Day Nineteen was Fathers’ Day in Australia, but there was no breakfast in bed for Mike, 8.00am had us ready to head across the southern Drakensberg Mountains. Our Number reduced by two, were sorry to lose Dick and Toni Taylor and the little red Saab, Dick having to return to the USA for work.
The medal section was challenging for many cars, the gravel quite rough in patches had the troops agitated at lunch in Swartberg. I have to say the Kingswood handles rough and tough well. Many including Paul spent lunch tightening bolts. We were all offered a tarmac alternate route to Elliott but the Kingswood and the ambulance took the scenic but rough shorter gravel tour. Elliott is not really on the tourist map so we were accommodated in three separate abodes. We had to drive 30km on through the Barkly Pass to Mountain Lodge. The lodges consisted of shed like rooms off the car park and a central area of bar and dining room. An aviary at the entrance and stag trophies decorated the walls, the most macabre being a giraffe! The rooms were clean but humble, and had warnings such as shower in the evening as the water may freeze overnight and the power may fail at times. Some were inclined to complain but the survivors of Bijsk enlightened our less experienced ralliers of just how bad accommodation can get.
We arrived just in time to enjoy a spectacular sunset and a few G&T’s. Laurie and Mary-Alice were not as fortunate. The rear end of the Alfa had come adrift and surgery was required. Andy put them back together and they proceeded as far as Kokstad where in the dark and limping, a motel appealed. Ralph and Holly and Andy and Chris their shadows, kept going and joined us late in the evening. Barney the bathroom glue mixer was once again at it, he insists the glue is for the air filter. A good meal and a few drinks to warm us we retired early for the 6.30am start.
We decided to start Day Twenty with music rather than car engines, Louis Armstrong’s Wonderful World at full volume has more appeal than Rudi’s engine starting, particularly at 5.45 am in the dark. This was not a good day for Rudi as shortly after the morning speed section his front wheel fell off. Metal fatigue caused by seventy-five years of wear, and one Peking to Paris and Namibia plus Botswana etc, finally snap. Rudi and his Alvis headed to the museum at Port Elizabeth on the back of a truck. Helga hitched a ride in Roger and Maggie’s 4WD rental.
We all feel flat when another car has problems but trust Rudi to turn a problem into an improvement. On rejoining the group at Knysna he insists the car is better than ever! He now has a new stub axle on the left and he intends to replace the right in the near future.
Late in the day we all enjoy a gravel section but Paul’s jag breaks again. This time he limps in to Grahamstown to have the diff carrier welded up. Sandra is the only one reading plenty of books. This is while they wait at one garage or another to have the daily repair done. Not exactly a holiday!
We leave them at the garage and soon after are waved in by a policeman. He enquires “Am I affecting your timing?” “No we are in no rush.” Is our reply. “ Is this the 4.1 litre engine?, I know this car.” Yet another local who loves the Kingswood and was on for a chat.
We enjoy a Barbie at the Broderick’s (past ralliers) and head to Kariega. A private game park with four buffalo and twenty butterflies! We are game drive snobs, spoilt by Etosha and Phinda and no amount of enthusiasm from the guide who tells us the lion and elephant are on the other side of the park and too far away for our evening drive, can sell an outcast giraffe, impala, a few rhino and frisky buffalo four.
We enjoyed our chalet accommodation with Philip and Heide and are still waiting for the early morning cup of tea.
Laurie and Mary-Alice rejoin the gang for Day Twenty-One it is great to see the resilient Aussies again. We had a few hiccups managing a terra-trip with Alzheimer’s but managed to navigate road works and back roads to the medal section of the day. A most enjoyable road 200m inland from the Indian Ocean, the gravel was smooth and the views spectacular, from white sand hills, blue ocean to paths of red flowering flame trees. I even managed to take photos on a race section! Kept telling driver hairpin bend ahead slow down!
As Bloukrans Pass was closed we headed along the N2 to Knysna arriving in time to play nine holes of golf with Rodger and a family of baboon at the Pezula Golf Resort. Yet again Paul and Sandra bailing out of golf and heading to a garage, this time they were lucky enough to find a replacement wheel hub for the S type.
