Road Trip, southern Africa.

[onlyMark]

I'm a bit out in the timings of this as I'm now far away from Lusaka, so chronologically imagine this started on Monday (today is Thursday, or it was when I got up this morning).

I'll hardly be taking a photo, mainly because I'm not bringing my camera, so don't expect much - especially as I'll use this thread more for jotting things down about the trip than anything else. There will be a few though.

The intention, mentioned elsewhere, is to leave Lusaka in my car, drive to Livingstone, enter and skirt the edge of Botswana, then into South Africa, pick up Mrs M at Johannesburg airport, do an anti-clockwise circle around Lesotho (whilst staying in SA), drop Mrs M off back at the same airport, then I'll drive, errr.... not sure, but I'm hoping to the west of SA then back up through Namibia, maybe back into Botswana, but end up back in Zambia and return to Lusaka - somewhere before the end of October/beginning of November.
Just to mention the 'been there done that' thing - I've been fortunate enough to have travelled and seen enough of this area such that apart from a few places of interest with Mrs M, I'll be searching for nice hotels/lodges and driving long distances, minimum 8000 and more like 9000km.
So far that I'll have to get my car serviced before I get back.

Day 1 - dropped Mrs M off at her office for her to fly to Harare - I battled my way through the traffic to leave the south of the capital. Many static speed cameras and not many speed limit signs, so we are all looking at each other wondering if we are going too fast.
The first leg to a place called Mazabuka is having the road repaired. I wish they'd just left it alone as the repairs will take years and it is now worse than ever.
Coffeeberry, a nice cafe near Mazabuka, is closed on a Monday, normally a stop for breakfast, so cheese and cucumber sandwiches were previously packed.

Long drive, 500km or so, arrived Livingstone 3.30pm, went to the guesthouse I'd stayed in before, so booked again.
No electricity upon arrival - usual 'load shedding' due to very low water levels in Kariba Dam. It had just gone off so not expected to be back on again until late at night.
The place has a generator but were loath to put it on - the temperature is/was 38 degrees Celsius - so no air con, no fridge, no TV, no lights, no water pump for a shower/flush toilet and no internet.
I asked the owner, "If nothing is on, why am I here? I may as well sit in my car all night."

I've gone to a different guesthouse I know in a different part of the town where they had their power cut this morning and with a bit of luck, it'll stay on now here.

Out for an Indian meal tonight. The best place in town and one of the best in the country.
Long day tomorrow - fun and games trying to exit Zambia with my car no doubt. Then a long drive again to get to the next stop.

Update - damn and blast, the Indian was closed on a Monday as well. It's a normal day for closing if you are open all weekend.
Went to a seafood place (plaice?) and had hake, mashed potato and salad. Followed by cheesecake and ice cream.
The Indian is called the Golden Leaf and the fish place is called Ocean Basket.
I've been here enough times to know what is good.

[onlyMark]

Day 2 –

The border between Zambia and Botswana has two problems. More actually but the main two are that there is a bottleneck because a small ferry is used to cross between the two. The second is that after about 7am (it opens at 6am) many tourist groups come out of Zambia to have a day visit to Chobe National Park in Botswana. Thus causing long queues.
I got up at 5am, set off at 5.30 and got to the border at 6.15.
I can’t say I sailed through but it was trouble free. Getting me through is easy enough, getting the car through required several reams of paperwork, mainly due to Zambian Customs officials, not the Botswana side.

This paperwork I’d had to have several days accumulating back in Lusaka and you never quite know if you have everything. But it turns out I did. Plus several bits I didn’t need, but better safe than sorry.
I’d already done at least 500km in Zambia and now had to do another 550km or so, and I’m sure you realise it’s not like driving down the German autobahn, so it does take quite a long time. Especially with all the check points that seem to spring up willy nilly at the entry to every village.

Also, now it Botswana, they are very, very cautious about the transmission of foot and mouth disease and many others. This means that not only are they restrictive about food items being brought in but periodically you will have a stop/check on the road plus it is necessary to drive through a disinfectant bath plus get out and dunk all your shoes in one.
There are several vet fences across the country stopping wildlife and domesticated animals crossing certain areas. Originally this was to protect cattle from contamination and picking up diseases, but the knock on effect is cutting off wild animals from their migratory routes. It is a whole ‘nother subject.

