South Africa

We are raising money for 2 charities that we have seen doing incredible work in the area around the hospital that we used to work in in South Africa. To learn more about the charities check out the early blog entry ‘SPONSOR US’.

If you want to donate to Lulisandla Kwmtwana (foster care program. Caring for orphaned children in the community – they currently need a 4x4 to access children in remote areas) (UK taxpayers can claim Gift Aid)

Follow these simple steps:
Click: DONATE to Lulisandla Kwmtwana (on favourite links, bottom Rt of this page)
Type in your details
Type in amount you want to donate
Write in 'Details of Donation': Long Way Home - Lulisandla Kwmtwana
Tick the Gift Aid box if you are a UK tax payer

There is curretly a problem with donating to the hipporoller project. We are working on a solution.

Thankyou for your support.

A strange twist of fate has led us to a little town called Alldays.

We ended up here because Polly has been unwell for almost a week from a dodgy KFC so we've been taking it easy.. having short cycling days or rest days.. since in the last 6 days we've only covered about 160km.

This is proper 'frontier Afrikaner country'. The land is flat, dry and scrubby with cattle herds, impala, warthogs, blessbock, orix, jackals and lots of guinea fowl.

On the road to Alldays Polly was feeling rough and we were having a rest in the long grass. A very friendly man, wearing snazzy pink specks, stopped to see if we were OK. We told him we were fine but needed a place to stay in Alldays.. You should stay in Cosa-Nostra its my place! 'Great' We thought and promptly forgot the name.

An hour later we arrived in Alldays.. a dusty little town with a couple of nice little cafes.. we asked the guy in the cafe if he knew of anywhere that would allow us to pitch our tent.. he called his nephew.. who said we could pitch it for free at his place.. we happily headed off to the nice nephew's place and when we got there the receptionist (who we found in the bar) said that the boss called and we must stay in one of the rooms for free!

It was a nice little place.. Straw roofed buildings set in lush tropical gardens with a nice swimming pool. The only slightly disconcerting thing were the dozens of skulls, antlers, pelvises and a giraffe neck hanging from one of the trees! But we figured it was a hunting lodge and that's how you decorate hunting lodges.

Later that evening we met the boss (Derk) – sure enough the same guy who had come across us on the road.. Pol was still not well so went to bed while I joined the hunters in the bar.. Derk was such a nice guy – very generous and always ordering new drinks when mine was half full. He tried to convince me that he was nothing special.. just grew up here and built this lodge.. however I knew there was something more.. and at about midnight it all came out – he organised safaris for rich people, had introduced Dodi to Lady Di, Elton John was a good friend and Pavarotti and
koffi Annan had sat on my bar stool! And tomorrow I was to go on a safari hunt too!

The next day I headed off with Kok (Dirk's tracker) Dirk's 270 rifle and 2 bullets (that's all we could find!).

So a few hours later and no shots fired Dirk turned up –
“Tuesday night is Guinea fowl night and you must come too!”
“So how do you shoot the guinea fowl?” I asked.
“We drive around in the bakkie and start world war III!”
“Are there many guinea fowl?”
“you'll see more than 1000!”

So the beers, semi automatic shotgun, 200 bullets, the rifle, the tracker – Kok and the mates – Pete and Bours, were loaded in the bakkie and off we went.

I've never seen anything like it..Alcohol, testosterone, speed, a semi automatic shotgun and killing stuff was an extremely potent combination. We would take turns with the shotgun, standing up front – burning across the fields at breakneck speeds in the hunt of flocks of Guinea fowl. When one was spotted we would go even faster and when in range the shooting would start as the panicked birds scattered in all directions.

And then we saw 'the pig'... resting the rifle on pete's shoulder - I could just make it out through the bushes.. KABOOM – wow that rifle was powerful and the pig bolted.. so did Kok brandishing a kitchen knife. 2 minutes later Kok emerged from the scrub carrying the warthog that was almost as big as him... and pete exclaimed - “you shot a f**** pig, you shot a f**** pig!”

Kok struggling back with 'the pig'

Kok, Bours, Pete and Dirk.

So now we're a few days behind schedule, pol's on the mend and we're gonna have to do some hitch hiking to make up time and we are loving it!!

