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Day 169 28.06.05
No movement of the container. Day 170 29.06.05
Early morning call from John Joshua the shipping agent. The container is now in the right place for the customs inspection so we hightail it down there. It is good to meet up with Mike again who was shipping his Land Cruiser on the same ship and has experienced exactly the same delays as us.
The day passes slowly as we wait around for various bits of paper to be signed and stamped by the right people. Eventually with 5 minutes to spare before the container depot closes for the day we have amassed the right documentation and are free to drive the Land Rover out.
We go out for a celebratory meal with Paul and Christine. Day 171 30.06.05
We drop the roof tent off at the Howling Moon factory. Although overall we feel the tent is a good product we have had a number of problems with it. We are aware that it can be difficult when someone appears to be criticising your product but had hoped to have an intelligent dialogue about it.
Going to buy a few stores we immediately notice the difference between driving the hire car and the landy. Park in a car park with a landy and people come and talk to you. We meet Greg who is very helpful and recommends Nicky of Rovertech to go to sort out a few bits and pieces. We go to see Nicky him at his garage. He turns out to be just the person we needed and offers use of his workshop the next day. Day 172 01.07.05
Steve spends the day at Rovertech in Pinetown where Nicky and his crew of mechanics provide advice and assistance.
They change the Hi Lift jack from the left side of the rear door to the right side and install a double gas canister rack on the left side for the new cooker. (The dual fuel cooker needs unleaded petrol and we have struggled with it since we rescued the stranded motorist in Morocco with the last of our unleaded. Running it on leaded petrol has required constant cleaning to the point where it is no longer repairable without new parts which are not available here.)
We check all the fluid levels and generally top up and grease all round. We also check the front main radius arm bolts as both have worked loose and were the cause of the knocking noise we first noticed in Gambia. Nicky, and co (Joseph, Cassar, Mazamban, Emmanuel, Zeff and Isaac) were incredibly helpful.
They also advised where I could source OMU offset metal bushes on our way through Cape Town. (This is the way we corrected for the castor angle with the 2 inch lift). Many, many thanks to Nicky for his generosity. He even lent me his TD5 to do some errands during the day and provided endless cups of tea! Visit for your landy repairs in Durban!
TEL 0317008820
GPS S 29 deg 49.463 E 30 deg 49.655
ADDRESS; Factory 3, 49 Westmead Rd, Pinetown, Durban. Day 173 02.07.05
We are hoping to pick up the tent and be on our way.
As it is Saturday there are few staff at the factory. Although the main rips and holes have been beautifully repaired, there are no solutions to the other problems we have. They say they can further improve the mozzie net and we leave it there to be collected on Monday.
We have to break it to Paul and Christine that we are not leaving after all and they take it well!! Actually they promise us Pimms and Strawberries the next day if we stay and how could we refuse. Day 174 03.07.05
Its fun to meet Paul's family and we have a braai in the garden followed by Pimms and strawberries while watching the Wimbledon mens final on the TV. We are beginning to feel part of the family ourselves! Day 175 04.07.05
Durban to Port Edward
Finally we get on our way. We are so grateful to Paul and Christine for putting up with us for much longer than they expected to. We really enjoyed their company. It was so much better for us to have a home to stay in and made life much easier.
Collecting the mozzie net we find they have sewn on, more neatly, the piece we had added on (remember Malc if you are reading this, that baking day at Sekuta when you helped us stick yards of Velcro and netting on the bottom.) but had done nothing to address the real problem of it being too narrow at the base.
We later find that they have replaced, unasked, the lower part of the ladder, when it falls on Steve's head as we unfold the tent. Our old ladder had holes drilled for the ladder extension and not only does this new one not have the holes but it also has a plastic stop riveted to the bottom preventing the extension being fed into the track. Steve has to spend a considerable time drilling out holes and drilling off the rivets.
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Fishing Port Edward
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Drive to Port Edward a small coastal town. On the way we are interested to see the sugar cane lorries dispersing sugar cane across the road reminding us of the sugar beet lorries back home in Norfolk.
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Sugar cane lorry
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We set up camp at Ku-boboyi river lodge backpackers. The sunset is spectacular and we are happy to be back sleeping in the tent feeling that we are on our way again.
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Yet another sunset
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Day 176 05.07.05
Port Edward to Port St Johns
Ikaya backpackers
We have come back here to see Dan and Prisca who we met on our last visit when Richard and Rhona were on holiday with us.
Dan is going to help us sort out our storage in the inside of our Land Rover.
We have found on talking to other people who have done a similar journey to us that this is a process that everyone goes through in an impossible quest for the ultimate storage set up, where everything fits in neatly and everything you want is easily accessible.