And on to Franschoek we headed, our numbers complete with the return of Rudi and his Alvis. Our route traversing Tradauws Pass we headed to Barrydale and the Great Karoo for lunch. Yet again reroutes required as the dam had burst its bank and our bridge crossing was now under water. Kim and Nicky always quick with the maps and orange arrows guided us safely to Franschoek for our last evening before Cape Town. The dark clouds seem to settle on a small local area and dump all the rain in one spot, we literally drove in and out of the rain belt. Snow capped some of the taller peaks. It created amazing light for photos but was really cold for those in the open cars.
Our accommodation in Le Franschoek was a highlight of the trip. We however ended up at a garage welding our exhaust back into place and sympathizing with Rudi whose radiator needed a little work. Helga and I searched to find shops still open. We panicked about missing the last bus to dinner at Haute Cabriere Cellar Restaurant. A most enjoyable meal it was even though about eight people were unwell the following day, Mike being one.
Our final drive was to the Cape of Good Hope, following closely behind was Michael and Jens trusty Porsche. We had Louis accompany us through the park and it was wonderful. We gathered car by car at the Two Oceans Restaurant to celebrate our return to the Cape. We had all our friends sign the silly yellow surfboard that had somehow managed to stay with the car throughout our African journey. We get to take home the best trophy of all, a little piece of all those we shared this wonderful journey with.
As for the Kingswood in Africa; Hakuna Mataka …….. it means no worries!
Day 19 – 23
•September 21, 2008 • Leave a Comment
Day 19
•September 7, 2008 • Leave a Comment
Day Fourteen
A rest day at Kruger for some silly reason saw us at Malelane Golf Club for a 8.00am tee off. Aus vs UK was declared a draw when we had completely lost count of the score and the number of balls lost or considered lost due to the proximity of crocodile.
The afternoon was spent tinkering with the car before heading out on the night game drive. A massive achievement, we managed the BIG 5 and more, in three hours! The first half hour was spent being escorted down the road by two female lion. We then spotted a Leopard in a tree. Next a male lion was our companion along the road, roaring to declare his presence to all in a ten kilometer radius. It’s a scary sound. Buffalo and elephant completed the five. Hippo warthog and crocodile in the Crocodile River (imaginative name) completed the evening.
Day Fifteen
We left behind the flat dry lands of Kruger and climbed the mountains of Swaziland to Pigg’s Peak. Past massive sugar plantations the road winding up and down through pine forests. We detoured to lunch at the Royal Swazi Hotel in Mbabane, and the Mike and I detoured to do a little candle shopping. It was then via Big Bend and on to Golela to cross the border back into South Africa.
We then had a good road to Phinda Conservation Reserve which lies between the Indian Ocean and the world heritage site of the St Lucia wetlands. Crossing through the gates the navigator was sorting out maps (and finishing a suduko) and had not quite transformed into photographer mode when we met a rhino on the road. About 100m in do you think anything else would turn up quickly enough to save face? The highlight destination of the event, Mountain Lodge provided magnificent accommodation, spectacular views and wildlife galore.
The environmentally adapted accommodation blending into the reserve so well as to include guests being in lock down while lion passed through, and there was the spiiting viper who decide to spend the evening in Paul and Sandra’s room only to be discovered at 6.00am in the morning.
Only two evenings here was not enough. The 5.30am game drive (it’s killing me) was like a trip to the zoo. The main act was cheetah. Watching the first family of three we noticed they suddenly became interested in warthog coming by. But this ended with the warthog chasing the cheetah. They then started to sniff around another clump of bushes, moving closer we could see a glistening sliding 7m python. Its core as thick as a football, even our guide was shivering Yuck! He moved the truck around so we would see the head emerge from the camouflage of the twigs and leaf litter. I was alert and alarmed, what if it decided to roll on up and over the truck. I was prepared to take my chance with the cheetah over that python any day!
We did manage to see lots of rhino so I did finally get THAT picture.
The evening game drive ended with a candlelit dinner in the bush. It was like arriving in fairyland, at the top of the path we were handed a Mojito and we wandered through the trees to a clearing set with tables. Ricky and Karen had flown out to go deep sea fishing and we dined on their tuna and other barbequed dishes.
Day Seventeen
A 5.30am wake up is even more painful when you have to leave behind Phinda. But we wanted time to relax and enjoy the drive through Hluhluwe Imflozi Park and we did. The rolling hills provide a more scenic backdrop than Kruger and we did see lots of animals.
Before lunch at Isandlwana we had a tricky medal section difficult for all (except Paul) poor Ralph and Holly rolled and have now managed to write off two cars in two weeks! Remarkably the only injury was a broken bone in Holly’s hand. They are both calm and chipper about it all.
