the origin of the name given to the Poort. Some say it took seven weeks for mounted troops to escort a gang of highway robbers having being banished from Barrydale, through the Poort. Others say a stock thief hid for seven weeks before being arrested, yet others say it took seven weeks for a gang of brandy smugglers to return through the Poort from Beaufort West and another story is that a farmer in early times got lost in the mountain for seven weeks. A more boring but likely explanation is that the name is derived from that of the Seven-week’s fern (Polystichum adiantiforum), called Seweweeksvaring in Afrikaans, which occurs in moist places and crevices.

Having spent the easter weekend in an off grid remote campsite outside Calitzdorp, we headed into town for a few provisions on Easter Monday before moving on to the Calitzdorp spa which is roughly 30km out of town. We fancied a soak in the hot mineral pools and wanted to be somewhere with decent cell signal so that we could wish Stuart’s mom Happy Birthday and catchup with Devon. The spa considered the date to still be “in season” even though everyone was leaving as the weekend was effectively over and so wanted over R500 to camp for one night, well outside what we are prepared to pay but fortunately just around the corner is a guest farm from which we had seen lots of caravans departing. Their pricing was much more reasonable and as a bonus they also had a hot water pool.

Having caught up with family and social media, it was time to go to Hell or more correctly the Gamkaskloof (aka Die Hell). Before even beginning the long journey into Die Hell one must ascend the Swartberg Pass, another marvelous Thomas Bains creation, which climbs almost 1000m up the side the of the Swartberg mountains. From the turn-off on the Swartberg pass to the end of the valley known as Die Hell is only 37 kilometres but it will take at least 2 hours as it is truly a long and windy gravel road. According to www.mountainpassessouthafrica.co.za it has 201 corners, climbs over a 1000m and descends a further 1800m as you pass over a series of small and big passes along the way.

The drive is truly spectacular and it is amazing to watch how the flora constantly changes depending on the altitude but it is also quite a tiring drive and most definitely not for somebody who suffers from vertigo, so when Tania started to develop a 1000 yard stare and with still at least an hour to go plus the prospect of repeating the whole thing the next day (it is a dead end road) we decided to rather turnaround and head back out. For us this was an excellent decision as we didn’t end the day exhausted and stressed, plus we found a wonderful roadside spot to spend the night just before reaching the Swartberg pass and so got to spend the night in complete isolation where you could literally hear yourself think and probably the nearest other humans where 20km or more away in any direction.

After a a wonderful night in which the only disturbance to our sleep was waking up because it was just too quite we reluctantly packed up and headed for Victoria Bay. Once again, we were left in awe at the landscapes, as in the space of 120km we descended from the Swartberg mountains with their stunning fynbos at 1600m altitude, then across the dry valley that surrounds Oudsthoorn, famous for its ostriches, before climbing up and over the wet Outeniqua mountains and dropping down into George and then further down into the quaint seaside village of Victoria Bay. While we only got a brief glimpse of George as we drove through we were pleasantly surprised by its funk factor, perhaps if we land up on another lap we will spend more time there.

Vic Bay is unlike any other coastal town we have visited in South Africa, it is a tiny bay tucked in between two high headlands with approximately only 15 houses all on a terrace and promenade just 3m above the high-water mark. A little higher up on each headland is another terrace which makes up a caravan park. As we weren’t needing a private ablution setup or prepared to pay the higher camping fees for that, we were allocated to the “rail side” terrace which had great views up the bay to the right-hand surf point break. Surfing was the main reason we had come there so Stuart was not complaining. The nature of the bay and point break makes the surf very consistent which also makes it very popular although it does come with consequences as the shoreline is very rocky and you really don’t want to get your takeoff wrong. The crowded nature of the lineup combined with the intimidation factor of the takeoff resulted in two fairly frustrating sessions for Stuart before he moved further into the bay and played on the smaller but less crowded beach break. All in all, we had a lovely extended weekend in the bay.

Leaving Vic Bay, we truly embraced the concept of slow travel by moving only 20km to the town of Wilderness and where pleasantly surprised by the SANParks Ebb & Flow campsite. The main reason for stopping there was to get some laundry done as they had self-help machines but as it is located on the river and lakes of the area we also planned to get some paddling in on the SUP. After a couple of shorter paddles, we set off for a day out planning to paddle to a waterfall higher up the river. Our interpretation of the information available was that you could either hike or paddle to this waterfall so we assumed that meant paddling right up to it but after a few kilometres of paddling we reached a spot with a whole lot of canoes pulled onto the bank and a sign saying “canoe pullout” so we pulled off the water too. Unfortunately, due to our earlier interpretation we had not brought any shoes or slipslops with us and so set-off, barefoot, along the sandy path figuring if it got too rocky we could always just turn back. Because of the steep nature of the valley sides the path soon become an elevated boardwalk through the dense vegetation. Initially the boardwalk was easy to walk on but eventually the constant slat width and gaps starts to tenderise the feet but by then we were committed and so we continued in the hope that the waterfall would soon appear. After finally getting to it we were a little underwhelmed and certainly would not have done the 3km round hike if we had known but then again perhaps we would feel differently if we had brought shoes along. Back at the SUP, we enjoyed a snack lunch while soaking our tender feet in the lovely cool waters of the river before taking a gentle paddle back to camp.

During our travels in Africa we had been introduced by mutual friends to a chap called Mitch but our paths had while almost crossing in Rwanda never actually crossed and so we knew him only via WhatsApp and Facebook. As we were going to be passing through his hometown on our way up the coast we made a plan to meet up for a coffee. Mitch together with 3 mates had rebuilt an old Land Rover Forward Control which they called Agnes and upon his return to South Africa he remodeled the interior slightly to make it more of bachelor pad than a home for four young guys. Now settled in Knysna and to take the love for your Landy one step further than most he has built his current home around Agnes: she enjoys pride of place just off the lounge and kitchen and doubles as a spare bedroom, which if/when he likes he can drive away in.

Travelling with your home being your car and vice versa often makes it difficult to go out for an evening meal but Tania had been eyeing out for some time a funky looking spot just outside Plettenburg Bay called Emily Moon which we thought could be great for a “spoil” Friday evening, provided we could find somewhere nearby to camp. So, after leaving Knysna we stopped and checked out the venue and while the social media image versus our initial impression didn’t matchup it didn’t stop us from deciding to spend a few days camped on the Keurbooms river. The SUP was inflated once again and exploratory trips made upriver. At this stage in life we have no idea where we will settle down when we finally stop travelling but Plettenburg Bay is one area we have often thought could be a possibility, mainly because we have seen adverts for a very cool retirement village there. After the few days we spent camping there it may have slipped slightly higher up the list of possible places where we could put down roots once again: it has great nature in and around the river, good beaches, relatively warm seawater, a funky small town feel and many “holiday” destinations of a wide variety within short reach. Perhaps in a decade or so we will be back to buy a property, a small pleasure boat, a short wheel base landy for running around in and who knows what else…

After a wonderful few days in Plettenburg Bay, a cold front rolled in and brought with it cold and wet weather so we packed up and headed inland. Once again we crossed the Outeniqua mountains on spectacular secondary roads although this time unfortunately missing out on some of the views due to the mist and rain. Having crossed the mountains and with the rain behind us we passed through the small but pretty town of Avontuur and for the briefest of moments were back on the R62 route (which we have so enjoyed this past month) before we turned off and headed northwards in the direction of Uniondale and the turnoff to the Baviaanskloof. The rain had followed us from Plett and that night we camped near the exit of a small side kloof with its dried up watercourse which made for a slightly restless night as we both had visions of flash floods for which the Karoo is renowned.

The Baviaanskloof valley is approximately 200km long, with the last 100km (if driving west to east) being truly spectacular and has been described as a blend of the Sani & Bloukrans passes combined with a stiff dose of Tsitsikamma and Kruger Parks natural beauty. With a description like that it has quite a reputation to live up too and we thoroughly enjoyed the drive despite destroying a tyre on the rocks which ultimately resulted in us replacing 4 a few days later. Tania even managed to forget her fear of heights on some of the passes and film parts of the drive.

Having spent the night camped just before the end of the Baviaanskloof we were up early the following morning in order to head into Port Elizabeth with the main goal of seeing if the tyre was repairable and if not hopefully finding some replacements. The bad news upon our arrival was that it was most definitely not repairable and so after a few hours wait while the shop tracked down stock we eventually bought the last 4 tyres of that size and brand in PE.

Throughout our trip we have had hardly any “hangry” moments but after the mornings drive, a long wait for tyres and not enough food or liquid nourishment compounded by miscommunication of what we each thought we should do next it went a little paw paw resulting in a silent drive through town as we went in search of a caravan park to spend the night. Communication and mutual respect are key when living in each other’s pockets, as we do, and so by evening harmony was restored in the land of Mr Jones.

On our way up the coast we had thought we would spend a few days in Port Elizabeth in order to visit Stuart’s Aunt and the friends we had met in Malawi but as neither were in town there was no reason to hang around and so the following morning we headed up the coast for East London with two objectives in mind: (1) laundry day and (2) a big stock up of Mr Jones before we headed off onto the Wild Coast for at least the next month.

While we had not been able to meet up with our “Malawian” friends in Port Elizabeth, all was not lost as they were staying at their holiday home in Kei River Mouth, so with our tasks completed in East London we took a leisurely drive up the coast to visit them. Kitty & Gerrie have been our “go-to” inspiration story when talking with people about our trip who all too often say something along the lines of “… if only we had done something like this when we were younger…”. We had met them in Malawi after they had been on the road for approximately 5 months of what was originally only going to be a 3-month trip to go see the Serengeti migration, added to that both are in their mid 60’s and Gerrie is in need of a double knee replacement. They would still go on for another 2 months before getting home with a detour through Mozambique. It was so good to catchup and to learn that despite Covid having delayed the knee replacements they have not lost any of their adventurous spirit.

Kei River Mouth is technically the southern point of the area known as the Wild Coast in South Africa, so it felt quite appropriate that our last leg of this part of the journey began with a ferry ride across the river followed by a game of dodgem with potholes and cows (for which the area is renowned).

Our plan for the wild coast was quite simple: head to Mdumbi where we spent an extended period over December & January and spend another extended period there enjoying the mild autumn weather this part of the coast is renowned for and for Stuart to get in as much surfing as possible. As we publish this blog post we have spent just over a full month here and will still be here for a while longer.

Gallery: Desert & Sea

Captains(s) Log: April 2021

Maintenance Log

Travel Diary: South Africa – Western Cape

With almost a year of “killing time” due to Covid under our belts and having adjusted to the idea that any opportunity to travel to South America was still a long way off we timed our arrival in the Western Cape for it’s best season of long summer days and no wind, expecting to spend 3 months there so it was somewhat of a surprise when after only 1 month we had run out of places to visit and had itchy feet to head back up the east coast.

We only had one date committed too upon our arrival in the Western Cape and that was to be in Cape Town around about the 20 March, in order to celebrate Jan & Nicoles joint 50th birthdays. The celebration was meant to be in 2020 and was the reason we arrived back in Cape Town last year when we did, sadly Covid put paid to that celebration as we got locked down on Nicoles birthday. So one year later they were flying in to Cape Town for a belated celebration.