I settled down for a long drive, fuelled by salt and vinegar crisps and lemon cream biscuits. Plus a flask of coffee.
There were a number of highlights though.
The roads in this area are long and straight so it gives you time to look around. Not that I needed much to as wildlife was often close by.
Baboons, different deer and antelope species, quite a few ostriches and numerous other small game.
By the way, the collective term for a load of crows is a ‘murder’, baboons is a troop (not a congress as some think) but, I dislike baboons as they are opportunist vandals so I think a load of them should be called a ‘Thug’.

The roads were lined with termite hills and many recent bush fires scarred the landscape. The bush fires could be deliberate or not, I’m not sure, but about a kilometre away at one point I could see a large raging inferno. Low scrub and small trees are the norm in this part of the country, and very flat ground.
Everything is very dry at this time of year and numerous dust devils, large and small pop up and die with frequent occurrence.
Also dotted here and there are wrecked and burnt out vehicles. One of the perils of night driving, i.e. hitting animals and/or dozing off on the long straight roads.

I did stop for lunch at a road side place and they were quite amazed that I didn’t want any meat, just rice and and bowl of a chakalaka type soup.
Eventually I got to my destination in Francistown. Well, I didn’t at first because the directions were wrong but after a 15km detour I found it.
Being quite tired and the b and b not serving food, I nipped out to a local shopping centre where there was just the thing for me – a Wimpy restaurant serving all day breakfasts.
A bonus for sure – but on returning to my car in the car park I noticed a rear tyre was going flat. Must have a slow puncture. So I pumped it up and went back to my bed intending to sort it out the next day.

Just at the side of the road, not in a game park, just a normal road -

[bixaorellana]

That picture of the elephants could be all of us looking out for more of your adventure.

Extremely interesting about Botswana's caution, which must be helping to stop the spread economically devastating disease. I imagine they must be working on solutions to the side effect of messing up migratory routes.

[bjd]

It sure beats seeing cows in a field as you drive by.

[lugg]

I am really looking forward to more of this report Mark. I had not realised that foot and mouth disease was a problem in this part of the world. I can understand the caution given my first hand knowledge of the devastation in England and other parts of the UK.
Love your description of a thug of baboons - I think this applies to many other groups of primates too.

[onlyMark]

bixa, we all have adventures, both little and big. It depends a lot on location but sometimes the small adventures can be the sweetest.
Solutions for migratory animals - none really so far. It is a long running debate. To quote a few sources -

"In the early 1970's the European Union stipulated that Botswana had to control the movement of wildlife into its beef herds in order to control diseases such as foot and mouth disease from infecting the cattle. As beef was the country's largest export at the time the government of Botswana embarked on a policy of erecting fences in strategic places across the country.
Most of these fences were erected without a feasibility study being carried out with the result that the migration routes of a number of species have been cut off and tens of thousands of animals have died in the past two decades from the denial of a route to water and new grazing."

"What this fence did was to stop this huge migration of Wildebeest - with the result that the Wildebeest population in Botswana has dropped more than 90 percent."

"The major part of Botswana's foreign earnings today come from diamonds and tourism and it is this point that has become the call for environmentalists to the Botswana government for the cessation in the erection of fences - a call that has largely being unheeded."

"Against this bleak backdrop, a rare good news story has emerged, driven by myth-busting science and patient advocacy. It turns out that wildlife does not play a significant role in the transmission foot-and-mouth disease, apart from the African buffalo; ironically it is more likely to be spread by cattle. Many areas, like the Kalahari, have no cattle or buffalo – so the fences in those areas serve no disease control purpose."

bjd, though a female elephant is called a cow........

lugg, a group of male cheetahs is called a coalition. There are some weird names for these things. A parliament of owls is good though.

[kerouac2]

I am wondering if the elephants were just trying to stay in the rather meager shade. Looks like it.

[onlyMark]

Yes, they were.
As I sat watching them the young one, now in the middle, tried to approach from the left, but was pushed away quite aggressively by the far left large efalump. The small one, I then called efalumpchen, maneuvered its way around the back and snuck into the centre.

[kerouac2]

Good for him/her!

