If you think biking is a slow way to travel, then try hitch hiking! We’ve both done our fair share of hitch hiking over the years, but these days, being older and wiser, we’d only do it if locals give us the thumbs up (excuse the pun), which in this case they did.
Today we cycled from the campsite to the township of Te Araroa (about 14kms) and parked the bikes, and along with dozens of locals (many dressed in black), we waited for the shop to open. Once we’d stocked up on water we waited by the side of the road hoping for a lift to the East Cape lighthouse.
Te Araroa townshipHitch hiking out East!
Lots of local traffic passed us by, more than we’ve ever noticed in any of these tiny settlements, and it didn’t take long to realise that the entire community was attending a funeral at the marae, hence the black clothing, and the rush on the shop for supplies.
Tourist traffic is few and far between, in fact apart from one rental car, there was none!
Lucky for us one of the local roading company vans was going out to the lighthouse to check the recent rock slips and the guys stopped and let us jump in with them.
East Cape lighthouse
Ideally we would’ve liked to visit the East Cape lighthouse for sunrise. It is the most easterly point in New Zealand and one of the first places in the world to view the sun, but the road out there had way too much gravel for us to ride on so that justifies our park and hitchhike option.
It was a beautiful drive out the East Cape Road, and then a very hot, 800 steps to climb up to the lighthouse, but very worthwhile. Another bit of drone practice at the top, and then we waited around until the folk in the rental car turned up so we could hitch a ride back! The Mum and her teenage daughter who kindly agreed to let us jump in with them, had been out at the lighthouse in search of a geocache location – a fantastic global online treasure hunt concept that was new to us.
The plan for tomorrow is to get an early start and ride from the campsite here at Te Araroa to Tokomaru Bay. At approximately 90kms it is going to be our biggest day yet, but with nowhere to camp between here and there we have no alternative.
Perhaps it’s an age thing, but when choosing a tent for bike touring, our first prerequisite was space, closely followed by weight, and not forgetting budget. Our old faithful Fairydown 2 person tent that we bought in New Zealand in 2001 has served us well, but after taking a hammering in the winds of Patagonia last year we have had to retire her to sunnier climes and car boot camping only.
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Our tent selection criteria
Space – we now want a tent that has comfortable space for the two of us, plus has the capacity to store our bike panniers inside the tent.
Size& weight – we want a tent compact and lightweight enough to carry on the bike, and with the option to use it for backpacking trips too.
Durability – we want it to be at least a three season tent to withstand wet and cold weather as well as summer conditions.
Budget – and we want all of the above features without having to spend a fortune!
Meet Olive
It took a bit of shopping around, but we eventually found “Olive” who fitted the bill perfectly!
Weighing in at less than 3.5kg with a pack size of only 50 x 20cm, Olive is a Vaude Terra Space 3 person tent. The upgrade from 2 person to 3 person means we have slightly more space inside the dome, especially useful on wet weather days! And there is enough room in there for our panniers and bike gear.
We each have our own entrance and good sized porch making it easy to get in and out without climbing over each other. And all for 180 quid which we feel is good value considering the price range of a tent suitable for bike touring was averaging between £200-£500!
How she performs remains to be seen as today (our 20th wedding anniversary!) was only a practice pitch in the garden and the naming ceremony! The christening has yet to come…
It didn’t take us long to realise that the school holidays had started once we had left De Aar and ventured into the Western Cape. Our next stop was due to be a night in the Karoo National Park just outside Beaufort West, but when we arrived there was no room at the inn, the park was full and not even a space for a wee tiny two man tent!
The traffic on the roads had also increased significantly with almost every car (majority it seemed from Gauteng province) towing a trailer, a caravan, a boat, or at the very least loaded with holiday gear. We managed to find a private camp site (Steenbokkie) at the other side of town which was fine for the night. It was at this stage that we realised we were going to have to do some forward planning and decided that another week on the road would be enough. The forward planning was a great idea in theory, but when we came to actually book ahead we were far from early enough; many places were already fully booked.
Scenic Drive to Wilderness
We had a stunning drive from Beaufort West to Oudtshoorn and on to Wilderness, but didn’t have too much spare time to stop and enjoy. We did have a quick stop at the Meringspoort Pass to stretch our legs and walk to a very scenic waterfall, plus we stopped at the Cango Caves where we did the adventure tour with only 2 others – squeezing through some very small openings. The standard tour was the crowded one.