With the above in mind we decided to skip around the Cape peninsula when leaving Cape Agulhus and Bredasdrop (end of our last blog post) and instead go inland for some time in the Cape Winelands, Cederberg and Swartland regions before heading up the West Coast.

The first stop was to be just outside Worcester at a spot on the Breede River and our introduction to what seems to be a common theme in the Western Cape: busy weekend camping spots squashed between a working farm and a river. With campers crammed in across approximately 80 plots along the river it didn’t take long before the accountant amongst us calculated that the farmer probably makes more money from weekend camping and chalet hire than growing apples!

Once the weekend crowds disappeared we enjoyed a very peaceful few days and even got the SUP out for a long overdue paddle.

Continuing northwards our route took us into Prince Alfred Hamlet and up the Gydo pass onto the Koue Bokkeveld (cold buck shrubland), a pass we had last been on back in 2013 when we took our motorbike down to the Cape to view the springtime Namaqua flowers. Then it had been so cold that we had lost feeling in our fingers and toes while riding which made descending the pass on a motorbike an interesting experience, this time around we had the total opposite experience with very hot temperatures and having to slowly climb the pass while monitoring the coolant temp on Mr Jones.

With soaring temperatures, the afternoon turned into a bit of a mission as the first farm and campsite we stopped at had nobody in attendance and didn’t look too appealing so we travelled further along, only to find that the next spot was fully booked. After a few phone calls we found a spot in the Cederberg mountains but that meant a 2 hour drive still. At the same time we were trying to help Devon with some CV advice and so had pulled over under the shade of a tree (back at the entrance to the first farm) in order to conduct a video call with him, when the super friendly farmer come driving down the road and stopped to see if we needed assistance. Needless to say we ended up back on the first farm (Schoongezicht) and enjoyed a lovely night camped very close to a spectacular natural rock pool. Unfortunately they were fully booked for the weekend and so in the morning we moved on towards the Cederberg but not before the farmer had bestowed us with gifts of watermelon, spanspek and tomatoes!

The approach into the Cederberg from the Tankwa Karoo side is absolutely spectacular with big windy dirt passes, although Mr Jones wasn’t that happy with the high ambient temperatures and so halfway up one of the passes we had to stop and idle for a bit while we waited for his coolant temperature to drop down to an acceptable level before carrying on.

After a night at Cederberg Oasis we moved on to the campsite at Sanddrift and were fortunate to get the last available site (it was the weekend again). Sanddrift campsite is perfectly placed below the spectacular Wolfberg cracks and Arch if you want to do some hikes, but with the summer temps in the mid 30’s (centigrade) we opted rather for lazy afternoons in the river and wine tastings at the nearby Cederberg wines.

The icing on the cake at the end of the weekend was some divine carrot cake for Sunday morning coffee from the neighbours with whom we had shared our watermelon with the previous afternoon.

Long roads and big sky on our way into the Cederberg

Our original thoughts had been to head across to the West Coast and then up to the Namaqua National Park where we had spent a few lovely days last year on our way down from Namibia (Travel Diary: South Africa’s West Coast) but with the weather forecast showing quite mild temps and lots of wind we instead decided to spend a few days at “The Baths” just outside Citrusdal. This meant we had finally come full circle as this was to be our first “repeat” stay of the entire time we have been in South Africa, we even landed up on the same site as we had been on 1 year ago!

After 4 days of soaking up the warm hot spring waters it was time to move as the weekend was upon us which meant no vacancy in the inn again for travellers like us who don’t plan and book ahead. In the Cederberg we had chatted with a biker who had mentioned that the only spot on the West Coast to have any kind of decent swell at this time of the year is Lamberts Bay so with the winds having died down we headed across there for the weekend and hopefully some surf time for Stuart. What we didn’t know is that the water temperature at Lamberts Bay is a particularly chilly 14 deg C which is enough to give you an ice cream headache just by dipping your toe in the water. With his full wetsuit on Stuart did manage two very brief sessions over the weekend but was also very quick to assure Tania that there was no risk of us getting marooned for a month like had happened on the Wild Coast over December.

The campsite at Lamberts Bay is right on the edge of town which meant it was easy for us to wander in and enjoy a bite to eat for lunch, partake in a wine tasting (at which we also got some serious over-sharing of insights into small town life) and visit bird island with it’s thousands of nesting Blue Eyed Cape Gannets.

Tania’s sister, Samantha, had hinted she would like to come out and join us for a weekend and so from Lamberts Bay we turned south again and headed down to Paternoster/Tietesbaai with a quick overnight stop in St Helena Bay and a dusty fenced compound known as Midwest caravan park.

Upon our arrival at Tietesbaai we had been informed that while we could camp anywhere we liked during the week we would have to move to the overflow area for the weekend as they had a large number of bookings. We found this a bit strange as it is off-grid and fairly basic so not going to appeal to your average weekender, our confusion deepened the following morning when chatting to some other campers who had been there over the previous weekend and not experienced any large influx of campers so in our minds why should the coming weekend be any different. Our curiosity and confusion continued throughout the next couple of days as we watched workers carefully demarcating sites and placing tape to cordon off certain areas. In the mean time we received a healthy dose of inspiration and proof that age is only a number with the arrival of Ursula, an older single lady who recently acquired a Toyota Landcruiser with a similar roof conversion to Mr Jones and is planning on driving it up to Uganda in the coming year, on her own!

By Thursday afternoon a steady inflow of vehicles had begun and we soon learnt that Tietiesbaai has for the past 11 years, on the last weekend of February, hosted the Jazz on the Rocks festival, unfortunately Covid stopped it this year but many of the festival goers come through nonetheless for a weekend away, just without the performing artists.

Scenes from previous festivals, with no official festival in 2021 it was busy but not on this scale

In the mean time Samantha arrived on Friday afternoon and thus becomes Mr Jones first guest since we have been on the road and hopefully not his last.

It had been a number of weeks since being able to do a proper load of laundry so the first order of business on Monday morning was to find a laundromat, having packed up we said a fond farewell to Tietesbaai and headed into town. As the area is a popular weekend destination it also meant the laundry service was quite busy with B&B business and so would only be able to get our clothes and bedding back to us the next day. This meant a return trip to Tietesbaai for one more night while we waited on our laundry.

Having by now decided not to head up to the Namaqua park area but with time on our hands until we needed to be in Cape Town we began to struggle to find attractive places to stay, all too many options seemed to be a caravan park laid in a straight line along a river on a working farm with not much to do. After collecting our laundry we ended up just outside Piketberg at a spot called Klein Paradys (ironically in English = small paradise) which was exactly what we had been trying to avoid – a long line of caravan sites under shade awnings overlooking a river on a working grape farm. When they would only accept a two night booking (even during the week) we shrugged our shoulders and made the most of a paved campsite and artificial shade to conduct a spring clean on Mr J.

After our two nights at Klein Paradys we once again got caught out by the weekend exodus of the mother city residents (and every other small town around it) so we ended up backtracking towards Citrusdal and a spot called Piekenierskloof and one day later to another spot only 15km away called Koningskop. Thankfully at Koningskop we get a spot at the far end of the campsite and so got too enjoy relative peace for the weekend. Only to be disturbed when half a tree come crashing down at 1am, and the subsequent screams, onto a tent in the more congested section. The occupants were incredibly lucky and escaped with only a few cuts which was hard to believe when in daylight you could see the size of the tree.

As a break to our long journey between the above two spots we stopped at the Piekeneerskloof farm stall and did a wine tasting of the wines of the some name. Apart from some nice wine we, for the first time in a longtime, found some awesome design inspiration for a future home in the tasting room and even more impressively Stuart ate olives as they paired well with the wine (he eats pretty much everything except olives and brussel sprouts). Could this indicate that Tania will soon have to share?

Enjoying a simple supper inside MR J a few weeks later on a stormy evening, thanks to Piekenierskloof

Hoping for more of a nature experience we headed around the mountains to a Cape Nature site called Tweede Tol. In English this means second toll and was the location for a toll booth in days gone by on the spectacular Bains kloof pass (Bains Kloof details and history). The setting is spectacular but unfortunately the local baboon troop appears to be a problem and so we only stayed one night. While we were away from the car at one of the spectacular swimming holes, they climbed on the roof of Mr Jones and ripped open a few existing tears on the surfboard bag and later when we were home even jumped on the awning. Naughty vervet monkeys are one thing to deal with but large cheeky baboons are a whole different ballgame as they are much bigger, aggressive and therefore potentially dangerous.

Leaving Tweede Tol we ended up having a long roundabout day as we went from one “riverside campsite on a working farm” to another with none appealing to us and then on to a campsite which has sadly closed down, to finally end up outside Hermanus at a caravan park full of silverbacks. Sometimes not booking or having a pre-determined route/plan lets us down. Later that week an unusual cold front (for this time of year) hit the Cape and we got to experience a taste of what Patagonia might be like when the wind speed got to in excess of 80km/h, it certainly made cooking inside a challenge and even sleeping that night was not easy. It was by far the windiest night we have spent in Mr Jones so far. At least on the second night of cold windy conditions we could enjoy a good bottle of wine while hunkered down inside thanks to an afternoon wine tasting at HermanusPietersfontein, just up the road from the campsite.

The world can be a really small place some days, we have mentioned bumping into the couple (Vivian & Hanlie) who have a Landrover just like Mr Jones in South America while in the Drakensberg in September 2020 and then only a few weeks later meeting Hanlie’s sister in a campsite in the Waterberg. In addition we bumped into their son while on the wild coast in December so it was with some amazement that they drove into the campsite one afternoon and we bumped into each again. A lovely evening followed of swopping stories, ideas about layout for the vehicles and South America travel advice.

While the campsite was nothing to write home about, we opted to stay the whole week, partly because we had made plans to meet friends on the Sunday in Grabouw (about 50km away) and partly because we weren’t aware of anything better in the area. On Saturday we headed in to Hermanus hoping to have a late tapas style lunch at Fichs pool, a spot Tania had found on the internet which looked really funky as it sat on the cliff edge above a tiny bay of aquamarine sea. It unfortunately lacked soul and was filled with too many people wearing button up linen shirts, white shorts and Panama hats for our liking and so we decided to skip that and see what else we could find. A little bit further along we come across a a great little courtyard restaurant with live music, good food and surrounded by funky art galleries, exactly our kind of place.

As mentioned earlier we had hung around in the area because we had made plans to meet up with our old friends from Johannesburg, Denver & Corrine, in Grabouw. Grabouw was the chosen destination as their son Wade was swimming in an open water event. A lovely day ensued, firstly watching Wade kick some serious butt and then socialising with Denver, Corrine and some of the other parents from the swimming crew. We had thought we would only spend a few hours there but ended up leaving around 5pm for a late dash over the mountains down into Franschhoek and onwards to Cape Town. After 51 weeks we arrived back at Samantha’s house ready to spend a week and celebrate some belated 50th birthdays.

Gallery: South Africa – Western Cape

Along with this chapter, we have two Captain(s) log entries, covering February 2021 and March 2021 in which we attempt to record some of the emotions we experience through the trip.