[onlyMark]

Day 3 – Only three days?
Jeez, it seems like I’ve been driving for ages.
Had a really good result this morning after a relatively crap hotel. The tyre hadn’t gone down too much so managed to ride towards the town where I found a tyre place that does repairs not far away. The result was at the side of it was another Wimpy!
So another breakfast was had whilst I waited for it to be done.
Now, before you get the wrong idea, I’m not a great fan of fast food places but I do admit to frequenting them for convenience. Clean, neat, tidy, free wifi, good enough food and quick enough not to delay me. I’ll make up for it by eating a lettuce or something later.

I had a small bolt through the tread causing a slow leak. But, the high point for me, not for many though, is that the man who did the repair put the wheel back on and tightened the wheel nuts using just the wheel spanner – not a machine – usually air powered and can be called by mechanics a ‘knacker basher’.
There is nothing more frustrating than being stuck at the side of the road with a puncture and you can’t get the wheel nuts off. He did the right thing.
Total cost was equivalent to three euros. I gave him equivalent to five anyway.

The road further down, between Francistown and Gaborone, where I am now, is fast and well looked after with good tarmac. I soon slipped along the 450km and installed myself in a far better accommodation than last night.
On the way, and just to prove I am more or less where I am, I crossed the Tropic of Capricorn. See, I told you I was a long way from Lusaka -








At the side of this place was a road leading out into the wilderness. I was tempted, but I do have a bit of a schedule to keep to -






I’ve still got the same car from when I first came to Zambia and posted a photo of it. It has had quite a few miles added to it. As regards the above track, I was sneered at by a man, an expat, for buying a Mitsubishi Pajero when I first got it. He literally sneered. I mentioned it here.
He felt it was not hard core enough. Not a full on four wheel drive.
I told him that as 99% of my time will be on the road, so what?
It would eat up that track in better comfort than any hard core 4wd and, after having one in Egypt (and the Philippines) I know in sand, it is exceptional.
Or maybe it’s the driver.
And if I am off road, that is where I’ll like to be, on sand in a desert -

[kerouac2]

The African landscape always mesmerizes me, even if I have only driven in Senegal and South Africa (and Mauritius if that counts).

Do you have any idea during at what time of year the trees have any leaves on them, if ever?

[onlyMark]

Lots of different trees, but the rains start around October so December onwards is when the trees will start to leaf. Everything else goes green more or less immediately as the rains start.
I seem to feel bougainvillea, flamboyant trees and the like all are at their best around now, just before the rains show up.
Lots of thorn trees though that just hardly change at all.

[lugg]

#9 image No 3 - I keep going back to have another look. enjoying reading and viewing your road trip. Safe travels.

Oct 4, 2019 12:47:08 GMT onlyMark said:

Lots of thorn trees though that just hardly change at all

I still have the tattoo on my arm from my encounter with one in the Waterburg last September. I quite like it .

[onlyMark]

Day 4 – really good guesthouse last night. Modern and comfortable and with plenty of power points and good shower/bath.

I awoke this morning with a certain amount of trepidation. It was another border crossing day and one never knows how things will turn out. Even though I’ve driven through plenty, there is always the risk of something tripping you up. It was at this point I had a plan B if remotely necessary. It would entail leaving the car in Gaborone, flying to meet up with Mrs M as it’s more or less a local flight distance and using a rental car for a couple of weeks. They are very cheap in South Africa. Then flying back, picking up mine and carrying on around Botswana/Namibia.

Relatively I had not too far to drive to end up at my destination, so I had no need of a really early start. The few long days early on have set me up to take it easier. As per my plan.
I had the choice of two crossings, one about 45 mins away and one about 75 mins away. I aimed for the closer one to see what would happen.

On arrival at the Botswana exit point I realised, even though it was about 9.30am, the place was nearly deserted. Just me passing through.
First, unusually was the Customs office. Nobody was there and I saw a register on the public side of the counter with a notice asking any vehicle drivers to fill it in. I did so.
One line per entry.
Also were a pile of small pieces of paper that were the gate passes. As mentioned, each has to be stamped by whomever and handed in at the exit gate to show you’ve completed all the procedures.
The passes were already stamped by Customs.
I picked one up.

The Immigration official gave my passport a cursory look, stamped it and passed it back, same with the gate pass.
That was it, I could leave.
Well, I couldn’t quite yet because I needed a quick sit down on the toilet, which was nearby and clean and tidy.
There was a shelf behind the toilet upon which I was sat, so I put my paperwork folder and pass on it.
Someone else came in the toilet room which meant the outside door was opened, producing a gust of wind from outside.
The gate pass shot off the shelf and under the cubicle door.