The next 4 days we spent on the edge of Wilderness National Park where the primary activity was paragliding for Dave, and fetching him for Sharon. One very windy day meant no flying so we did a lovely forest walk for a few hours and after not a lot of exercise in the last two months we certainly felt the effects! We also bumped into two other VSA volunteers camping at the same site – we had seen the Macpac tent and thought oh they must be Kiwis, and when they had seen our Fairydown tent they had thought the same! Small world…
Tsitsikamma National Park
From Wilderness we headed up the coast to Knysa, which was unrecognisable to Sharon from her first visit there 15 years ago. After a quick lunch at 34◦South, a highly recommended stop at a brilliant shop/emporium/restaurant type place on the waterfront, we headed on to the Tsitsikamma National Park – stunning. We had time for a picnic lunch at Nature’s Valley followed by a beautiful walk through forest, river and beach combined with a swim.
When we had tried booking for the Storms River rest camp in Tsitsikamma it was full, but as we were driving past the entrance we thought we would try our luck. Hallelujah we were in luck and booked in for 3 nights on one of the most stunning coastal camp sites we have ever had the good fortune of pitching on. 20 metres from the sea and just after pitching up a pod of dolphins swam through! This was the ideal spot to end our ‘holiday’ on a high note! We spent three glorious days walking, swimming/snorkelling, reading, relaxing and one half day swinging through the trees on a canopy tour with Storms River Adventures (Fair Trade in Tourism Accredited).
Camping at Storms River
And then it was time to go back to East London and to what will be our new home for the next two years.
Well here I am again, it is my turn to fill you in with our recent story. The only real reason it is my turn is that most of it concerns paragliding. I should at this time thank my patient wife who has had to endure some long periods of waiting and some running around to pick me up (otherwise known as retrieval).
So as we last left you we were on our way to De Aar, this is currently recognised as the best place to go for long distance flying in South Africa. The main reason for us to go there was for me to get a SA license. De Aar was the first place we got to in SA with a school. I had to prove that I had a New Zealand license, show my log book and then do some flying.
Unfortunately there are no hills in De Aar, so the only way to get flying is to get a tow launch, something I hadn’t done before. Still Des (one of the instructors) gave me a quick briefing, tied me to the back of a Ute and started driving. I ran behind for about 2 steps before I was airborne. Then as she drove down the runway I got higher and at the end I released, as easy as that.
My first flight was very short but I managed to carry out a couple of moves that were required of me. The second flight was a bit longer as I got into a small thermal and the 3rd was fantastic as I managed to climb about 1200m in one thermal. Unfortunately I was only wearing a T shirt and no gloves so it was a bit chilly so I came down again. Still that was my biggest ever climb. Conditions started to get a bit stronger so we called it a day.
The next day the same thing 3 flights each progressively longer, only this time I was wearing the right clothes. So as I got into the thermal on my 3rd flight I decided it was time to go cross country, so I stayed in the thermal and headed off over the desert. Unfortunately I dropped out of the thermal and landed a short time later a grand distance of 8km, only 294km short of the national record set this year!
Luckily my flying had proved competent enough for them to sign me off on my license so that was a relief. The following day we moved on towards the south coast and hopefully more flying. We did stop on the way but I’ll leave that up to Shaz.
Next stop for flying was Wilderness, where I got in touch with some local pilots to learn about the sites. They were helpful, and reasonably friendly although did insist on speaking Afrikaans all the time leaving me feeling a little left out. All the flying in this area is coastal soaring, again something new for me. In 3 days I managed a few flights at about 4 different locations. Although Shaz was left to pick me up, I think she would admit that we got to see some stunning scenery.
So now we are back in East London (Shaz will fill you in on the rest). Yesterday we went for a walk on the beach and saw 5 paragliders, so things are looking good for me to get a few hours of flying in while she is at work! Thats about it for now Dave
Once we got Chico back on the road we drove out of Upington and just as sun was setting we found a beautiful country lodge in a wee small town called Griquatown that offered campers space on their lovely lawns. We had such a nice welcome from the owners who offered us dinner from their braai, and after hot showers we had one of the best night’s sleeps in a while.
From Griquatown it was a couple of hours to Kimberley where we were planning on learning a bit more about the history of South Africa – the diamond diggings, Cecil Rhodes and the Anglo-Boer war, etc. But when we camped up and headed for the museum we were so disappointed to find it was closed for renovations. All we could do was have a look at the ‘big hole‘ – a massive hand dug chasm by the diamond miners of old. So the next day we planned on going underground on a diamond tour, but when we arrived at the mine were told they no longer conducted the tours.
Diamond Mine Kimberley
By this stage we were a bit despondent with Kimberley, with the things we wanted to do being impossible, combined with the fact that the campground was infested with ants and Shaz meeting a couple of scorpions during a late night toilet visit, we decided there was no point hanging around. Also since buying any diamonds on a volunteers allowance was out of the question we couldn’t see the point of staying. So off we went to De Aar, the distance paragliding capital of SA.
