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.
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.
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.
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.
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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