Maintenance Log: For those interested in technical things, our running record of repairs and maintenance both to Mr Jones and the equipment we carry along with him.

And finally if you have enjoyed this little “chapter of our life” and aren’t yet subscribed to the blog head on over to the Welcome page and complete the form to subscribe, we promise not to bombard you with too many posts, just the occasional rambling. Thanks, Stuart & Tania

Travel Diary: South Africa Wild Coast & Garden Route

With the festive season upon us and the expected annual migration of holidaymakers to the popular beaches we head onto the “wild coast” with a loose plan to hideaway during this busy period. A planned 3 days in one spot quickly turns into 4 weeks before we manage to extract ourselves and begin working our way further down the coast towards the southernmost tip of Africa.

After 3 weeks of hard work at the farm carrying out maintenance and upgrades to Mr Jones we hit the road with the intention of spending Christmas and New Year on the wild coast. It had been just over 5 months (during the hard lockdown) that we first arrived in Natal which was then the “hotspot” province, the irony was not lost on us that we where now heading into South Africa’s latest “wave 2 hotspot”, the Eastern Cape.

The drive across to Kokstad, while hard going with all the very steep ups and downs, was very scenic and enjoyable. As we needed a few grocery items we braved a very busy town centre where two things stood out for us, the paranoia that comes with being surrounded by masses of people when in a Covid hotspot (everything got sanitized when we got back in Mr J!) and the number of coloured people in town (this was a not a part of South Africa where we expected that). Once settled at Mount Currie nature reserve just outside of town we did some research and learnt via Wikipedia that: the area around Kokstad on KwaZulu-Natal‘s frontier with the Eastern Cape is known as Griqualand East. This area was named after Adam Kok III. In 1861-1862, Kok III led more than 2,000 Griqua through Basutoland over the Drakensberg mountains and settled in this area, hence the now relatively large coloured population.

We spent two very chilled days at Mount Currie, although it rained quite a lot while we were there, and if it hadn’t been for the fact that we had a accommodation booking ahead of us we could have easily spent a few more days their. A reminder again of why we don’t like to book places ahead of time but due to the festive season, we had a month or so prior decided to try and book some spot on the Wild Coast. The only one we had managed to secure was at Mdumbi and only for 3 days from he 23rd December. After that our plan was to wing it and hope that even though other places had told us they were full we would be able to find somewhere to stay.

We had chosen Mdumbi, which is about 20km up the coast from Coffee Bay and the famous “Hole in the Wall”, because we had not been there before and when Stuart mountain biked the length of the wild coast in 2015 it had appeared to have a great right hand point surf break. The camp was really packed when we arrived and the spot we had been allocated was only suitable for a 2 man hiking tent, certainly not Mr Jones, but after a little walk around we offered to camp in the overflow parking area which while on a rather steep slope at least could fit Mr Jones and with our levelling blocks we soon had him level. This camping option turned out to be a real score as it had a great view of the surf break and had space all around it.

With great views, good vibes, a nice beach and good surf we where instantly keen to try and stay longer than our “booked” 3 days and set about each day checking if they had had any cancellations, initially we got an extension until the 29th and then as the 29th drew near we managed to get an indefinite stay of execution as we got recorded in the books as “off camp”. This may have been because we really didn’t need much in the way of facilities with our setup or just perhaps because we are such nice people, either way we weren’t complaining. The only inconvenience we had, was that as a Bon fire was planned for New Years eve in the overflow parking area we had to pack up and squeeze into a small corner of camp for one night.

We are normally up for a good party but the weather on New Year’s Eve was wet, cold and windy plus with the whole Covid second wave ominously hanging around we were keen to keep our distances and so chose to spend the night inside Mr Jones, cooking, listening to vibes and blocking the world out. New Year’s Day continued to have miserable weather combined with gale force winds so we hunkered down for another day in Mr Jones and only moved back to our “parking spot” the day after.

Over the next few days we pretty much kept to ourselves and away from the communal areas as much as possible in an effort to ensure minimal contact with the New Year revellers and the constant nag in the back of your mind of Covid exposure – considering the location of our campsite with its great views this was not too much of a hardship. At the sometime we had a lovely spell of great weather and surf so got to really enjoy the beach and water, including one awesome surf session for Stuart when a pod of dolphins come to visit for at least 30 minutes and come as close as just 2 metres from the board.

As the days blended into each other it can be very easy to consider staying just a bit longer and then just a bit longer again. So it was with mixed feelings that we decided it was time to move on, part of us would have loved to spend the remainder of the lockdown in this sheltered part of the world where all the issues with COVID, freedom of activity and traveling felt so far away but our need to move and explore were also dragging us back into the world – the conundrums of a traveler. Also there was the simple fact that it had been 4 weeks since we had seen the inside of a shop and supplies in Mr J were starting to look a little low.

On the morning of our departure from Mdumbi we woke to find the fridge/freezer had switched off which brought about a number of rather descriptive mutterings considering our repair drama only a few months ago! Upon closer inspection it appeared that a low voltage battery may be the issue but with the sun out and thus receiving solar charge it was hard to confirm unless we disconnected the entire system, so instead we packed up and got ready to leave.

We had arrived with a booking for 3 days and had ended up staying for 26 days.

As we drove away it quickly become apparent that we weren’t the only ones grumpy about leaving: the iPod didn’t want to connect to the radio; the kitchen draw locks weren’t holding so as we drove the draws kept opening; the GPS orientation turned upside and then finally wanted to route us all the way around Lesotho to get to East London ( a 2 day drive instead of a 4 hour one!).

Having not listened to the GPS, we arrived in East London around midday which gave us the afternoon for grocery shopping before backtracking slightly to Yellowsands caravan park about 30minutes outside of town. Yellowsands is a huge caravan park with nearly 200 sites plus a whole bunch of small cottages. Despite it’s size it is very nicely laid out, offering sites with direct sea views and others that are nestled into the forest and overlook the river. We also found a small “river camp” which is about 1km from the main one and really appealed to us with it’s outdoor showers and less formal layout. The main reason however for coming to Yellowsands was their laundry facilities, we had quite a pile after the wild coast, and so we skipped the river camp and chose a site closer to an ablution block than we would typically do.

If you have to do laundry then may as well do it with a view like this..

The fridge had performed well all day once the battery had been receiving charge from the alternator so we felt partly relieved to know at least the fridge was working but where now fairly certain that the auxiliary battery had reached the end of it’s useful life. Stuart decided not to plug into power for the night in order to see if the battery once again died overnight, which it duly did! Although this outcome was better than a faulty fridge it was nonetheless rather irritating considering we had purchased this make of battery for it’s new technology and theoretical ability to handle more deep discharges while lasting longer. So after a partial rest day in which we did laundry and some preventative maintenance items on Mr Jones, we headed back into East London to purchase a new auxiliary battery.

A like for like replacement of the battery would be rather costly, probably not available in East London and considering that it had only lasted 3 years we decided instead to just replace it with an old school “deep cycle” battery. At less than a third of the price if it lasts any longer than 12 months we will be “in the money”.

With a new battery on-board we took a cruise around East London and were pleasantly surprised, it has some very nice looking suburbs, some beautiful old buildings in town and the town centre while busy was surprisingly clean and orderly, this is in stark contrast to so many city centres in South Africa which are typically rather tired looking and have lots of litter lying around. Another noticeable aspect was the total lack of car guards or traffic light vendors which is so common throughout South Africa. We are not sure how the town got it’s nickname “slummies” but certainly on current physical appearances it is not warranted.

Hogsback lies a couple of hundred kilometres inland from slummies and with it’s claim to be “the most beautiful mountain village in South Africa” combined with the popular PR tale of it being the inspiration for J.R.R Tolkien’s fictional middle earth setting in which his books “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings” are based, it was inevitable that we trekked inland in search of fairies and mythical forest creatures. We even stayed overnight at a spot aptly called “Away with the Fairies”. The problem with high expectations is that the probability of disappointment can be equally high and in this case it was for us. In general we found the village to be a bit run down and tired looking, the surrounding forests to be okay but not spectacular and so only lingered two nights before continuing onwards. We did however thoroughly enjoy our cliff top bath at Away with the Fairies.

Rain and cooler weather was depicted for the morning of our departure from Hogsback but we woke to very sunny skies and during our drive across to Addo Elephant park it only got hotter. We don’t have air-conditioning in Mr Jones and generally find this to be a good thing as it allows us to acclimatise to the ambient temperature but when we started to see 40degrees Celsius inside the car we began to doubt our own wisdom. We knew it was bad when Stuart asked Tania to take over the driving with only 50km to go, although as we were soon to discover the ambient temperature was only a minor contributing factor to that.

By evening he was “feeling the cold” and complaining of aches and pains, a quick temperature check showed a fever of 38,5. Under normal circumstances you would put this down to flu but with the heightened awareness we all have of Covid you cannot help but begin to worry. If we had a brick and mortar home the first step would be to self-isolate and see if any further symptoms develop but when living on the road this is not so easy, instead we took as many precautions as we could to prevent any possible contact with fellow campers.

Over the course of the next 2 days we managed a few game drives interspersed with lots of rest and research into airbnb options in the Port Elizabeth/Jeffreys Bay Area in case we needed to settle in for a recovery period. With the fever breaking on day3 and as of yet no other Covid symptoms developing we decided that while we thought it wasn’t Covid we wouldn’t risk visiting any family or friends in Port Elizabeth until the 14 day period had passed and so skipped around PE and headed for another isolated stay at a spot called Berg Rivier which borders onto the back of the Bavianskloof mountains. It was with some relief that while showering that evening Stuart noticed a swollen lymph node in his groin and upon further inspection we found evidence of a tickbite between his toes. The irony of being relieved that he had tickbite fever rather than Covid!!

A “mythical forest creature” visiting Tania Kikoi @ Berg River

After a lovely couple of days at Berg Rivier and with the knowledge that Stuart was not a danger to society we made a last minute call to Andrew to see if he was still working “remotely” from St Francis instead of his normal Johannesburg base (the upside for some of the pandemic) and was perhaps available for a lunch or coffee catchup. Andrew graciously offered us a loft room and over the next few days we enjoyed the wonderful company and hospitality of Andrew, Candice & Roz. The time out of Mr J was also a blessing as it allowed a bit of recovery time for the infected tick bite site on Stuart’s foot.

On the recommendation of Andrew we took the back roads out of St Francis visiting along the way Oyster Bay and the wonderful little Huisklip Nature reserve before popping down the N2 to Storms River mouth.

Apart from enjoying the spectacular campsite setting of Storms River mouth with it’s endless spectacle of breaking waves on the rocks we did the stock standard tourist walk to the suspension bridge and despite having applied plenty suntan cream Stuart payed a heavy price for the walk by getting burnt in the strangest places, like the tips of his toes (due to the antibiotics that he was taking to treat the tick bite fever). The forests behind Knysna was therefore a no brainer decision for our next destination.