Wary of losing it I whipped open the door and with my pants still around my ankles, hobbled out to catch it.
The man who had entered saw the paper scuttling past him and put his foot on it.
I was lucky. He picked it up and handed it to me with no indication of the surprise at my attire, or lack of it.
I thanked him and returned, putting it safely in my pocket.

I finished what was necessary, stood up to fasten my shorts and the pass slipped out, into the toilet just as I flushed it.
Gone forever.
I had to explain what had happened to the Immigration man so he’d stamp a new one. I offered to bring the man who had saved it first time as a witness, but it was unnecessary.
Clutching it now securely in my anxious grip, I got in the car and drove out the gate, handing it to the gate guard on the way.
Phew.

On the South African side, again, more or less deserted.
Passport stamped boringly, Customs actually spoke to me and asked how long I was staying as he printed off a Temporary Import Permit using the details from my car registration document.
Nothing to pay, no gate pass, luckily, and that was it, I was away.

The countryside has changed. A lot more interesting, more hills and dales, more people though and towns and villages. Interesting but clearly to me South African and not Botswanan or Zambian.
The roads are good and have a different feel, difficult to put my finger on. Certainly better and richer cars. And faster. They all seem to be in a hurry.
On little quirk I notice is that the roads have large areas of tarmac to the side, so when someone wants to overtake you, the standard procedure is to move to the left, nearly off the marked part of the road, they then overtake you, still within the centre line and without crossing it, they activate their hazard lights for a couple of beats to say thank you. You acknowledge them with a flash of your headlights and you both carry on feeling better about yourselves.

I booked a quite good resort hotel near Sun City for the night.
The check in time on their website says 14:00.
I arrived at 13:56 and went in to the reception and mentioned I have a booking.
“You are early,” the receptionist said.
“Yes,” said I. “Four minutes.”
“Check in is at 15:00.”
“Not according to your website.”
“It doesn’t say that, your room is still being cleaned. You’ll have to wait.”
“Where?” (the reception area is quite small.)
“Outside.” (In the sun and standing in the car park)
“If I show you where it says it, you can give me the key and I’ll help the cleaners sort it out.”

She was having none of it and the conversation went on for longer. Me wanting my key, her refusing and telling me to wait.
What I haven’t mentioned it just before me was a young couple with two small children who obviously had had a long hot journey and they felt they had read somewhere it was 14:00. The kids were fractious. They ended up walking back out to their car and standing there. They had asked which room they were in anyway and were told the staff were not allowed to say until it was ready so the cleaners weren’t hassled.

I collared a supervisor I saw walking out of an adjacent office. He must have been, he was white and smartly dressed.
I showed him the website entry and told him what I wanted. I also said that as the check out time in 09:00, the cleaners have had enough time by now.
He said, “We were full last night. Over seventy people so there are a lot of rooms to clean.”
Me – “Not my problem.”

He asked the receptionist which room I was in and handed me my key (card).
I promised not to hassle the cleaners.
I went outside, spoke with the couple, they shot off back inside as I went to move my car.

By the time I’d re-parked it nearer to my room (imagine a string of rooms surrounding a large car park and grassed area), I saw the door to my room open. I walked in, dropped my bag, to the surprise of the cleaner, and then was told she would be just a few more minutes as two more cleaners rushed in through my door laden with towels and bed sheets. They set about with alacrity and busyness whilst I nipped back to my car to get my flask of coffee.
They were done, all smiles, in about three minutes.
Obviously they had been contacted.

As I am away from any real town I ate in the resort restaurant, called a Pizzeria something or other.
I had a pizza though they did serve other fare.
The list of pizzas was as follows –
Margherita
Bacon and banana
Ham and pineapple
Bacon and avocado/guacamole
Butter chicken
Spicy Cajun chicken
BBQ steak strips
Peppadew, feta and caramelised onion.

I had the last one. Not bad.
Rule of thumb – the more posh the place is, or had pretentions to be, the smaller the soft drinks are. I’m sure you know this.
My waitress was called Petunia.

Tomorrow the ever beautiful and intelligent Mrs M flies in to Johannesburg and meets me at a hotel to stay the night and then we set off the next day.
No more tone deaf singing to my music CDs. I have to at least try to have some semblance of ability.
She puts up with me though. Bless ‘er.