The only people we have met who have come close to this are those who have many years of similar travel behind them and are on, at least, their second vehicle or those who have bought a vehicle ready set up by previous travellers.
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Wood'n'spoon
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Dan and Prisca run the Wood'n'spoon restaurant in a beautiful setting at second beach St Johns. We enjoy a yummy fish supper there that evening (by candlelight and kerosene lamp as the power was off for most of the evening.) (Routine for Port St John apparently as it happened several times on our previous visit also).
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View towards sea from Wood'n'spoon
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Days 177 - 179 06.07.05 - 08.07.05
Port St Johns.
Dan is a great person to be helping us. Having ended up here after driving a Land Rover from Switzerland themselves, he understands without need for long explanation exactly what our needs are and sets to with enthusiasm. Soon a new rack system takes shape while Steve works on fitting the new cooker.
(Eric, a young local lad, pitches in with occasional help saying he would like to earn some money to buy shoes.)
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Eric helping
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Men at work
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Dan and his handiwork
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Dan and Prisca have a new baby and both their mothers are visiting from Switzerland. We benefit with delicious lunches rounded off with Swiss chocolates. Day 180 09.07.05
Port St Johns to Kenton on Sea
420 K
We took up Jeannette's kind invitation to stay in their house in their absence. We had met Jeannette the previous year when she was visiting the UK.
Although Jeannette and Basil are away, Dave and his family are living in the house while their own is being extended. However Dave was on his own as his family were off on a trip so he was lumbered with us!
He made us very welcome and showed us the town and the beaches. He even cooked us breakfast the next morning. Having lived in the area for many years he was able to give us some interesting insights into the area and how it has developed over the years. The town is in a lovely setting in huge sand dunes where 2 rivers meet the sea. This has made it a popular holiday destination with many holiday homes being built for city dwellers. Day 181 10.07.05
Kenton on Sea - Wilderness
440k
Continuing along the coast there were glimpses of other seaside resort towns with miles of white sand beaches.
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Whale watchers Port Elizabeth
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Approaching Port Elizabeth the freeway ran alongside the sea. We noticed lots of cars had stopped with people looking out to sea. - Whales - right in close to the shore.
So close that we could hear them as they blew through their blowholes. There was some disagreement among the onlookers as to what sort of whales they were but it was enough for us that they were there so enigmatically huge and close.
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Whales
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Eventually the police came along to remind everyone that it was illegal to stop on the freeway although it was mostly the dilberries who had stopped on the far side and dodged across 4 lanes of traffic to look that they were most concerned about!
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Stopping near Storm River for a break we saw helicopter rides advertised and hopped aboard for a 10-minute flight over the Garden Route. We don't have time to stop along the way here as we have the deadline for meeting Andrew and Steph in Namibia 2400k away and we have to visit Cape Town yet. Helicoptering for 10 mins let us see masses that we would have missed and gave a different perspective on the area.
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Garden route from the air
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Wanderer from above
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We camped up for the night at Fairy Knowe backpackers.
Here we met Rupert, an Australian who has previously driven a Land Rover down the route we are planning to take up Africa.
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View from the house
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Day 182 11.07.05
Wilderness to Franschhoek
530 k
We were up early as it's a long drive to Franschhoek.
Rupert needs to head in the direction of Cape Town so we give him a lift. We are not yet completely organised for taking passengers but we manage to uncover one of the back seats and we stuff him in.
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Several people had recommended the Cango caves to us so we diverted to see them. The largest dripstone caves known, they are impressive and a million years of steady dripping has produced diverse and wonderful formations. They form at the rate of a couple of mm every 100 years so the huge columns we saw had taken many 1000s of years to form. The oldest has been dated at about 1.5 million years old.
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Cango caves
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Underground column
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The area is also famous for ostrich farming and 97% of all ostriches alive today live there! So as we drove through there were fields of ostriches and in town the shops sell ostrich products of which there seem to be many. Apparently one egg will make an omelette for 20 people.
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Ostrich crop
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The great escape
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We continued mainly on dirt roads through the mountains. Reaching Calitzdorp, we stopped to buy pies. (the main form of fast food in SA) Sadly they have no ostrich pies but all sorts of other tempting goodies and the shopkeeper was full of information on the local area.
It turns out that the Calitzdorp area is famous for Port production so a tasting session at the local producers was compulsory. Having sampled and purchased (Steve as the driver had to be content with sniffing while Rupert and I slurped with gusto) we set off to look for the Seven Weeks Poort, a gorge which the shopkeeper had described as one of the wonders of the world.
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Road to the mountains
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Turning off the road we drove into the gorge. The mountains towered above us but the sun was high and in the wider parts reached the gorge floor. The light on the mountains tops was beautiful and the track twisted and turned.