It wasn’t us choking in the Kalahari, but Chico the car, more on that later…
We managed to leave Namibia without having to pay the fine from way back near Windhoek, and after about 6,000kms of driving we arrived back safely into South Africa. Our last night in Namibia we heard the sad news that George Best, a hero from both our childhoods had died. We were gutted not to be anywhere near a TV so we could watch some of the coverage that no doubt filled the news in the UK. The best we could do was over a week later log onto the web and read about his homecoming to Belfast, all very moving.
First up Upington
Our first stop back in SA was a Saturday afternoon in Upington, a reasonably sized town in the northern Cape, but astoundingly that did not have a single bookshop! A sad reflection on the literacy rate of it’s approx 28,000 local population. With pretty much everything closed from noon on a Saturday we camped up at the local municipal camp site Die Eisland. After camping in quiet national parks we soon realised we could be in for a hot and noisy night. Since we were back in a town it was time to eat out and we had a beautiful meal with wine at Le Must restaurant for the equivalent of about 20 quid or NZ$50, bargain! We were in for a pleasant surprise when we got back to the campsite as the majority of people seemed only to be day visitors and were all on their way home, so we had a peaceful night’s sleep after all.
Since there really wasn’t a lot to do in Upington on a Saturday, you can imagine there was even less on a Sunday so we decided to head out of town to Augrabies Falls National Park. We were looking forward to seeing natural running water again, although saying that the Falls were pretty dry at this time of year. We were really starting to feel the heat and couldn’t face doing any of the hikes in the park so decided to book a rafting trip on the Orange River for the next day. Again because there wasn’t a lot of water, the rafting was very tame, in fact it was more like drifting, but at least we were cooler in the water rather than on land. By the time we finished the river trip it was getting very hot and we decided not to stay another night in the park, but headed back to Upington – not sure if that was the right decision as they recorded 48 degrees that day!
Kalahari Desert
We stocked up with supplies again and headed north into the Kalahari Desert region. The down side was we were going back on to the dirt roads. We stopped on the approach to the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park (SA & Botswana owned) at a nature reserve. The build up of heat was now bringing in a storm and we thought better of trying to put the tent up in the thunder and lightning, so for the first time in 5 or so weeks we slept indoors – Dave badly and Shaz not so badly. The Kalahari Trails Nature Reserve was run by a lady professor of desert ecology originally from the UK who took us on a very informative guided drive.
From here we went north into the park on the search for ‘cats’ – the place is famed for its predators, but with the storm and rain arriving we thought some of our game viewing may be hampered. We headed for Mata-Mata camp and just after arriving and getting the tent set up another huge storm came through, but only lasted half an hour or so. The game was not bountiful, but we did see some animals that we hadn’t previously – giant eagle owl, white faced owls, bat eared fox, and red hartebeest, plus loads of birds that neither of us had any clue about!
The next day we went further north to Nossob camp and it was the next morning that we had our reward – we managed to spot a male and female lion (on the Botswana side of the river bed) and after watching them for a few minutes realised they also had two cute little cubs! We were now content to leave the park as the driving on the combination of gravel and sand was hard work.
Choking in the Kalahari
All was going well until about 130kms from the park exit and Shaz realised that Chico was starting to lose power and chug along. There was not much other traffic around and no phone signal so the only option was to go for it and try and get to the exit. Eventually after over three very nerve-wracking hours we made it, but only just. Chico pretty much conked out in the car park and to top it all had his first flat tyre. We phoned the AA, had a cool drink, and a huge sigh of relief that we were at least in a camp site with facilities.
Tow Truck Time
Choking in the Kalahari – Chico back on the tow truck
So for the second time in 8 weeks Chico ended up on the back of another tow truck! (Read about the first time here.) This time for a 300km drive back to guess where… Upington! And to make matters worse it was a Saturday afternoon. But we cannot complain, the AA garage had the best service ever. Apart from the fact that the mechanic fixed Chico within 5 seconds of him getting off the tow truck (all he had to do was pull the choke out and that cleared his blockage!!!), he got us 2 new tyres and fully serviced the car and cleaned the carburetor (to prevent future blockages) all by 4pm. It meant we didn’t have to endure another night in this bookshop-less town, but instead we could start our journey to Kimberley (home of the diamond!).
Hi, we're Sharon & Dave an active and adventurous Irish & English couple who've been travelling together for more than 20 years. These posts are our travel stories and personal journeys. Follow our adventures to see where we've been and where we're going next!
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