What a difference a day can make! We are happy to say that our second welcome to South Africa was a much more hospitable one.
The day after we last wrote our blog, our friends Michelle & Peter picked us up from the Basecamp Backpackers in Port Elizabeth. They drove us to St Francis Bay where they had booked us into the most luxurious place either of us have ever stayed. The Beach House was the ultimate in laid back luxury for the next three nights. We felt thoroughly spoiled and enjoyed every minute – sumptuous breakfasts, walks on the beach, and candle lit baths with sea views.
This was in stark contrast to the previous two nights we spent at the backpackers hostel with the craziest hosts we have ever met. Franzie and Monica were ‘Basil and Sybil’ to a tee! Franzie was completley interfering and Moncia constantly nagging him, but they did want their guests to have a good time.
We have also had our first experience of a Fair Trade in Tourism accredited operator – we took a city and township tour with Calabash Tours in Port Elizabeth which gave us an insight on how things work; it was a little disappointing, but worthwhile all the same.
We unfortunately had some very sad news in the last two weeks. Sharon’s sister phoned to say that Avis (a good friend and sister-in-law) had lost her mother in the fight against cancer. Then two days later just as we were getting ready to leave St Francis Bay, Sharon’s Dad phoned with the dreaded phone call that wee Eileen (who had been part of the Brunt family for more than forty five years) had died.
The next couple of days for Sharon were by far the saddest she has ever experienced living away from family, feeling so isolated and not being at home where she was needed. It was not possible to get back to Ireland and very difficult to come to terms with the fact that she could not be there to support family and friends. This is certainly the down side of choosing our travelling lifestyle, but we were so thankful that at least we had each other and we were with supportive friends.
Since then we have bought a car and to be honest not had the best luck with it so far. Let’s face it, it just hasn’t been our week, but DV things can only get better. We bought our little 1995 VW Citi Golf on Friday from a distant referral, but after walking the streets of East London talking to used car salesman, we thought even a distant referral would be better than taking a chance with a complete stranger. One thing we found is that it is very difficult to buy a car without a car – walking from lot to lot is time consuming work!
We also managed to clear our remaining baggage through customs at the end of last week, a bit of a long winded process, but we got there in the end and now have our camping gear and Dave’s paraglider in tow.
Anyway on Saturday we packed up and hit the road at 7am for an early start – 70kms later the car conked out, fortunately at a Shell garage where there just happened to be two policeman shopping for doughnuts and who were willing to help. They tried their best as did another couple of kind motorists, but all to no avail, the little Chico was going nowhere. Eventually the AA towed us back to East London where the mechanic took 10 minutes to fix an apparent simple alternator/battery wiring problem!
At 1pm we decided to stick with our original plan and headed for Howick (Sharon lived here back in 1990!) in Kwa Zulu Natal. Everything was going well until about 150kms from Howick. Sunset followed by thick fog (no more than 2 metres visibility) accompanied by pedestrians, wild animals and vehicles with no lights on the road meant driving was far from a pleasure. All this accompanied by the oil light flashing on the dashboard with not a garage in sight. Needless to say we were more than relieved to arrive with Mr & Mrs de Jong at 8.30pm in two safe, but shattered pieces!
We had a very relaxing Sunday watching Michelle and her horse in an eventing competition followed by time walking with Mr & Mrs de Jong on the completed Sakabula Golf Course which we first saw in it’s infancy some 9 years ago!
Monday ended up being a bit of a marathon drive from Howick to Pretoria – the car did not get off to a good start, but we did make it just in time for a 5pm appointment with Sharon’s new boss at Fair Trade in Tourism. It was good to put faces with names and she now has no shortage of reading and research material to digest before starting work in January.
Right now we are at Michelle & Peter’s home in between Johannesburg and Pretoria getting ready to re-start our road trip. And guess what? The Chico has had to go into the garage for another check up! All being well we will hit the road again tomorrow and aim to cross the border into Botswana. We don’t plan on stopping long in Botswana on this trip as the goal is to get to Namibia and travel there for the next few weeks.
Although we no longer have our lap top (see previous blog post), we are still able to update schindlersinsa.blogspot.com and check emails via internet cafes to keep in touch.
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