Fifteen or so kilometres outside of Knysna, deep inside the forests which are steeped in history from the days of the woodcutters and the Knysna elephants is a SanParks camp called DiepWalle (English = Deep walls, presumably due to the size of the trees surrounding it ). Stuart had seen the name and that it had camping in the SanParks tariff book, so we merrily made our way up the winding forest roads planning to spend a night or two, only to discover on arrival that in fact it was setup for ground tents which you pitch on a deck in the forest. The reception lady though wasn’t phased and offered for us to park Mr Jones on a flat peace of ground behind the old foresters house. Having parked and opened up, we took a walk around to see the “camping decks” and all we can say is WOW and we wished we had a tent with us. Each deck is set in the trees with a winding boardwalk leading down to it and includes an enclosed fireplace and little kitchen area with a stunning solid wood counter. It is such a magical spot in the forest that we both just wandered around with a big smile and a look of awe on our faces! A reminder again that as South Africans we are spoilt for beautiful places and to enjoy them you don’t have to spend a fortune (in this case only ZAR240 for a 2 people).

Later as we sat next to Mr Jones and the Sanparks workers packed up for the day, we were surrounded by the jovial banter of Afrikaans Cape Coloureds making it very easy to imagine you had gone back in time and where living in a forest cutters camp. (You do need to be South African to fully appreciate and know what this banter is like).

In the morning Stuart’s foot was aching like crazy and the soft tissue infection seemed to be spreading, so we took a leisurely drive back down though the forests and into Knysna in search of someone to treat it. Having stopped at the LIFE hospital and not had any luck we got directed to a pharmacy in the centre of town who had a clinic, this turned out to be a stroke of luck but one we would only come to realise a few days later when the foot finally started to come right. The sister decided overall the foot wasn’t too bad and showed Stuart how to pull out the puss like infection with tweezers plus treat it with a cream that would dry it out and harden the puss.

Our original intention had been to still slowly wander along the coast and try get some surfing in at iconic spots like Victoria Bay but with Stuart getting burnt at the slightest sign of direct sun and a foot that couldn’t be stood on for more than a few minutes at a time that idea was quickly canned and so we headed back into the mountains between Riversdale and Barrydale to a Cape Nature spot called Grootvadersbosch. What a beautiful find this turned out to be, the campsite amenities had recently been upgraded with each site boasting it’s own deck, fire pit, sink, bench and umbrella etc. The views of the surrounding mountain were spectacular but thanks to the ongoing foot saga we couldn’t do any walks and as they were busy with construction of a “glamping” section close-by, it was fairly noisy and therefore we just stayed the one night before moving on.

Bontebok National Park was only about 150km away which thankfully made for a short day in the car as it was stinking hot outside, the only challenge was how to steer without getting your fingers and knuckles burnt due to the ongoing sun sensitivity. Bontebok is South Africa smallest national park but is very important as it’s declaration and preservation of the habitat helped to save the antelope after which it is named from extinction. It consists of fairly open and semi hilly arid plains but for us the main attraction was the Breede river which runs through it and on which the campsite is located, thus offering some respite from the sun and heat.

What we weren’t quite prepared for was the weekend rush that resulted in a huge influx of campers. We had thought that with the December festive period long behind us and most families back to the grind of daily life that while the weekends may be a bit busier it would still be relatively quite, so when the first family arrived late on Thursday afternoon and started “securing” all the sites around us we where a bit puzzled until another 5 families followed. We can’t speak for the rest of the country but it certainly seems the Western Cape population are determined to get away as often as they can.

Our planning, scheming and dreaming for this journey around the world began in 2008 while sitting on a beach in Mozambique but the first physical and figurative step on the journey was in April 2016 when we had the roof conversion done by AluCab in Cape Town. After the conversion was complete our route back to Gauteng and the daily grind started with a stop at Cape Agulhus, the southern most tip of Africa, as a symbolic start to the dream.

Wild hair in 2015, some things don’t change

Tania’s cousin, Diane, who lives just next door to Agulhus was disappointed to have not met us on that trip and so given that we where once again in the “neighbourhood” we made a plan to meet. But first we drove the little further South to Agulhus and took another set of pics for old time sake. An awesome lunch of fish and calamari on the beach at Struisbaai rolled over into a lovely evening at Diane & Alans house, a great way to end our slow trip down the East Coast before we start the next leg up the West Coast of our constantly evolving South African journey.

Gallery: Wild Coast & Garden Route

If you have enjoyed this little “chapter of our life” and aren’t yet subscribed to the blog head on over to the Welcome page and complete the form to subscribe.

Along with this chapter, we have two Captain(s) log this diary entry, covering December 2020 and January 2021 in which we attempt to record some of the emotions we experience through the trip.

Maintenance Log: For those interested in technical things, our running record of repairs and maintenance both to Mr Jones and the equipment we carry along with him.

Travel Diary: South Africa North Coast

How easy it is to get bogged down in the minutia and forgot how good you have got it… Pretty much since the start of Covid lockdown we have been a tad grumpy that it has interfered with our travel plans for South America and thus struggled to settle in to travel within South Africa and more importantly to truly appreciate the beauty all around us, slowly though we are coming around…

After our 2 weeks at Trafalgar we decided to head North up the coast with the first stop being just outside Tania old hometown as we hoped to catchup with some friends. On our first morning there we received a wake up as to how easy it can be to catch Covid-19 when we received a phone call from Tania Aunt to say her and Neville, who we visited for lunch the day before, had just learnt they had been exposed to a positive case and so by association we may have inadvertently been too. Fortunately, the caravan park we were staying in was very empty and we had a whole ablution block to ourselves so self-isolation was not too difficult while we waited for their test results to come back.

Once we had received the good news that they had tested negative and thus we had no risk of exposure, we hit the road again with a brief stop at the farm before heading up the KZN north coast. For the first time in many months we truly felt like we were on the road and exploring, as for Stuart this was brand new territory and Tania had not visited the area for a couple of decades.

A fairly frequent question we often receive is “how do you travel with no bookings or clear destination for the day in mind?” In general we do have an area in mind as the end destination but we certainly don’t like booking as it then ties you to an accommodation option which could be a great place or one that just does not tickle your fancy, in the case of the latter we like to be able to just skip past and in the case of the former we like having the option of staying longer than would be possible if we had other bookings already made.

The above was all proven to be valid (for us) when we pulled into Tugela river mouth expecting to stay a few days but none of the accommodation options appealed or could fit Mr. Jones and so with no bookings in hand we were able to easily move on and as luck would have it the next spot we tried, turned out to be a winner. As with so many Ezemvelo parks, Umlalazi is in a stunning location and dirt cheap to stay at. Apart from a couple of crazy Zebras, a group of Duiker and a troop of Monkeys we had the campsite to ourselves.

We have been suffering an intermittent fuel starvation problem for quite a while, it probably first occurred in Malawi (Malawi Travel Diary), then again when leaving Montagu and most embarrassingly when we first arrived at Zimbali after the marathon trek from Montagu. We thought we had solved the issue when we found a kinked fuel hose but clearly, we had not as on the way up to Hluhluwe we suddenly lost power on the freeway. The issue is quite simple, Mr Jones develops a vacuum in the fuel system, which is easily fixed by opening the fuel sedimenter, listening to the hiss of air as it escapes and once diesel flows we are back in business. It’s often less than a minute breakdown, just very inconvenient depending on where it occurs.

After spending a wonderful day in Hluhluwe-Imfolozi game reserve with some good sightings including spending a couple of hours observing lions, we experienced our second fuel starvation breakdown in the same amount of days as we drove towards the exit. Now if we could only figure out the cause of the problem.

As there is no camping options within Hluhluwe game reserve, we spent the days preceding and after in and around Hluhluwe town, the first stop was Bushbaby Lodge & campsite which looked lovely on paper but in reality was a bit tired and neglected. After the day in the game reserve we tried a different spot, Hluhluwe Bushcamp, which is relatively new having opened just before lockdown occurred. It had a funky vibe with the use of lots of vibrant colours and fabrics in and around the bathrooms, pool, etc.

Many moons ago, Tania had spent a number of wonderful holidays at Kosi Bay and always raved about it when talking about the KZN north coast so after Hluhluwe this was to be our next stop, we had even made bookings for this due to its popularity. The risk with having high expectations of a destination is that you can be easily disappointed, fortunately Kosi Bay did not disappoint! We had two glorious days snorkelling at the mouth where the lake system empties into the Indian Ocean and another glorious day lounging around camp and in the lake.

The campsite at Kosi Bay is tucked between a very large dune and the lake and as a result gets no cellphone signal but if you wade out into the lake or walk to the end of a long pier you can get pretty decent reception. In the search for signal over the course of our travels we have climbed hills, stood on tree stumps, extended the hotspot phone into the sky on a phone attached to a pole on the roof of Mr. Jones but at Kosi Bay we experienced a first by having to wade out into the lake and sit in warm water while catching up on social media. Naturally we couldn’t resist posting a picture of this which elicited many envious comments. We would most definitely have been one of those envious commentators a couple of years ago, but what is often not seen is the other side when the weather is not good. The very next day mother nature dutifully provided us with one of those not so good days.

Kosi Bay is only 5 kilometres from Mozambique’s southern border which most readers will know has been our favorite destination over the years, at least the central section. Surprisingly though we have never visited the southern most section around Ponta do Ouro, fortunately or unfortunately the Kosi Bay border remained closed from Covid lockdown and so any temptation to venture back into Mozambique for a month was removed and instead we turned and headed back south down the coast.

After a resupply shopping run in St Lucia and lovely lunch we headed off for Cape Vidal. We have so far been very impressed with all the staff at the various Ezemvelo parks we have visited over the last months, sadly the reception staff at the entrance to the Isimangaliso Wetland park (which has the smartest entrance of all the parks) could do to learn a thing or two from their less well to do colleagues. It is more than a bit off putting when you arrive and enquire if the Cape Vidal campsite has vacancy, which is inside their park, and they provide you with a telephone number to phone and find out for yourself and all of this done with attitude.

Outside of the reception staff, the park itself is wonderful with the large St Lucia wetland system, rolling grasslands, coastal dune forests and beautiful beaches. We had hoped to stay for at least a week but unfortunately the electricity transformer at camp had blown up and a couple of grey days combined with the campsite being within the dune forest meant our solar system never stood a chance so we were forced to move on after only 3 days to Sugarloaf campsite on the outskirts of St Lucia town.

The December festive period in South Africa is not a great time to try and travel like we do with no bookings and very little planning, as it is the time when 90% of the country takes holidays meaning many places are fully booked up to 6 months prior and the majority of campsites hike their fees massively. With this in mind we had thought we would travel to just prior to the start of this period (10th), then stay at Tania sister farm for a few weeks while doing maintenance and making some upgrades to Mr Jones. Knowing that we had quite a bit of work ahead of us we decided to head straight to the farm after only a couple of days at Sugarloaf and get cracking on the To-Do list. Ultimately this turned out to be a good decision as some of the maintenance jobs turned out to be a rather long saga.