Passing on through Rorke’s Drift we headed to the Drakensberg Mountains.
The light was fading as we neared our destination at Cathedral Peak hotel. Winding roads, sunset, smoke haze from controlled burns and children playing all over the roads set the scene and slowed our journey. A long day had everyone gathering in the bar for drinks before rooms.
As this was our final day off I was determined to sleep in and arrive at breakfast with 10 miniutes to go. We were all however woken by the squawking of birds but I did manage to stay in until 7.30. The view from the hotel is breathtaking and so we were happy enough to laze around, have lunch and fiddle with the car. In the afternoon a dozen of us met on the bowling green. With points being awarded for degrees of difficulty and original style as well as closest to the jack I am pleased to say the green and gold balls held true and Aus took out the championship!
Got to go, Pims in the bar awaits.
P.S. As my phone has been permanently relocated in Africa I am without!
Day 14
•September 2, 2008 • Leave a Comment
And on the Tenth Day they rested. The plan had been to go on an early morning game drive but suffering all night from buffet belly we decided on plan B, sitting by the pool with a view over the Chobe River. The river cruise of the previous evening would have to do, and it certainly was a high light.
The Jaguar XK 120 has also been shipped to Cape Town. They had been towed into Etosha, arriving late at night and have decided it is better to hire a 4WD and enjoy the trip rather than watch the car fall apart on the gravel roads.
Day Eleven
This day was all about crossing Botswana and covering miles. I spent the early part of the day calibrating the second probe of the terratrip. Probe 1 had failed and without this distances are more difficult to measure. Having the GPS is fine but in some instance for small integrals the trip is easier.
The smooth road we travelled on in 2006 is now riddled with potholes. Magabe charges $600US per truck to travel through Zimbabwe, so the trucks heading to the Congo now pass through Botswana and Zambia. Likening the game of dodge, to the asteroid field of Star Wars the traffic darts and swerves to and fro across the width of the road. Our car horn which had been playing up now decides to sound when ever Michael turns the steering wheel, and then jams on. I wave frantically trying to pretend we are just being friendly! We travel 300km down the road, easily except for the beeping, and stop to refuel. And there we stayed for two hours. The electronic ignition was fried. Everyone had a suggestion, and ultimately Michael (with the help of Christmas, yep it is a name) put the original distributor with points back on and the car started. Just as well as Andy and the support crew were miles back aiding Rudi. The replacement tubes which arrived did not fit and the old tube now looked like a patchwork quilt.
Off we set to catch up with the convoy of heavy traffic approaching Francistown. We were stuck behind a slow moving truck, it eventually pulled over on the gravel and the wheels fell off
Paul and Sandra had to be towed into Francistown when the fan blade went through the radiator. The found a man to patch/repair the leaks and the Andy arrived and applied more filler. Hours later they set off to join us in Selebi Phikwe, the journey interrupted by further stops the water pump now on the way out.
Staying in rather more rudimentary accommodation Mike and I were only allowed one towel as the hotel was fully booked. We did not spend long in the room as Paul needed to work overnight to get the water pump changed. Sandra and I tried to distract the locals who planning on spending a Saturday night drinking in the car park now had the entertainment of a mad Englishman repairing a Jag.
Day Twelve
A few hours kip and we were all on the road again. The designated rout and medal section being considered too rough we headed straight to the Limpopo. We crossed the border into South Africa with ease and headed to our next test, it too was cancelled. We all enjoyed our early arrival at the Old Coach House in Agatha, and spent the afternoon on the verandah looking out over the Letsile Valley and the Northern Drakensberg Mountains.
Day Thirteen
Reluctantly the cars rolled out of Agatha an on towards the Kruger. A small section of gravel and the on to God’s Window for a view over the Blyde River Canyon. On a clear day you can see over the Kruger National Park towards the Lebombo Mountains on the border with Mozambique.
The drive through the Kruger was a little disappointing. We saw rhino, giraffe, wildebeest, impala, zebra and baboon. OK we have been spoilt by the spectacle of Etosha and Chobe.
Our day was not so bad. Tony and Karen Sinclair started the day badly having their passports and money stolen in a fuel stop. They the drove on into Kruger and had a major breakdown in the park. Locking up the differential and dropping oil everywhere. However they are in camp and well and tomorrow will deal with tomorrow.
