Travel Diary: South Africa Wild Coast & Garden Route

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.

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!!

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.  

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.

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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.