Our trip back to the farm was not without the inevitable fuel starvation breakdown, which meant that swopping out the mechanical fuel pump was one of the priority jobs to be attended too. Sadly that did not do the trick as on our only rest day the issue reared its head again as we headed down to the beach. We have now also replaced the entire fuel line that had the kink in and which we removed with an elbow sleeve way back in August and optimistically hold thumbs that will be last of this saga

Over the course of 3 weeks we pretty much ticked off the entire to-do list, outside of one job which we can anyhow do on the road. It definitely helped having a well-equipped workshop and very handy brother in-law to get it all done as with an old vehicle you inevitably run into issues, many thanks Johan! The less sexy maintenance jobs done can be found in our maintenance log and aside from those we also installed a gas geyser on the side of Mr Jones and built a box to cover it while travelling which combined with the nifty shower cubicle we installed (product: “Quickpitch En-suite”) must surely qualify us as “glampers” now! A short video of the shower setup can be found on our HippySquared facebook page.

Captain(s) Log: November 2020

Gallery: South Africa North Coast

Maintenance Log: Our running record of repairs and maintenance both to Mr Jones and the equipment we carry along with him.

If you enjoy these little “chapters of our life” and aren’t yet subscribed to the blog head on over to the Welcome page and complete the form to subscribe.

Travel Diary: Slow travel South Africa during COVID

After 6 months of being effectively stationary how do you decide when to move and where to go – you draw a line in the sand/set a date; then flip flop between destinations for a week or so; and finally a day before the said “line in sand” is due you draw a second line and say we are off to the Drakensberg. But where within that – open iOverlander, pick a spot closest to you as destination #1 and because of Covid-19 pick a second spot “just in case” they ain’t open and voila you have a plan. At least for the next 4 days 🙂

Who would have ever thought Mr Jones and ourselves would spend 2 months here, thanks Kevin & Di

We left Zimbali exactly 2 months after arriving with a sense of excitement to be back on the road but also a sense of trepidation, what would it feel like to travel within South Africa where we are familiar with the money, the shops, the areas etc even though we would be going to places we hadn’t been to before. Would it have the same intrigue and sense of discovery or would we ultimately get a feeling of boredom and lack that wanderlust feeling?

Time will ultimately tell but it didn’t take long after our arrival at our first stop (Garden Castle, in the Southern Drakensberg) for a sense of calm and peace to come over us. The beautiful vistas up the valley into the foothills combined with a simple campsite in which we were the only occupants was food for the soul and a reminder of how much we enjoyed living in tune with nature prior to lockdown.

A cold front blew in on our last day at Garden Castle so on the drive down the valley and back to Underberg we got to test the newly replaced heater. On the agenda for Underberg was some shopping, obtain cash and to search for a coffee shop with decent WIFI so that we could resolve some queries the taxman had raised with Tania. For the latter we even put on our town rags, jeans and decent shoes.

Having completed our business, a short hop northward took us to Lotheni and another KZN parks board campsite which we hoped would be open. Short hops in the berg are relative, as the 53km took nearly 90minutes due to all the valleys and hills to pass through on the way. Moses at the camp office was very thorough in his check in procedure, first the COVID checks and register then a detailed check-in process and explanation of which sites we must not “interfere” with as they were already booked for the upcoming long weekend.

The 24th September is Heritage Day in South Africa and fell on a Thursday meaning a great opportunity for many South Africans to pursue our heritage of trekking off somewhere remote to camp and braai. The campsite started to fill up late in afternoon of the 23rd which meant for two people who over the last year have only ever been, at most, surrounded by 2 to 3 other vehicles there was a lot of bush tv material. The only issue with bush tv is it doesn’t come with subtitles but it does have the advantage that you can make up your own plot (read: gossip) as you please, we almost forgot to sip our wine as the sun set…

The following day saw the arrival of the remaining campers which included a number of Land Rovers, including one couple who looked vaguely familiar. It turned out that a couple of years ago Stuart had read an article written by them in a local 4×4 magazine of their experiences in South America travelling in a very similar Landy to Mr Jones. Subsequently we had exchanged some emails with the intention of meeting up but in fact hadn’t, over the course of the afternoon we all remembered that we “knew” each other. It was lovely to meet you finally in person, Vivian & Hanlie, and to finally get to learn of your experiences in person.

The arrival of the long weekend also brought another mechanical gremlin to test our patience, the fridge/freezer started to struggle and then ultimately just stopped cooling. It felt like we have just had one mechanical or equipment gremlin after another in the recent weeks and both of us were quite over it. With a rapidly defrosting freezer it was clear by lunchtime on the 25th that our idea of spending the next few weeks wandering around the Drakensberg was going to have to change and the decision was made to travel up to Johannesburg in order to get the freezer attended to by the manufacturers. The silver lining being that we would get to spend some time with Stuart’s parents for the first time in just over a year.

The drive up to Johannesburg felt very long, especially as it was fairly hot and very windy for most of the way. As we got closer we couldn’t help but reflect on what was, what is and what will be. Joburg has been very good to us in terms of the lifestyle we led, our careers and the fact that those two combined allowed us to achieve and now live out our dream but it did now feel very much like the “big smoke” and thus apart from seeing family and friends held little attraction.

Our time in town quickly flew by as we set about getting many jobs done, including changing Mr Jones registered address (a lengthy saga in COVID times), some service items requiring specialist tools and definitely beyond Stuart’s capability, battery replacements on phones, completion of our vaccination regiment, visits to the dentist, new artwork for Mr Jones etc. In between we also had a few nice “kuier” sessions with friends and ex-colleagues.

Towards the end of the second week and with no immediate end in sight to our fridge repair saga, Stuart managed to convince National Luna to provide a loan unit so that we could escape the big smoke for a bit. Our dilemma was however in which direction to go and in the end, we settled on the Waterberg as it is not too far and has a number of camping options.

Only 15 months prior while we were waiting on the house sale to be finalised we had also escaped to the Waterberg and spent a lovely week soaking in the hot springs at Bela Bela, once again this seemed like an attractive option but at over R700 a night for the two of us to camp during the week that idea was quickly abandoned and instead we settled on small game farm called Andante.

We hadn’t been parked for long at Andante when the first new member of “Mr Jones fan club” arrived to have a look at him, after receiving the tour he said he would be back later with his wife and to take a picture if that was okay. We were absolutely stumped at how small a world it can be sometimes when a little while later upon their return to visit Mr Jones one of his wife’s first sentences was “my sister has one just like this in South America”, to which we replied in unison “no ways not Hanlie?” (Refer above to our meeting only 2 weeks prior).

Sunday saw the departure of all guests apart from ourselves and the arrival of some very heavy rain resulting in a mini river running under Mr Jones. It would appear our rain god status has yet to leave us, thankfully the rain only lasted 24 hours before the sunshine returned. The beauty of the rain was that it washed clean all the sandy tracks that crisscross the farm and so on our daily walks we had the pleasure of spotting and attempting to identify all the fresh animal spoor.

After a very relaxing 8 days and with the likelihood that the fridge would be ready the coming week we decided to have a change of scenery and also move a little closer to Johannesburg so on the Sunday morning we packed up and headed for the AKTV Klein Kariba resort. We had thought that arriving on Sunday would mean the resort was emptying as people headed back to Johannesburg, boy where we wrong! Mr Jones was shocked at the lack of social distancing and ourselves at the number of kids shorter than 40cm, it was definitely going to be an interesting few days.

We are not sure who was more scared, Mr Jones or ourselves!

On the Monday morning we got the great news that our fridge would be ready the next day so we set about planning for a busy day of running errands in Johannesburg. On the list was a visit to Garmin in Rosebank for an interim replacement unit, collect the fridge, visit bolt supplier for some springs and other miscellaneous bolts, visit a caravan repair place for some pole ends to improve our awning setup and finally do some shopping for groceries for the next week or so. An early start was planned in order to drive the 150km into town and complete all of this.

Thankfully Tuesday went relatively smoothly and we were parked up at Stuart’s folks house by midafternoon enjoying another catchup and getting ready for a braai with some of their friends from the retirement village who were interested in our adventures.

When we had left the coast just over a month previously and headed for the Drakensberg the plan was to spend time in the mountains waiting for the winds to die down and then head back for the coast, obviously that didn’t happen due to the fridge saga but with the fridge repaired we were now itching to get back on “track”, so early Wednesday morning we said cheers to Stuart’s folks and headed towards the coast. We hadn’t yet been to all the places in the berg we had hoped to visit so first we stopped at Royal Natal National park for a few days.

Amphitheatre at Royal Natal National Park

Not being accustomed to traveling long term in a country that loves to “go away” over long weekends and school holidays (and because COVID has resulted in unusual timing for the holidays) we were once again surprised when the campsite started to full up on the Friday afternoon. At first we thought it must just be a case of everyone making the most of working from home and taking extended weekends but as we drove away the next day we learnt it was in fact the start of a short school break.

On the way down to the coast a chance WhatsApp picture from friends of the offramp to Tania old hometown meant a change of plans and a very pleasant overnight stay with them. They were having a short break during the school holidays at another friends holiday home.

We had hoped to make our first stop on the coast at a backpackers/surf camp midway down the south coast but upon learning that due to COVID they weren’t accepting campers we carried on to our 2nd intended stop at Trafalgar, being a lovely caravan park which Stuart’s family visited regularly in his youth. If you refer to the About Stuart section, this was where Stuart first dreamt of leading a nomadic surfing life so very appropriate that we now visit.

Hard to not love a place when this is your daily view

Apart from one trip out on a rainy day for some grocery shopping we spent the next 14 days alternating between surfing, lying on the beach, walking on the beach, spotting dolphins and whales from camp or admiring the wildlife that emerges in a campsite when you are the only residents.

Gallery: South Africa – Travelling during Covid #1

Captain(s) log: September&October 2020 A glimpse into some of our daily emotions as we attempt to get back on the road.

Maintenance Log: Our running record of repairs and maintenance both to Mr Jones and the equipment we carry along with him.

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Travel Diary: Phase 2 of Lockdown

Homeless during lockdown! What happens when your home is where you park it and because of COVID-19 restrictions you now have nowhere to park.

With 5 weeks of Level 3 lockdown under our belt and signs that camping places were beginning to open, we left Cape Town just before a big cold front was about to lash the Western Cape and headed into the mountains just outside Montagu. Our destination was a totally off-grid spot were social distancing was never going to be a problem as we were the only campers and the two other couples staying in cottages were at least 500m away.

Mr. Jones appeared to be in shock that he was actually back in use when on our first night we were unable to cook on either of the two gas stoves! A couple of quick checks left us none the wiser whether we had a blockage in the gas pipes, an issue with the regulator or if it was just too cold for the gas to flow properly but fortunately we have a spare regulator and short loose pipe so that was quickly rigged up to the spare gas bottle and portable stove and thus only caused a small delay in supper.

Solving our gas supply mystery the following morning

During lockdown in Cape Town we had got quite good at doing a short yoga session each morning and had good intentions of carrying this practise on while on the road, we managed this on the first day but not again for the entire week we stayed. For now we will blame this on the cold front which arrived….

With the arrival of the cold front the days and evenings become very chilly but with all the cold weather gear we have hauled around for the last year (and not had reason to use) we were never too cold and always slept wonderfully warm. Although the winds that accompanied the cold front did leave us wanting for sleep the one night as Mr. J was buffeted around like a yacht on stormy seas.

