#Travel South Africa – 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 – 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: 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…”.

Tag: #Travel South Africa

Travel Diary: Wild & South Coast

Travel Diary: South Africa – Western Cape

Travel Diary: Phase 2 of Lockdown

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