One of the things that I have learnt is that one should alwas start your leave at least a day before you actually need to leave, to get all the last minute things organised. In this case, it was the visa, which I had to collect on Thursday the 3rd of June. For the rest, things were very relaxed -- I'm travelling on my own, and I figured I will buy what I forget at home. Of course, having the packing list from the Botswana trip also helped. In the end the only thing I forgot was a T-shirt that I wanted to wear on the trip... not bad going.
Friday, 2004-06-04: Left Bellville at 0630. Ran into some rain on the other side of the du Toitskloof tunnel, and the passenger side windscreen wiper blade fell off. Removed the arm in Worcester.
| 0930, Laingsburg: Breakfast. 1117: Leeu Gamka. 1225: Beaufort West. 1616: Colesberg and fuel. I normally stop over at Colesberg, but figured that it was early and pressed on. Well, it gets dark and cold very early. Stopped at Bloemfontein, at the second place I found (first wanted over R300 for a bed, Villa Bane charged R235... very nice place). In bed by 2100. Birds wake me up at 0630, and I'm on the road again by 0715. 7.5 degrees in Land Rover, brrr. | Sidebar : At Laingsburg my odo read 37099 miles, and at Colesburg it was at 37435. The actual distance is 516 km, so my speedometer overreads by about 4%. |
Saturday, 2004-06-05, 0940, Ventersburg : Breakfast at the BJ (Caltex affiliated restaurant). Very nice. Fire burning inside. Bloody chilly outside, sharp wind blowing. Strong coffee, good friendly service. Recommended.
1247, Johannesburg : It looks like they choose one day to burn all the grass and today is it. Lots of veld fires and smoke. I refuel at Grassmere 1 Stop.
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An old friend of the family lives in Midrand. I fall in, find him working on a car. Chat, drink beer, get invited to stay over. Why not? :-). Braai, red wine, in bed early ('cos it's dark and bloody cold!) I had to remove everything except the spare tyre off the roofrack to fit under his gate. |
Sunday, 2004-06-06, 0740 : Left Midrand. Frost on grass. Nice and sunny, but 3.4 degrees C in Land-Rover. I first had to park in a sunny spot to defrost.
0947, Kranskop 1 Stop : Wimpy Burger for breakfast. Just outside Nylstroom. Bosveld.
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Turned off the N1 at Pietersburg / Polokwane. Road via Magoebaskloof phenomenal. Tea plantations. I stop at the Sasol in Tzaneen for fuel, extremely busy. Outside Tzaneen I buy a small bag of 14 gem squash for R8, and a large bag of grapefruit for R5. Much more than I need... |
Stopped at Gravelotte supermarket, bought salt, pepper, marge, rolls, orange juice -- that'll do :-)
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1530, Shona-Langa: In camp, very nice, right next to the
river, with hippos going nuts. I meet John and Joy at the gate,
Joy looks at my relatively not-packed landy and asks whether
I'm going to Mozambique. Indeed, sez I, I just have to bolt
some things back onto the roofrack to look expedition-ready.
I go to grab a shower, Pim and Thandie arrives. Joy describes the showers as great, I'd rate them "adequate". Good water but crappy shower heads. And a bit cutesy-pie for me, "itoti" and "itete"... So, the highlift and spade and ammobox gets bolted to the roof, and we look more Moz-ready. |
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Terri and Ina arrive, and tell us that the route has changed again. The one that Andrew St Pierre White indicated does not exist... big surprise, that :-) Ina has Russian maps that show the road that we should take to get from Pafuri to Chokwe, and from Chokwe to the Save river.