We were expecting the arrival of our friends the De Nobrega’s on the Friday, but with no cell reception we had no way of knowing that the cold front had made them delay their departure, needless to say they duly arrived the following day. A wonderful couple of days and evenings followed before they headed back to Cape Town and we began thinking of where to next?

After a week of being totally disconnected and with the weather turning ugly once again we packed up and headed out. Our departure was not without a little drama: as we finished climbing up out of the valley Mr. J suddenly lacked power and then just stopped. At this point it was pouring with rain and blowing a howling gale, at one point the rain drops even turned to ice as they hit the windows. There was no way we were going to climb out and try and fiddle with him in those conditions so we spent the time trying to work through the scenarios of what could be wrong; the lack of power and cut-out was very similar to what we had experienced in Malawi also on a steep climb up from the lake and on first appearance it appeared like we had ran out of fuel but we knew that could be not possible based on our mileage so far; our next idea was that perhaps somehow we had got water/contaminations in the fuel system. When the rain eased off a bit, Stuart (assuming the 2^nd idea the most probable) opened the valve on the fuel sedimenter and instead of getting the expected water and diesel flow was greeted by a hissing sound as air escaped the system. A very strange result and it would take a few more “breakdowns” over the next few weeks for us to finally find the problem. For now though we were grateful to not be stuck in the middle of nowhere and happily setoff for Montagu.

Having spent a week disconnected from the world and being back in travel mode we were in no hurry to “stick our faces to phones” in order to catch-up on social media and the news.

This meant we blissfully went about shopping for some supplies before hitting the road again and heading east along the very scenic R62. The real grassroots impact of the lockdown and ban on local travel was very evident as we passed through the small towns bordering the Karoo, such as Barrydale, whose economies are heavily dependent on weekend travellers.

When you are the only tourists in a whole town

Our plan was still to travel slowly and explore the area but after finding 2 potential camping spots closed and needing ideas we did finally pull out the phones to search for alternatives, at which point we saw the inevitable WhatsApp messages regarding the renewed ban on alcohol sales and also clarity that leisure accommodation was to remain closed for the remainder of Lockdown Level 3.

We were now homeless with nowhere to park….

The regulations did still allow inter-provincial travel if you were relocating residences so having had our fair share of the cold and wet that is a Cape Town winter and with the prospect of a very long extended lockdown being in place ( and no Old Brown Sherry to warm the bones at Samantha’s house ) we decided to use the allowed exemption for travel and relocate to Stuart’s brothers holiday home in Durban.

Now that we had a plan of action, first priority for the afternoon was to find somewhere to sleep before starting the long trip east the next day. It took three more failed attempts and 150km before we eventually found a spot in Calitzdorp.

That night as we sat parked in a “formal” camping spot next to an old railway siding, Tania cooked supper while Stuart sat in the front of Mr. J preparing the affidavits required to allow inter-provincial movement. Thanks to modern technology and suitably qualified friends we were able to digitally sign such documents, email them off and receive them back duly notarized.

Considering that we had 1600km ahead of us, our start the next morning was much later than it should have been but it is difficult to emerge from under a lovely warm duvet when the sun is late to rise and its bitterly cold outside. Our plan was to do the journey in 2 days which in a modern vehicle would be no issue but in good old Mr. Jones was going to be quite a big task.

Despite being under “pressure” we thoroughly enjoyed the day’s drive as we marvelled at the constantly changing landscapes and scenery; the stunning beauty and rock formations of Meiringspoort; snow on the mountains and next to the road around Richmond; the beautiful yellow grasses contrasting with browns all through the Karoo. If only we could have done this slowly and stopped often.

When we had set off in the morning we had no idea how far we would get or where we would sleep that night, especially considering the previous days challenges in finding accommodation, so as the shadows grew long we began considering our options. The first one was to head down one of the small dirt roads that intersect with the N1 and bush camp for the night and the second option was to spend a night in a truck stop with the long-haul truckers. Bush camping in the rest of Africa is generally pretty safe and accepted but we are not so sure about it in South Africa, even in the middle of the Karoo so in the end decided on the latter option.

As the sun was setting we pulled into a truck stop outside the tiny dorp of Springfontein, roughly 150km south of Bloemfontein, not knowing what to expect but ultimately were pleasantly surprised. The ablutions were spotless, security good and if you fill up with diesel you stay for free otherwise it is R50 for the night. The AluCab Icarus roof and subsequent camper conversion were once again worth their weight in gold as we holed up inside drinking wine and cooking supper while watching the outside temperature drop, the forecast predicted -6 deg Celsius for the morning!

We had been a little concerned that we would have a disturbed night of sleep with the coming and goings of trucks but in fact slept really well and only noticed noise from around 4:30 in the morning, this may have been because of the lockdown curfew in place but nonetheless we weren’t complaining. As expected the temperatures plummeted overnight and when we switched lights on, around 6am, the inside of the tent was sparkling with ice crystals so emerging from our lovely warm duvet took quite a bit of willpower especially knowing that we have no heater in Mr. J and would not be getting warm anytime soon. Eleven months prior in Mozambique we had a coolant leak at the heater and so had bypassed it as “bush” fix, replacing the heater matrix was on the to-do list but to our detriment we had only planned to do it once arriving in Natal.

Apart from not being able to warm ourselves, the lack of a heater meant we couldn’t defrost the windows so Stuart had to scrape off a surprisingly thick and stubborn layer of ice from the windscreen using our kitchen spatula.

We must have been quite a sight when we pulled into the Engen One stop at Bloemfontein, (anybody who has ever driven in a defender will know that they are anything but airtight) so with no heater and the chilly temps we were wearing as many layers as we could and had towels and other miscellaneous clothing items stuck in every nook and cranny trying to keep the cold out and the little warmth we were generating in. Apart from filling up with diesel we were hoping to sit down at Wimpy to warmup while enjoying some bacon and eggs with coffee, alas this was not to be as they were still closed under the Covid lockdown restrictions. A takeout pie for breakfast it was going to be for the second day in a row.

The rest of the day passed by uneventfully as we traversed across the Free State, stopping briefly in Bethlehem to finally shed some layers of clothes, and then barrelling along the N3 towards Durban (well barrelling as fast as a heavily loaded Landy can).

Despite making good progress, Kevin’s holiday home was 100km to far in respect to getting there in time to collect keys, so late in the afternoon we pulled in at Tania sister’s (Nicole) smallholding in Drummond for one more night of camping in Mr. Jones as the “inn was full”, so to speak.

Anybody who has been monitoring our maintenance log will know that the trip has not been without a few minor breakdowns/repairs but Mr. Jones has always been a scholar and a gentleman in terms of when and where he decided to take a break and we have always appreciated him for that. Our sense of humour and appreciation for him did however fail us when he chose the very moment we arrived at the security office of the estate Kevin’s holiday home is located in, to cut out and then subsequently refuse to start – the estate is very smart, has many rules and we doubt anybody has ever crawled under a car at the security booms in an attempt to fix it.

Thankfully by the time we had completed the necessary biometric registrations for access he had had enough of a rest and started with a bit of coaxing. We clearly had a problem but what was it? First thought would be the some issue as a few days earlier but alas it was not, over time we were to discover & fix more than one issue.

Over the next weeks we slowly got used to having a large family home to ourselves, made full use of the amenities and in between relaxing, made regular weekend trips up to Drummond to carry out various service items on Mr. Jones. Mr. Jones was not the only one to receive maintenance attention during this time, Tania had been struggling with her foot the last few months which we thought would require the attention of an orthopaedic surgeon. Thankfully no surgery was required but the orthopaedic did recommend visiting a bio-kineticist to align the “chassis”. Normally the bio-kineticist would conduct a program for this over the course of 3 – 4 months but as we did not expect to hang around in Ballito that long, he come up with an intense program to “fix your sh#t” in one month (his words not ours…).

Just as for our stay in Cape Town, our stay in Ballito has been longer than envisaged but after 8 weeks enjoying all the amenities it is time to get back in our home and start wandering.

It is easy to procrastinate leaving, especially in times like this and with all the luxury around us, but just as it was a little over a year ago when we first embarked on the journey we are reminded that “the first step is always the hardest…”.

Travel Diary: Phase 1 of Lockdown

When a planned stay with family of two weeks turns into one month, then 2 months all the while quietly slipping back into “domestic bliss”. Eventually after 4 months we hit the road, these were the joys for us of being caught up in South Africa’s initial Covid-19 lockdown phases.

When we first arrived in Cape Town on the 21 March we were planning on spending a couple of weeks there, firstly celebrating the 50^th birthdays of Tania middle sister (Nicole) & brother in-law and then doing some riding around the peninsular on our Harley Davidson which had conveniently relocated together with Samantha (Tania youngest sister) while we were away on our travels.

After that we were going to spend 3 weeks working our way leisurely up South Africa’s garden route and Wild Coast to arrive in Durban by the beginning of May in time for the visit of our son, Devon, and his girlfriend Hannah arrival. This was to be Hannah’s first trip to South Africa and we had a wonderful 2 weeks planned taking in the KZN coast, game reserves and the Drakensberg.

Two days after our arrival, a three week Covid-19 lockdown was announced which instantly scuppered all of the above plans. At the time we however naively still thought that we could be back on the road internally within South Africa by May and that Devon & Hannah would be able to fly out from the UK by September. If that were to become the case we believed we may still get to South America by the end of 2020, only a few months later than originally planned.

In the meantime we turned our attention to keeping sane and having fun during the initial stage of lockdown with lots of reading, taking regular walks through the vineyard & gardens of the property Samantha lives on, weeding in the vegetable garden, streaming online concerts at sunset and conducting theme events: “pancakes at Mr. Jones farmstall” , “Sam’s Trattoria”, “Tania Indian Curry”

As the initial 3 weeks was extended to 6 and with the prospects of even more extensions likely we realised all long-term planning was meaningless and that we really would just have to wait and see….

Thankfully despite the lockdown extension, the slow opening of commercial activity meant Stuart could focus on some of the jobs and upgrades we had planned for Mr. J based on learnings from the last 8 months. When we built him in Johannesburg we could easily source materials as Stuart knew were all the suppliers were but now in a new city much time was spent googling and wandering around industrial areas seeking out a suitable supplier.

Once the basic materials were sourced Stuart set about the upgrades and was ultimately amazed at what can be achieved with only a drill, a small hacksaw and camp table for a workshop plus of course the other standard tools we carry in Mr. J

As the weeks passed we ticked off a number of jobs ranging from upgrading our solar power setup, right down to making small brackets and enhancements which will make living in our tiny space even easier. A breakdown of the upgrades done can be found here.

At the beginning of June South Africa moved to “lockdown level 3” which freed up some movement and left a number of grey areas in the regulations open for interpretation. For example exercise was allowed but surfing wasn’t or the regulations implied that leisure intra-provincial travel and accommodation was allowed while the tourism department said it was not.