[kerouac2]

You gate pass in the toilet reads like a scene out of a movie.

I learned the car passing protocol on South African roads almost immediately and still wonder why everybody drives so incredibly fast. Yes, the roads are very good, but that is not a reason in my book.

[bixaorellana]

Oct 4, 2019 12:47:08 GMT onlyMark said:

the rains start around October

Huh! That immediately made me think of the Toto song because the rains here where I live stop around October. I looked up latitudes, and Mexico & Botswana are roughly on the same ones.

Oct 4, 2019 17:30:15 GMT lugg said:

I still have the tattoo on my arm from my encounter with one [thorn tree] in the Waterburg last September. I quite like it .

Hmm. Makes me wonder what other kinds of things you like, Lugg.

Oct 5, 2019 15:00:51 GMT onlyMark said:

On little quirk I notice is that the roads have large areas of tarmac to the side, so when someone wants to overtake you, the standard procedure is to move to the left, nearly off the marked part of the road, they then overtake you, still within the centre line and without crossing it, they activate their hazard lights for a couple of beats to say thank you. You acknowledge them with a flash of your headlights and you both carry on feeling better about yourselves.

Most of rural Texas has a very similar system. It's rather heart-warming.

Your story about the gate pass got very close to a "for want of a nail ..." ending. Thank goodnes you and at least some of your dignity emerged all right from it.

[mickthecactus]

Terrific report Mark. Not up to Costa del Sol standard but still
Very good...

[onlyMark]

As I've moved south the trees are greener. I'll show you some in a bit.
Dignity is over rated I decided at the time. If I can keep a bit of it, then all is good.

Mick, I'm trying.

[onlyMark]

I don't want to overload you but I'd like to catch up to date then we'll slow down.
So this is yesterday.
Today I took a few photos, just a few, so you have those to look forward to. I'm sure you're excited but I haven't written up today yet.

[onlyMark]

Day 5 –
Another short day today, I only have to get to Johannesburg, check in to a hotel near the airport and meet Mrs M. The drive is just about three hours so I didn’t rush in getting up and getting ready.
I mentioned that during the conversation yesterday on checking in, that the check out time is 9am. I knew this because I had heard the other couple being told it who were in front of me then.
But..... in the room is an information folder, like you often get. In there it says clearly that check out time is 10am.
So I turn up to check out at 9.45am only to be greeted by the same receptionist I’d had when I arrived.

She wasn’t happy I was late checking out – according to her.
I smiled – “You know that in the info folder in the room it says 10am?”
“No it doesn’t. Check out is at 9am.”
I got my smart arse head on again and said, “Are you sure you don’t want me to go and get one? To prove you wrong again? I saw it last night and checked this morning. It’s written there quite plainly.”
She huffed and puffed a little but then finished off the paperwork for me to leave. Job done.
What I wonder is surely I’m not the first to point these things out. What about the others?

The ride into Johannesburg became, as expected, busier and busier. They do have a system of toll roads and I am perfectly willing to use them for ease of access and convenience to get towards the city centre.
The wrinkle in the ointment though is that most you pay for at a barrier, using cash or credit card. Also there is a lane for an electronic eTag system where you just drive through and it clocks your passage. But, there are toll roads around Johannesburg and Pretoria where there are no barriers. They are solely for the electronic means of payment.
If you happen to use one without the tag, you use their website system to pay within 7 days as cameras will capture your registration plate.

However, due to mismanagement and corruption whereby billions of Rand have been squandered away and gone missing, only one person in five actually does pay. As a protest until it is better sorted.
The government would use their vehicle database to track down the defaulters and take them to court. But, due to further protests, this chasing up of non payers has been suspended.
So I would likely get away with it. The icing on the cake for me though is that my car, not being from SA, is not in their data base! Hah!
So I’ve been driving along them and not paying. I’m a criminal, me.

I slipped into the hotel (Premier Hotel O. R. Tambo), close to the airport with a free shuttle service, but somewhat characterless as it is for businessmen and airline staff staying over. But it did the job.
After sprucing myself up I got the shuttle to the airport to meet up with Mrs M.
Now, the plan was, she would arrive and get the shuttle back to the hotel where I would meet her. I’d be waiting there for her. She’d suggested this.
Not how I do it though – I was determined to welcome her off the plane as soon as I could and accompany her back.
Fortunately I did because she was very happy to see me as she is suffering from some stomach bug which is laying her low.
It’s passing now but still has knocked her for six a bit.

