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Wednesday July 26th, Champagne Lane, Winterton, Natal, South Africa Tonight it will be "very cold" according to the weather reports - tonight it will freeze with temperatures down to minus 2C. Difficult to imagine eh? We are now completely ready for the trek: picked up the cruiser in Durban on Monday. Getting a freight agent here certainly made the job of shipping really easy. In, chat, pay and out - no official interaction - EASY! It was also easier to get there than come back. All downhill from here to Durban, uphill on the way back. The cruiser, being a diesel, behaves much like a truck, forget speed or acceleration. There was not much to test it's hill climbing abilities in Ontario before we left. No luck finding the roof tent guy - went to Scottborough, 50Km South of Durban, but he was not there - RATS! We will need some form of reliable security sleeping function, so will have to re-organise a meeting. Still I made it down to Durban, picked up the Cruiser, dropped off the hire car, down to Scottborough and back to here in 12 hours. The cruiser not liking the grades, but getting here anyway before dark. Thought I had pretty well locked up or bolted down everything I could think of, it appears that our friendly RORO (Roll On/ Roll Off) shipping company, has dishonest employees. Someone on board still managed to get into the back to take the radio, and a few other (now apparently) non essential bits.
Just wonderful to be galloping out in the crisp morning air with the Drakensburg mountains for a backdrop. Kayla & I in the "intermediate" - trotting, cantering, and if you hang out at the end of the line long enough, galloping.... it's been a long time. We use Australian saddles - not English, great for holding on if you start bouncing out of sequence, but not easy to get used to - I get a sore bum!
Finally start to "plan" some of our trip. Get hold of RCI and book Vic Falls in Zimbabwe for September 22nd - 29th. - anyone interested in joining us there? This at least ties down some of our plans, so now we can organise ourselves regarding Namibia and Botswana. Cape town around August 18th - 25th. Wednesday, 26th. Did part of the "battle route" in the PM - there are a hell of a lot of war sites, Anglo Boer, Anglo Zulu around here. Lots of dead from the turn of the (last) century. Headed up Spionkop where a pile of Brits & Boers got the collective chop from each other during Brit attempts to relieve Ladysmith. It was a fair climb up, and the cruiser celebrated reaching the top by boiling over! Oh dear, this is not a good sign! Do a tour of Ladysmith and see in the museum what life was like during the siege - very interesting part of someone's history. Have met a family from Durban (Larry & Juliet), who are home schooling their kids, so they can take their vacations during school times. Local education seems to be pretty basic since all students get the same level of teaching now, and that averages out to be pretty poor. So, if you want your kids educated at a level above average, you do it, or pay someone to do it.. Their kids seem to be as happy on the tramp as ours. We chat about the social, economic etc etc aspects of life in South Africa. The violence here seems to be totally endemic. They, like everyone else simply offer the advice to be aware of it, but not let it intrude in our daily lifestyle. Coming from Canada, where you do not (yet anyway) need to have your car door locked all the time even when you are in it, this is easier said than done. Apocryphally, anything up to 40%+ of Africans are HIV positive (we have heard these figures before). This will present certain challenges not just to South Africa, but to all of Africa, and the world over the next 5 - 15 years. We have a few gin & tonic sundowners, and braii the night away. A Journalistic Aside: We have a radio in the time share, and occasionally get some "news". Lots of stuff about sport: apparently SA was really keen to host the 20?? World Soccer matches, but blew it to Germany, still lots of fall out, also, cricket scandals abound - not good for the countries psyche, but then what is? Journalism still needs a bit of fine tuning here: the SA news led various sporting aspects, there was then a story of 20 Cape town squatters being moved into permanent accommodation "only one of those being moved was sober" states the reporter, and then interviews this lone stand out of local norms "it's good for us to have a place to live" was the (apparently only) sober view of the actions. After more sports, the news ended with a 10 second piece on the crash of a French Concorde, with loss of all aboard. Break for a word from our sponsor! Distance travelled this entry: 350 Km. Distance moved on trip this entry: 0 Km |
Tuesday 25th, finds the family charging around 
Aiden & the missus doing the beginner bit, they get the walk, walk, walk routine - everyone enjoys the outing.