Considering that surfing is the perfect “social distancing sport” it did not take long for the the surfers to reclaim the waves and so we began to make daily trips down to the beach for the first surfing Stuart had done since leaving Mozambique in August 2019, although it did require the purchase of a thick wetsuit. The wetsuit made it perfectly possible to spend lengthy periods in the water but our favourite will still always be warm water locations. While Stuart was out surfing Tania would sit on the edge of the promenade (beaches were still off-limit) with her mask on, reading and observing the general goings on.

We also began to observe on various social media platforms that a few camping places were starting to open up so the decision was made to take some tentative steps towards travel within the Western Cape hoping that as time progressed travel across provincial borders would be allowed and we could therefore move our way eastwards to Durban and a warmer winter.

In the second week of July we set off, just as a massive cold front was about to lash the Western Cape, for a totally off-grid location in the mountains outside Montagu where social distancing & isolation was never going to be an issue.

More of our 10 days off-grid and in isolation to follow in the next blog post, together with our subsequent mad dash across the country when a hasty change in the regulations forced our hand as to “should we stay or should we go”

Travel Diary: South Africa’s West Coast

As we sit safely ensconced in isolation, it seems almost surreal to think how foot loose and fancy free we were only 3 weeks ago. This travel diary covers our re-entry into South Africa and the short(ish) journey down the west coast to Cape Town. The accompanying Captain(s) log gives the usual brief insight into the daily emotions and thoughts of life off the “well trodden path”.

As everyone already knows border crossing days rank highly as our least favourite days but both our entry into Namibia a little over a month ago and again our exit into South Africa have been super easy. Although they are different countries most of the time Namibia has just felt like an extension of South Africa, right down to the fact that you can pay with and often receive change in Rands, so apart from some stamps in the passport we could have just been changing provinces.

The border did though bring us, for the first, time face to face with the Corona virus fear taking hold of the world as all the border officials where wearing face masks & gloves and we had to have our temperature taken before entry into the SA border area. This is not a unique experience on the trip, for most of our time in East Africa they had been battling an Ebola outbreak which meant many borders had quite strict hygiene measures in place. For instance when entering Rwanda we had to exit the vehicle, have our temperature taken and then walk across sanitized mats while washing our hands.

Due to the vastness of Namibia we have often been quite disconnected from both social and mainstream news media the last couple of weeks and so the way that the Covid-19 has impacted the world has been very difficult to get our minds around. We re-entered South Africa mid-March and at that stage, the same number of people die on South African roads over the festive season as had died in Italy over it’s worst month (then but it got worse) but yet the road death toll just gets passing mention and thought each year. 10 days later as South Africa entered lockdown this statement was proven to be naive but we have left it in because that’s what it felt like for us at that stage… However we also understand the precautions required given the rapid spread of the virus and on more than one occasion have thought perhaps we are better off staying out in the countryside and not heading to Cape Town.

After spending our first night back in South Africa at the west coast dorp of Kleinzee we headed southwards to the Namaqua National park. Entry at the northern gate is done by opening the gate yourself and then using the two way radio housed in a box on the side of a building to talk to the park headquarters some 80km to the south and obtain “approval” to enter. After lowering the tyre pressures for the soft sand ahead we enjoyed a lovely wander down the coast stopping many times to admire the views and little bays, finally stopping at “Kwaas se Baai” to camp. Later in the afternoon some officials stopped by to officially sign us in and collect our camping fees.

The campsite at “Kwaas se Baai” was just perfect: on top of a little rise overlooking an aquamarine bay dotted with kelp and fringed with white sand. The only thing preventing longer stays is the often inclement weather and that you need to be totally self-sufficient as there is no water, power, etc. Our first afternoon presented us with all the west coast “seasons”: from sunny to windy, then very misty and finally mild clouds which gave us a lovely sunset. The following day however dawned still and clear which is exactly what we had wished for, so the day’s activities consisted of a short wander down to beach for some sand&sun time, back to Mr J for lunch and then back down to beach again for more sun&sand time combined with white wine. A perfect day!

On our 3rd day we woke to the ugly “season” with lots of mist and cold winds coming off the Atlantic. Over the fire the previous evening we had discussed staying another day as we had sufficient water and the solar panels had kept the battery well charged, but that idea had now quickly evaporated. The drive out of the park, firstly inland and then further south, felt hard going which was possibly not helped by a hand brake which was emitting a burnt brake pad smell. Stuart had forgotten to disengage the handbrake 2 days earlier when setting off from one of our stops to admire the coastline and with Mr J being in low range at the time due to the thick sand it took a while until we noticed it (that while, being long enough to burn brake pads and possibly bind them to the drum!!).

We were undecided were to go for the night and eventually landed up at Standfontein because the reviews on iOverlander described “Horse Shoe Campsite with lush green lawns and shady trees”. The lawns were green but certainly not lush, trees rather small and the wind was honking, added to which the ablutions are nothing special given that it is in fact a municipal campground but sadly with private camping rates. We were not impressed but being tired and hot, had no other choice. Supper was cooked and eaten inside Mr J while the wind howled around us, the van was rocking but with the mood inside you certainly could have come a knockin…

The one advantage of our detour to Standfontein is it put us only 9km from Doring Bay and Friars Cove winery. So after a leisurely start in the morning, including taking time out to loosen the binding hand brake, we trotted down the road to the winery for some tastings and a lovely lunch of Calamari and snoekkoekies (fish cakes). Having stocked up Mr J with white wine, we headed further south towards Citrusdal (and it’s mineral baths) with the intention to park off, relax and kill time before getting to Cape Town for the end of the week.

It was however extremely hot on the road (with no aircon we recorded 38deg Celsius inside Mr Jones! ) so when we passed a spot called Roodeberg resort bordering on the small Bulshoek dam, it didn’t take much to persuade us to do a u-turn and decide to spend a few days camped on the lake shore. When it started to cool down in the evening, the SUP was unloaded from the roof box and inflated ready for some paddle time the next day. Incredibly the last time we used the SUP was 4,5 months ago in Malawi, we had hoped to use it on both Lake Kivu (Rwanda) and Lake Tanganyika (Tanzania) but in both cases a combination of iffy weather and concern re potential lurking crocodiles stopped that.

A couple of very relaxed days followed with a few paddles thrown in for good measure, all the while blissfully disconnected from the world and the escalating corona issues as there was no cell reception down by the lake. We did however, once again, get a taste of what lay ahead of us when the campsite put up a notice “barring foreigners from staying due to Corona fears” as we prepared to leave.

While we could have easily headed straight into Cape Town from Roodeberg we weren’t due there (due because Tania sister, Nicole, was flying in for a birthday celebration) for a few more days and so decided to stop, as intended a few days priors, at Citrusdal mineral baths. While checking in at reception it quickly become apparent to us that now that we are back in SA we may perhaps have to start pre-planning with regards overnight stops as they had limited availability and only 2 sites available if wanting to stay multiple nights. A routine of a mid morning swim followed by a lazy afternoon next to Mr Jones and then a late night swim quickly developed over the next couple of days.

The arrival of the weekend and the start of SA’s school holidays, with the resultant influx of campers, was a clear signal for us to move on and complete our journey into Cape Town. The final drive across Western Cape’s Swartland with it’s mix of agricultural (wheat, grain and wine) and rugged mountains was a nice reminder of how much variety South Africa has to offer in terms of scenery and tourism.

Sadly the planned birthday celebrations for Nicole were not to be, as the impact of Covid-19 really hit home and South Africa went into lockdown. By pure luck we had made it to SA and the safe haven of Cape Town just in time, (for which we are very grateful as being on the road would be extremely difficult during this time), but it is surreal to think that not 10 days earlier we had been sitting on the West coast totally disconnected and downplaying the impact of the virus.

Gallery: South Africa’s West Coast

Captain(s) Log: March 2020

We have been very privileged to take the path less travelled the last 8 months and move about with no destination or deadline in mind, and have big plans to take Mr J over to South America and continue the journey but with the world now sailing unchartered waters (April 2020) it is impossible to know if or when that may be possible. We have however learnt over this journey how little a person really needs, how simple life can be and that the simple pleasures are often the best pleasures so remain quietly optimistic that this will become possible. In the meantime we are staying isolated (as we hope you are) and doing our very small bit to “flatten the curve”. Stay safe everyone, Stuart & Tania

Travel Diary: Namibia (part 2)

In this second part of our Namibia travel diary we head to the coast and enjoy some long overdue beach and ocean time before getting onto the main tourist tracks through the Namib desert. Later on Mr. Jones gets a service in what will probably be the most remote dedicated Land Rover service station ever.

If you missed part 1 of the diary you can find it here: Namibia (part 1)

Leaving the desert behind we headed towards the coastal town of Swakopmund. Our first impressions were not great as the outskirts initially appear rather soulless but as you go deeper into town and closer to the beach it’s character changes and it turns into quite a nice little quaint seaside town. We chose to camp at Tiger Reef which despite some negative reviews on iOverlander turned out to be perfect as it allowed us to walk along the promenade, stop at a little food caravan and enjoy an awesome lunch of Calamari and Kabeljou followed by a little more exploration of the beachfront. Having had a rather fulling lunch we enjoyed sundowners (followed by a cheese and ham sandwich back at Mr J) on the restaurant deck adjacent to the camp, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean which was the perfect end to the day.

Turning our noses north for a bit we headed for the start of the Skeleton coast and the Cape Cross seal colony. The stark landscapes while never going to be able to hold us for long are beautiful in their barrenness and isolation, over the years many a ship has been wrecked along this coastline with usually disastrous consequences for the crew because even if you make it ashore your chances of survival would be minimal. This though is not the reason for the Skeleton coast name, that in fact comes from the many whales who have run aground here.

The seal colony at Cape Cross reserve is quite a site (and smell!!) to behold with hundreds of seals frolicking in the water and thousands on the land calling to each other and climbing over themselves. The birthing period is December to January so we were fortunate to see many baby seals, most of whom appeared to be on their own. The moms go out to sea for up to seven days and then return to feed the pups, how they find each other when Mom returns to shore is unfathomable to our brains but certainly probably has something to do with all the calling that was taking place, we can best describe it as being in the middle of thousand strong herd of goats. Apart from sights and noise the other thing that takes your breath away is the smell or more accurately the stench, it seeps into everything and upon getting to our camp spot later we needed to urgently wash both ourselves and our clothes.

Bizarrely the Portuguese explorer (Diago Cao) chose this point to come ashore in 1484 and plant a cross in an attempt to claim the land for Portugal, one would assume the seals were nesting at this point even back then so why he chose this smelly spot and not a few kilometres in either direction is a bit baffling unless the seals provided an easy source of protein and fat?

Mr Jones has been very good to us on this trip, there have been a few niggles here and there, which is to be expected considering his age and what he has been put through, but most of our maintenance log entries are non-him related. Stuart gives him a brief looking over and under most days but hadn’t done so since leaving Windhoek and so we got rather lucky that when reaching under to disconnect the grey water bucket he noticed a very loose nut on the rear suspension linkage. If that had come off while driving it could have got ugly! Fortunately, a quick tightening sorted it out and we were ready to hit the road but not before a new item was added to the “South Africa shopping list”, the correct size (#30) spanner.

