KarenDARLING, WESTERN CAPE – TO KASANE (3421 km)
Picking up from the end of Part 1, we landed by air from Cape Town to Kasane on the 13th May 2018, having left the bike behind in Darling, at the other end of Africa, thousands of kilometres away… We were reunited with our bag of axed too heavy goods returned by long suffering friends Anton and Amelia. Amazing that we had left them at Mwandi View in Northern Botswana only 18 days before!
As the months passed, we received thoughtful videos of the bike being started, as well as evidence of Harley the cat taking his duties very seriously, guarding his Uncle Tiennie’s bike – finding his way underneath the new cover, in typical feline fashion!
Two and a half months’ (very reluctant) rest for the extremities was endured by both of us, the less said about this trying period, the better! As soon as the arms reached a turning point, I was summarily dismissed from my chauffeur and spanner wielding duties, and much to my delight I enjoyed booking yet another flying getaway as per my unspecific wish to the Universe so many months before! Tickets to Joburg and Cape Town in hand, we worked on a few logistical puzzles.
An interesting snag: it was now suddenly mid-winter and we were on our way to Gauteng and the Cape via mainstream travel, thus needed to take enough winter clothing to look presentable in public when showing up in civilisation, and then also enough extra winter gear for the bike trip, since we had not anticipated riding north to Kasane in an entirely different season! However for our return we already had extremely limited bike packing space – already fully packed and ready in Darling. Eventually we gave up planning and decided to just get there, leave whatever we needed to leave in the Western Cape and bike home, worrying about the leftover items later in the year!
The second snag: there was now unfortunately another injury on board… I had managed to very painfully twist my ankle the night before our departure! I was just hoping by the time we eventually got to the bike, it would have subsided enough to wear bike boots and perform the agile leaps required to jump up onto the bike! Once again some of my trusty arnica gel left over from the wrist and elbow drama, found its way into our luggage, this time for me.. how annoying and unnecessary.
After we had flown halfway, and spent some more bonus time with family in Gauteng, we were finally getting ready to fly south, and at this time I was pleased with the progress on the nurtured ankle – it really felt fantastic, and therefore having total faith in the healing process, I confidently donated my arnica gel to my mom in law, as she is just as much a fan of the stuff as I am!
25 July – Flight to Cape Town
We were dropped off at the Centurion Gautrain station bright and early, to catch the airport train. There being a lot of mileage up and down stairs and through corridors I just cruised along gently behind Tiennie, we agreed I would just go at my own pace, taking it very easy for the sake of my ankle. Even though it was so much better, I didn’t want to aggravate anything, mindful of that upcoming Cinderella boot fitting session! Under controlled conditions, all was good. While we waited with all the early morning commuters on the platform, we agreed since we were in chilled tourist mode, we were not joining any of their sardine rush hour activities, and we scientifically calculated the optimum train arrival spot on the platform thanks to efficient signage announcing number of carriages in the expected train, and its ETA. Watching peacefully, we enjoyed the fantastic first world experience with the electronic sign continually updating us on this data. Very impressive, South Africa …
Therefore, imagine my surprise when in the middle of our chilled, no stress, no-commuter experience, Tiennie suddenly leaped up to his feet, with a commanding yell of “Let’s GO” , and took off at a gallop towards a distant spot on the platform. Jumping to this unexpected instruction, I started to obediently rush along after him at lightning speed just to keep up, ankle or not.. As I sprinted along, I observed that a much earlier and smaller than advertised train, with very obviously less carriages was heaving into view somewhere in the distance, totally messing up our carefully calculated waiting position.
I think I was spurred on with determination to make it into the train doors at the same time as my hectically racing tour leader, just by picturing the future expression on his face looking out through the train window as he trundled past his lame wife, abandoned on the platform … Yes, that imagination of mine again!! Somehow I managed to hurl myself through the doors into the train just before they closed, and instantly collapsed on the floor in pain amongst all the shocked looking commuters! The poor tour leader took one look at my arrival, and was horrified that he had totally forgotten about the dreaded ankle in his spontaneous dash, but we did have a good laugh about it, and thinking clearly – of course I could have just stopped where I was, let him board his train, I could have calmly waited for the next train and we could have kept in touch by phone like sensible people … anyway too late for hindsight, and the damage was done and infuriatingly back to square one with the healing on the ankle!
On arrival, I went to buy some arnica at the Airport pharmacy, and after applying the magic potion, hobbled along the usual kilometres of airport real estate until I was able to rest it again on the flight.
In Darling we spent a couple of days with our friends, and I was reunited with some more of my arnica gel that I had left there in May due to Tiennie’ arm saga and our ultra-minimalistic packing! I watched the others energetically walk on beaches, while I sensibly nurtured the ankle, as I now knew exactly how quickly it could bounce back if treated well. We serviced the bike, visited the Darling Brewery, and other beautiful places in the fairest Cape. Reconnecting with the ocean is always essential for Botswana dwellers!
