Our third and final day here. It would be truly fantastic if the sun had shone like it has for the past 2 hours all the time, but it has not. We have however had a truly amazing ride in the real (?) outback of South Africa, even better than our ride around Champaign Lane last time we were here.
The story so far: come Monday AM, we are up early, packing and saying our goodbyes. Into Durban to get the roof box on, pick up the gas cap (left at the body shop), and by 10:30. Kayla & I begin our travels. We pass a pleasant first day on the road slowly winding our way first out of Durban, then again up and out of Petermaritzburg -great view looking back, but I can't too much as I'm driving. Last time I did this, the van overheated, and it took a week to fix. Still due to that problem, we met Mike & Kerry, so it was a bonus in hiding. This time, just a slight rise in engine temerature, and we are up onto the Highvelt - about 1200 metres. We are taking the Drakensburg mountains (fantastic scenery) route to Sterkfontein Dam just inside Free State.
All in all, no major problems with this driving on the left - just follow the guy in front, and be very careful turning right.
We arrive early, from the days travel. Lovely place with a great view. Luckily, they found us a cabin as it was freezing that night and camping would have given us a few frozen body parts.
A very interesting evening spent watching the TV. It only has 1 channel this far out as it's pretty remote here. This does however have at least three sets of audience: English, Afrikaans and (?) Zulu (could be Sotho?). There may also be a common thread of generic morons as some of the shows are unbelievable, well maybe not so much considering CBS & NBC programming. Apart from the shows being pretty off the wall, the interesting thing for us was the news. Essentially, it was one station, one set of news and 3 ways to present it. We only saw the Sotho & Afrikaans news. There was something about white guys in Pretoria, and in Afrikaans, we only saw their faces, but on the black news variety, we also saw full shots of the manacles they had on. The Afrikaans showed footage of several interviews, and all the whites spoke Afrikaans, and most of the blacks spoke English. Only when we saw the Sotho news did we realise the interviewees had been speaking English, but were dubbed in to Afrikaans.
Back on the highway after our detour and we head off to our next stop - Vaal Dam in Gauteng. We are still very much aware of the road side/ security situation here. While driving from the dam, there was a car which had very recently driven off the road, there were 2 cars there when we passed, but, I'd been warned not to stop on any highway. Very sad state of affairs, maybe it's simple a very sad state of mind?
Vaal Dam: This placed is truly frightening, we head into the main resort, razor wire, high fences, security guards like I do not want to believe. How can people live under these conditions? Total paranoia sets in. It's getting late. Gauteng does not seem to be a location I want to be in at night time, so we get the hell out of there and bugger off to a place about 150Km out of Joburg in a totally different direction . We end up, just after dark at Oliphants, a lodge just outside of Middleburg .
It's lovely here. Quiet, peaceful and safe - not a strand of razor wire anywhere. Wide open perfectly clear skies. Kayla & I play chess on the garden chessboard.
Wednesday and we check out the locale around the town. We (or is it just me?) Begin to feel that we are back in the real South Africa. Parking guards are everywhere again, not sure if that's a good sign or not anymore. At least we can assume the van will be safe for a while. This is also partially because we now have triple protection: the alarm if a door opens (or even is someone tries the handle), a steering security lock, plus the safe where we keep lots of our really difficult to manage without stuff. We hope it's effective.
Check out the local tourist office in Middleburg - they do not have a clue regarding anything. We are looking for a place for the night closer to Joburg, but not in it. Eventually, we buy into going to the Holiday Inn at the Joburg International airport - just twice the price of everywhere outside of town. We stock up with fruit & pies (a South African delicacy), and spend the evening reading.
Picked up Ilge and Aiden in Johannesburg the next morning. After a few minutes to regroup and shower as necessary (2 nights travelling here now), the reformed and reunited family, complete with a huge amount of excess baggage, head out into Africa in the cruiser.
Back to Oliphants Lodge, (120K back out of town) while the newcomers snooze.
Kayla & I shop for grub, for the day, and settle in for a relaxing time. We cook, and both of the new arrivees sleep through it. What the hell, they can eat tomorrow.
So, we have now spent 3 days here at Kaapsehoop, Mpumalanga. We are just on top of the high velt (hence the temperatures). So the kids make themselves at home MORE Real pioneer stuff, now with horses.
We have a cottage which is used as a communal house for summer camps etc. Its pretty cold, so we have a fire. God, what a mess, smoke everywhere. With no table inside (really!), we eat out with whatever thickness of clothes we can move in. Real pioneer stuff, without the oxen.
Kayla loves riding, and we are happy to jog / gallop around with her. Saturday, and it's miserable, but we have booked up and 3 of us, Aiden, Kayla & I are out into a sodden grey wet cold (get the idea?) landscape. It's actually rather pleasant to be back on a horse. We do need to sign waivers, which is a first, other than that, you are on your own. It continues damp & miserable until Sunday PM, when we have a fantastic 4 some trip out to the valleys and mountains. The kids & I have piles of canters, Ilge watching from the distant reaches, and we all agree it was a worthwhile day.
Now we plan our next move - Visas for Mozambique, just down the road in Nelspruit. No idea where we will end up tomorrow, but thats what this is all about.
Odometer: 305677 Distance Travelled: 1430Km Trip Distance: 850Km