Blog Week 2

23rd - 29th June

705km to date

Bulembu – Diphuti (just inside Limpopo)

Swaziland – Mpumalanga SA – Limpopo SA

Highlights:

The kindness of strangers
Thank you Paul, Isla, Irma & Johan and so many people who have encouraged and waved us on.

and the kindness of friends
Thanks Sian for being so helpful sending us the stuff from Zululand Cycles

Incredible view from Gods Window over the 3rd largest canyon in the world (What is the 2nd largest by the way?)

Blyde River Canyon (that's “Blader” River Canyon for those who don't speak Africans)

We used our camping stove for the first time on the trip having carried it 500km!!

Sunset over the Three Rondavels

Coming down Abel Erasmus Pass – We had thought this MASSIVE hill from Mpumalanga into Limpopo was going to be uphill – IT WASN'T ;0)

Does anyone know who abel erasmus was?

Pol still looks like a girl even though all her hair is gone!!

Read on..............

Bulembu (Swaziland) to Barberton (South Africa).

Even standard border posts aren't fast but thankfully getting through the border back into South Africa was not as slow as feared.

After the border was an absolutely stunning mountain pass.

Then on to Nelspruit. time in Nelspruit was successful.. We managed to get multiple vaccinations (plus an extra one for free!?) a sleeping bag, some stuff to fix the tent, and some US dollars.. But we did decide that it was a bit of a hole and got out ASAP.

No Picture!!

Nelspruit to Sabie is part of the Mpumalanga Panoramic Route – and with very good reason. The views made up for all the climbing.

In Sabie we stayed at a cosy back packers renovated by Garth and Managed by Kenneth. Kenneth is from Malawi. Malawi (Blantyre) to Nelspruit only takes a day by car!!! We stayed an extra night as we were sooo tired after some very bad night’s sleep in Nelspruit.

After Sabie we moved onward and upward to Graskop.. 30km uphill.. The residents of the the area seemed to want us to get very lazy and fat.. Half way there a lady stopped and insisted on carrying our bags as the next bit was particularly steep!

We then met the owners of Autumn Breath B&B who insisted on giving us very tasty high calorie food and then drove us to the local view points to save our legs for tomorrow! Awesome!

Irma makes very tasty waffles and pancakes

Rob burning off some surplus energy having been driven to Gods Window.

Johann & Ina – our Graskop guides

Graskop to Blydepoort took us along the Blyde River Canyon. We had stunning views the whole way and the cycling was not as tough as we had feared it might be.

The famous “Pillar” took us right back home to Symonds Yat & we reminisced on happy times climbing with great friends.....

Lunch was at Bourkes Luck Potholes – deep deep potholes in the rock formed by the river where Pol had an amusing chat with a local teenager who lived across the road from the potholes:

Monica: “Where are you from?”

Polly: “I'm from England”

Pause

Monica thoughtfully: “Wow, you really like potholes!”

Today we came from Byldepoort to Diphuti crossing from Mpumalanga into Limpopo. The scenery has been incredible and the descents exhillarating as we came down off the “Kleine Drakensberg”

Another amazing week :0)

As said before we are raising money for 2 charities that we have seen doing incredible work in the area around the Hospital. To learn more about the charities check out ‘SPONSOR US’.

If you want to donate to Lulisandla Kwmtwana (foster care programme. Caring for orphaned children in the community – they currently need a 4x4 to access children in remote areas) (UK taxpayers can claim Gift Aid)

Follow these simple steps:
Click: DONATE to Lulisandla Kwmtwana (on favourite links)
Type in amount you want to donate
Tick: SIM project
Write in 'Details of Donation': Long way Home

If you want to donate to Hipporollers.org (a simple solution to water access) follow The Link: DONATE to Hipporoller.org. Write longwayhome in the extra info section. (Gift Aid doesn’t apply as the charity isn’t registered in the UK)

Dawn at Mseleni.. winter mornings give a mist that covers the ground and reflects the dawn rays – just the trees poke through. I’ll never forget the first time I saw it.. running up the hill to labour ward having had 2 hrs sleep, terrified by the emergency that I was being summoned to...But that incredible sight reminded me that God was in control and I could trust Him.

Hopefully we’ll remember that in tough times on our travels.