We had also in the interim acquired another piece of electronic bizarrity to test out on the bike trip home. A GoPro equivalent, just an inexpensive no name action cam, to see if we were a good fit for this type of photographic video bike journal, or not – before spending a lot of money on a real one! We tested it out and immediately rejected the “Teletubby” antenna look on top of the helmet, and opted rather for an interesting view of the road and scenery ahead from somewhere on the front body work of the bike.
We decided to return to Kasane via a small detour to Africa’s most southerly point.. Cape Agulhas. I had always wanted to go there, and Tiennie had thus far rounded it 3 times by sea, and needed to experience it on land. Furthermore, we had another motivation: we needed to live up to certain travel stickers that had been applied to our bike’s second hand panniers by its previous owner. Instead of removing the stickers for destinations he’d been to that we hadn’t, we decided we should rather just visit the places instead, and legitimize the stickers’ existence!!
I had once read an article on the Aghulhas National Park and its very appealing chalets in a Getaway magazine, probably about 2010. Ever since then I’d had some sort of longing to go to Agulhas and stay in that very spot, nothing else was ever going to be good enough! I was super excited to book us a night’s accommodation there for a few days down the line.
Being in SA, we had to of course factor in extra challenges to the usual planning. We wanted to travel via Hermanus, so our pre-flight online planning session went something like: Weather forecast – check, Violent Protest forecast – check!
Weather prospects looked good all round, but very violent protests right on the main road into Hermanus had us concerned, and trying to think of Route B if it did not subside in time.
29 July – Darling to Hermanus via Gordon’s Bay.
We heard on the news that the Hermanus protests were over and the main road had just been opened so this seemed a very good omen for the start of our epic journey home!
By the time we left, my ankle was so much better despite the great Gautrain Platform Sprint, and when I was reunited with my bike boots, I was thrilled to be able to put them on and walk comfortably. To celebrate being cured, I inexplicably left ALL my arnica gel behind in Darling, insisting on gifting it to my puzzled friend… not wanting to waste volume or grams on board the bike. I taught myself to get onto the bike more gently, rather than my usual dramatic springing motion, and all was well.
We departed early from Darling, on the most scenic route through the Swartland area, with hedges of wild arum lilies blooming alongside the road, and fields of yellow canola blossoms as far as the eye could see. It was absolutely freezing on the bike, as expected, and I made a mental note to add more clothing layers as soon as I could possibly get my hands on any!
First stop was Gordon’s Bay, where we were able to “earn” the first of the previous owner’s travel stickers! At the awesome On the Go Coffee Shop on the beach front, I had to hold onto my hot chocolate for a very long time before the frostbitten feeling abated! While there, we excitedly checked the first ever footage on our action cam, only to find some good shots of a front wheel rolling endlessly over the tar road surface through Stellenbosch, Somerset West etc, with some fascinating close ups of solid and dotted lines. Tiennie adjusted the angle accordingly, especially as we were now heading for one of the most scenic parts of our trip!
Leaving Gordon’s Bay, we were absolutely blown away by the beauty of this stunning coastal road. Just a stone wall between us and the gorgeous ocean to our right, turquoise and deep blue, with white surf. Experiencing it on the bike was truly breathtaking! I took out my camera and managed to take some pillion shots of the views, which was just as well, as when we stopped to check out this wonderful action cam footage from its new position, we realized we had forgotten to switch it on….
It was a really beautiful ride to Hermanus, and we enjoyed it so much. Annoyingly, at some point during this phase of the trip, I mistakenly did an enthusiastic spring onto the bike seat as per the old normal, and forgot to apply the new ankle friendly methods. Sadly, I immediately knew I had done my ankle in again….
As we approached Hermanus we saw the molten scars in the bitumen on the main road, grim reminders of the protests and burning that had been only recently cleared away. Feeling very grateful for the currently peaceful road, we cruised around looking for a pharmacy to purchase much to my annoyance, an ankle guard and yes, some arnica yet again!!
After stocking up on my medical supplies, we found the Onrus Campsite, right on the beach. This enormous campsite was almost completely empty, due to the time of year, and we found a spot which had a good combo of two factors – a sea view, and also a very secure protective boundary fence! No doubt this location necessitated such a boundary, so we felt safe, next to the sea, with the sounds and smells of the ocean.
We enjoyed our afternoon in this idyllic spot, and passed some time by downloading all the thrilling footage from the action cam. It was absolutely exhausting watching and watching and waiting for something interesting to happen, with the odd impatient burst of fast-forwarding! It filled up a vast amount of storage, and we didn’t really feel any of it was much good! We left the footage on the laptop, formatted its memory card and decided to try again next day.
As the afternoon wore on, and the sun disappeared, it became colder, and colder, and we kept on adding layers of clothing until we ended up wearing our bike rain gear, which turned out to be brilliant at keeping out the wind and cold. I eventually even wore my bike jacket as well, under my rain gear. Peculiar looking and not very easy to move around in, but effective! We were so thankful for the lack of any Mediterranean Cape winter rain, and eventually retreated into our tent, to just keep ourselves warm. This winter Garden Route experience was definitely not what we had planned, but no choice in the matter so we embraced the experience as much as possible!
To be continued in Episode 2…