From the coast we headed inland to Spitzkoppe which is often referred to as the Matterhorn of Namibia. The main massif rises high above the desert and is visible from many miles away. In the 90’s it was a climbing spot Stuart dreamt of visiting and climbing but at that stage it was not too be. While checking in the receptionist was complaining about how dry it is, we assured her that now that we had arrived she could definitely expect rain, lo and behold that night we got a big thunderstorm. The camping is quite organised with designated sites amongst the boulders and outcrops, each has a long drop toilet but no other facilities so we were most grateful for our onboard outdoor shower.

After a very relaxed morning hanging around the camp at Spitzkoppe we took a leisurely drive westwards and back to Swakopmund with the intention of spending the weekend there and enjoying some beach time. Unusually so we both woke quite early on the Sunday, so before heading down to the beach, Stuart jacked the car up, removed wheels, checked brakes and greased all the steering and prop-shaft nipples. While we have been doing small preventative maintenance on the road it has been 10 000km since his last service in Nairobi. The changing of oil will have to wait a little while but as Mr J has a mysterious ability to make oil disappear and require top-up’s every 1000km this is not too much of a worry.

The rest of Sunday was spent down on the beach, broken up with lunch from the same food caravan we had visited previously as the calamari and fish was just too good last time not to revisit.

In contrast to the day before we made a latish start when leaving Swakopmund, initially making a short detour via Walvis Bay to see if the Flamingoes were in the bay and then westwards on the C14 to once again traverse the Namib Nauklift park. However compared to our previous eastwards traverse on the C28 which was incredibly scenic we found the scenery a bit bland and boring this time around, our lack of enjoyment was not helped by at least half the 250km covered being on bone jarring corrugations. Based on the number of rental 4×4’s coming towards us all day we were clearly now on the main tourist route. Turning off the dirt road towards our overnight stop (Sossus on Foot) we were not too hopeful but pleasantly surprised as after a few kilometres the road all of sudden drops before you into a little valley and a small oasis with a few campsites looking out of over the vast landscape. As we were the only people camping and it was so hot we opted once again to setup the outdoor shower and enjoy a refreshing shower next to Mr Jones in the early evening.

On arrival at Sesriem the following morning we decided to first go and buy a permit for our next day’s visit into the Park (Sossusvlei) which caused much confusion both at the gate and at reception. It turns out the standard practice is to arrive at the gate on the day of entry, obtain an entry number, visit the Sossusvlei dunes and then only pay for your permit when exiting – hence the confusion as to why we wanted to buy it the day before but nobody told us this and we only learnt of the “standard” practice the following morning when sitting in the queue of cars at the gate.

On iOverlander we had read of a campsite (Sossus Oasis) being located behind the fuel station just outside the park entry gate so given that it was behind a petrol station we were not expecting much but fortunately were pleasantly surprised. Each site had a covered shade area and own ablutions with a semi outdoor shower plus there was a lovely little swimming pool located in the centre of the ring of campsites. Because we had stopped at Sossus on Foot the day before and therefore only had had a short hop into Sesriem we arrived long before the campsite filled up so the hammocks got strung up next to the pool and we settled in for an afternoon of G&T’s, reading and swimming.

The towering red dunes around Sesriem and at Sossusvlei are the iconic landscape picture which usually appears in any kind tourism literature for the country. Added to that is the stark contrasts of, and thus heavily photographed, Dood vlei (Dead Vlei) with its white clay floor, dead trees and red dunes as a back drop. The best time to photograph all of this is in the early morning but with the dunes being 60km inside the park and the gates only opening at sunrise it makes for quite the bun fight, once again as with the gorillas a few months ago we got to witness the worst side of the dog eat dog nature of many human beings. Despite this we did enjoy our time in the dunes trying to take artistic pictures of the trees but left knowing that we also prefer the hidden gems off the beaten track rather than the “must see” spots as per standard guidebooks.

For interest sake the trees are believed to have died 900+ years ago when the Tsauchab river path was cut-off by the shifting sand and have subsequently been preserved in their present form due to the aridity of the environment and thus the absence of wood boring insects.

Having taken our pictures and driven the 60km back out of the park by 11:00 in the morning we decided to head further south rather than spend another day “behind the fuel station”. Tania’s good friend, Emma, had sent us an article on some lilies which were flowering near Maltohoe after the recent rains and with that only being 120km away we programmed the GPS for that. It was a lovely drive, firstly because it would seem that as soon as we headed south we got off the main tourist track with once again lovely quite roads and secondly the scenery shifted from a moon landscape to more of a Karoo one which while barren has a lot of variety in terms of hills and plant life. Our sense of humor did however get tested at the end of the day when we headed down a small farm track to what was meant to be a wonderful camping spot only to find after 8km a locked farm gate. Once we had reversed our route and got back to the main dirt road Tania managed to slip in the mud while opening the final gate, rather funny afterwards but not at the time.

Unfortunately, viewing the lilies was not to be as they only flower for 4 short days after the first heavy rains and had disappeared a few days before we arrived. Nothing ventured nothing gained.

One advantage of our failed search for the lilies is that we got to drive along the valley between Maltahoe and Aus as this valley was absolutely spectacular, we nicknamed it the “valley of colours”. The landscape and plants/grasses changed constantly from whites, greys, reds, greens, yellows and various shades of brown making the 200km journey an absolute pleasure.

Basing ourselves at Klein Aus Vista we made the 240km round trek to Lüderitz and the ghost town of Kolmanskop. Approaching Ludertitz we had in the back of our minds that we had read that the Kolmanskop guided tours only took place until 13:00 so decided to stop there first which was very fortunate cause in fact they appeared to only have 2 guided tours per morning. The first takes place at 9:30 and the second at 11:00 and we arrived at 10:45. If you miss the tour you are welcome to walk around yourself but we don’t think you will get the same appreciation for the monumental effort that was required to both build and maintain the town when it was “alive”, as a plus the tour is free and included in your entry fee. For information purposes, access to the site closes at 13:00 unless you have a pre-arranged photographic permit.

Kolmanskop was founded in 1908 when diamonds were accidentally discovered while building the railway inland from Lüderitz and so began a diamond rush which kept the town alive for nearly 30 years, constantly fighting the encroachment of the desert and surviving despite the harshest of elements, for instance: all water was shipped in from Cape Town which is nearly 800km’s to the south.

After the tour we strolled around for a bit , taking pictures but with midday approaching it was baking hot and walking in slops on soft hot sand soon had us bailing for the cool ocean breeze which Lüderitz enjoys just over the hills to the west.

A number of times in the last few days we had heard of the camping spot at Shark “Island” but most people had put us off by telling us it was windswept and not very pleasant, plus being overpriced, so out of curiosity we drove out too it upon our arrival in Lüderitz. It is definitely overpriced but what a stunning location it enjoys wedged on a peninsula overlooking the Atlantic on the one side and the tiny protected natural harbour of Luderitz on the other, with many large rocky outcrops you could park behind for wind protection. We instantly regretted leaving some of our gear at Klein Aus as it would have been nice to spend a night there.

We have not had occasion to eat out much on the entire trip as all too often in the places we stayed the offerings are only overpriced burgers or pizzas, but we thoroughly enjoyed a little lunch of cheddar cheese meatballs on ciabatta with salad at the little deli opposite the Spar in town. With full stomachs we drove a little north to check out the views before parking on the beachfront to catch up on some social media time – the cell signal through the desert has naturally been mostly non-existent.

Having caught up on the latest cat, coffee, dog and corona virus posts we hit the road for the long and very straight drive back across the desert to Klein Aus Vista, with only one small detour to look at a few of the wild horses drinking at a waterhole close to the main road. The exact origin of these feral wild horses is unknown but they have been roaming wild and incredibly surviving in the desert for over 100 years. Their ongoing survival does look a lot more assured with the establishment of this permanent waterhole.

With all our mileage the last 1,5 months Mr Jones was a little overdue for an oil change which while we could do that ourselves, thanks to the not-so-brilliant placement by Land Rover of the oil filter it is a rather messy job and so best done at a proper workshop. On a farm 60km south of Keetmanshoop is a highly regarded Landy mechanic (Johann Strauss) and so we headed there but once again our timing with regards servicing was not great in respect to it being a weekend. We therefore broke the journey eastwards up with a night in Keetmanshoop which also gave time for shopping for supplies, before heading out to the farm on the Sunday afternoon.

Our intention was to have a quick oil change done on the Monday morning and then move on but from the daily monitoring we do on the road Stuart did have a few items he wanted to ask Johann about, one of these was what looked like some movement in the left engine mount rubber. Upon closer inspection it turned out that in fact the engine mount was broken and so a quick service turned into a long day of lifting the engine to remove and replace mounts with the inevitable small hiccups like a seized nut on the exhaust manifold and then a broken stud bolt. Thankfully by early evening everything was in place and a few other miscellaneous items had been fixed.

One of the miscellaneous items was fitting a rubber grommet seal on the rear prop-shaft, when the original plastic cover had perished in Tanzania Stuart had used zip ties to hold the individual seals together which has worked surprisingly well. A good quantity of Zip ties is an essential toolbox item. While all this went on Tania read her kindle, entertained the farm Jack Russell and played dodgem with the sun as she moved her chair between Land Rovers and workshop buildings.

The longer service time meant we spent another night camped on the farm but we weren’t complaining as we had found a lovely spot a kilometre or so from the farmhouse to enjoy the peace and quite of being literally in the middle of nowhere.

The following morning while settling the bill we had a lovely kuier (chat) with Johan and his wife and received all sorts of farm treats before heading off on our journey again. Who knows where else in the world we may end up servicing or fixing Mr Jones but this certainly was unique and a lovely service experience.

Our plan from the farm was to head south to the Fish River Canyon with an overnight stop at the Canyon Roadhouse but upon being allocated a disappointingly bare and sandy campsite right on top of a much larger group we made the quick decision to carry on to view the actual canyon before carrying on further south to camp on the Orange river instead. This turned a planned short day into a rather long one and upon arrival at Norotshama river resort it was an easy decision to stay a couple of nights and take a long overdue rest day.

Being on the orange river meant we had reached the bottom of Namibia and on the 12 March, we crossed back into SA exactly 7 months since leaving Johannesburg and normal life. The adventure and journey is far from over, in fact it is just beginning as we still have so much to see and do so don’t unsubscribe just yet.

The Orange river turning orange at sunset

Links to other parts of the blog relevant to our time in Namibia:

Gallery: Namibia

Captain(s) Log: February 2020 A glimpse into the daily emotions of life on the road as we crossed Zambia and then Namibia

Maintenance Log: The usual list of items requiring maintenance in order to keep ourselves and Mr Jones on the road

Tag: #alucab

Travel Diary: Wild & South Coast

Travel Diary: South Africa – Desert & Sea

Travel Diary: South Africa – Western Cape

Travel Diary: South Africa Wild Coast & Garden Route

Travel Diary: South Africa North Coast

Travel Diary: Slow travel South Africa during COVID

Travel Diary: Phase 2 of Lockdown

Travel Diary: Phase 1 of Lockdown

Travel Diary: South Africa’s West Coast

Travel Diary: Namibia (part 2)

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