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Seven Weeks Poort
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Originally intending to go in a short way and then turn round, we were captivated and kept going to 'see what's around the next corner'. Eventually some 30k later we emerged out the other side having passed through the mountains!
This was turning into one of those days when the route ahead has to be replanned several times as we allow ourselves to be diverted. We continued over dirt roads until eventually the tarmac started apparently at random and we found our way to the N1. Although by now it was getting later than we like to be on the roads we knew where we would be staying.
Lindi, a friend from the UK is out staying with her sister Mandy and had kindly invited us to stay.
We dropped Rupert off. It is encouraging for us that he survived the whole day squashed in the back and seemed in good shape when he emerged!
Soon we were installed in Mandy's beautiful guest cottage. Day 183 12.07.05
Franschhoek
The cottage is so comfortable and Mandy and Lindi so welcoming we decide to base ourselves in Franschhoek for a few days while we do the final sorting out for the homeward trip.
We had caught the awning on some corrugated iron and ripped it. We take it into Nomad in Cape Town. They are a 'can do' company and the awning is mended within an hour of us dropping it off. Impressed by this we arrange for them to sort out our tent extension. They can replace the heavy canvas with nylon, which will make it lighter to put up and easier to store.
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Days 184 - 188 13.07.05 - 17.07.05
Franschhoek
Steve spent some time in Cape Town with the landy.
He has a replacement caster correction bush fitted for each front radius arm at 4x4 Mega World. (S33 54.865. E18 28.605)
He manages to replace 3 of the tyres at West Coast Tyres (S33 51.328 E18 31.162), but these are the only 3 Goodyear Wrangler MT/R tyres left in South Africa, according to the tyre place, so we hope to get another one in Namibia. We want reasonable tread by the time we meet Ethiopia's famous tyre chewing roads.
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While sorting this he meets Frank another Swiss overlander who drove down and then stayed. Frank runs Bay View 4x4 (082 489 0036. S33 49.704 E18 32.015), which is opportune, and we get the landy serviced. They also replaced the viscous fan as we had a slight over heating problem when the engine was under stress such as climbing long hills.
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Bay View team
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We collect the refurbished and much lighter and easier to handle extension tent from Nomad.
Michele and Lindi spend some time sampling the wares of the local deli - café and taking in the local scenery.
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Franschhoek Pass
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A day driving the Chapman's Peak circuit, takes us along the coast of the Cape and round the base of Table Mountain. The views are stunning. We have an enjoyable lunch with Kim talking about Namibia and Botswana.
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Fishing near Cape Town
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Chapmans Peak Drive
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12 Apostles Cape Town
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Meanwhile in Franschhoek there is a party to go to and the Bastille weekend celebrations.
We are also grateful to Tich and Jo for all their advice about Namibia and their enthusiasm.
Mandy has various useful bits left from her over landing days which she generously handed over to us including a wooden box, custom made to fit a Land Rover, now known as 'Mandy's box'.
We also raided her book shelves as she has some great books on Africa and its history and people especially Southern Africa.
Steve enjoyed time spent with Mandy's son Andrew who was happy to talk knowledgeably for hours about cars and watch Kung Fu movies at breakfast time!
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Day 189 18.07.05
Franschhoek to Cape Town
50k
Stayed Mount Nelson Hotel
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Cape Town is as far south as we are going and is our turn around point.
Before we left home Steve's work colleagues gave us a present of a night at The Mount Nelson Hotel. This is in the centre of Cape Town and extremely posh.
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The Mount Nelson
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The room was lovely and soon Steve was reclining in the bath in the marble bathroom, Gin and Tonic in hand.
'Ah this is the life……aargh' a sudden torrent of water through the bathroom ceiling, which eventually reduced to a steady drip!!
A call to reception resulted in a procession of staff to view this new unexpected water feature and a move for us to another room.
When we eventually got to eat, the food was delicious. Returning to the room we found that the bed had been turned down, robes laid across it, cotton mats laid on the floor either side and bottles of mineral water and fresh glasses on the bedside tables. A bit of a contrast to the old roof top tent!
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Day 190 19.07.05
Cape Town to Kamieskroon
540K
Camping
Waking to torrential rain, we were amused to find there was a car to drive us the 50 yards across to the main building for breakfast.
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We were now heading for Namibia
In view of the rain, which continued all day, we drove up the main route bypassing the places we had been told about on the way.
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Heavy weather
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As the sun set the low grey cloud was replaced by pink puffs.
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Evening clouds
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We came to the end of Hornet Flight an audio book, which we had started in Ghana. We have quite a few audio books on our iPod and they have enlivened many miles of boring road.
to Namibia
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