An early night was had and a good sleep ready for the start, or the proper start at least of our joint trip.

[onlyMark]

Day 6 –
We set off early and shot out of Johannesburg like a rat up a drainpipe, thanks to the eToll road near the hotel. Ignoring the fact again that I should pay for it, we negotiated a couple of junctions onto another one, now a straight line dual carriageway and the SatNav spat out the distance until I came off it was 225km.
Yikes!
I’m not doing that. Far too boring.
So I reset the device to find a route that didn’t involve toll roads.
It scratched its head for a while then told me I could get to my destination without using them and just on normal roads if I was prepared to drive an extra........ 8 minutes.
We turned off.

At this point Mrs M, still feeling under the weather, dropped off to sleep.
Probably the best thing for her.
We were heading for a town called Clarens and the plan was to have a walk for an hour or so in a nearby national park.
I had a steady drive, the scenery changed quite a lot to be something more mountainous as we approached the Drakensberg Mountains, but they were still quite some distance away.
Mrs M woke up half an hour or so before I stopped and we entered the small park and stopped at an information centre.

We were told we could do a walk up the side of one of the hills/mountains and back down again but we’d have to pay the entrance fee to go off the access road. This was equivalent to about 14 Euros each. You could see the walk from the info building and it didn’t look up to much, so we declined. Instead there were a couple of scenic drives up and down and around which entertained us.
I took a few photos of the scenery on my phone and some nice green trees. Even though the ground is still dry, the trees are full and usually clustered along the banks of streams.
There was also an atmospheric small family graveyard –












Then we headed back to the town, Clarens, to check in and have a bit of a walk there instead.
The town is small and compact but is chock a block with interesting shops. Touristy mind, but nevertheless, arty and tasteful with some good cafes.
After a walk up a small hill from our accommodation, Mrs M decided to vomit copiously and immediately feel better for it.
In fact, she’s been better and better every hour since then. She is now (the next day) about 85% fit she says and has started eating properly. So the worst is over, touch wood.

We stayed at a strange named places, His Vessel Guesthouse. We had the two storey family room – and it was exceptional for the price, about 50 Euros.

His Vessel Guesthouse

We had an early night and I watched the rugby for an hour or so then dozed off quite quickly.

[bixaorellana]

I'm assuming you encountered none of the recent unrest in Johannesburg, right?

You really capture the essence of road trip, Mark -- the inevitable slight boredom that is bearable because you know something interesting will eventually come along, the nice solitude when your passenger is asleep and you're alone with your thoughts & no job except to keep the car on the road, the built-in thrill of stopping to eat or to sleep, and the occasional big payoffs of wonderful scenery or strange sights.

Love the craggy mountain shots and I'm sure Mrs. Mark is happy to know you shared her barfing with the world.

[onlyMark]

Didn't see or hear anything in J'burg at all. Mind you, I did pick our route in and out to avoid even the slightest whiff of problems. I'm sure we would have had no trouble at all, it's only a very small percentage who do after all, but nevertheless, no harm in being over cautious. I admit I'm less cautious by myself, but with Mrs M in tow it's a different matter.

You are right about road trips, they are fundamentally different, and that's one of the reasons I do them. Mainly alone though. There is also the calculations about will I run out of fuel, hoping the next town has somewhere that isn't a flea pit to eat, avoiding any police problems on the road etc etc.
Mrs M doesn't read my musings until I've edited them a bit, hence I think I might cut out the relevant sick section. We'll see.

[mickthecactus]

You are like me Mark. Happy with your own company.

[kerouac2]

It is a relief to see trees with lush leaves after the veldt.

I drove through some of those areas, too, but I did pay the tolls in my South African rental car. It was pretty cheap.

[onlyMark]

Day 7 –

It was very quiet last night and we both had a good sleep so we were up early enough to make a good start on the day. But, breakfast came first – which is unusually for me because I tend when alone to drive for a while before doing so. But the guesthouse had a thing by which instead of serving you breakfast, you get a voucher to go to one of four restaurants/cafe in the town instead.
One of them we had had our eye one but didn’t eat there last night, so we packed the car and went to it.
An old post office and postmasters house it had been renovated and set up very well.

A note – meat is king in South Africa. If you are vegetarian and even though all the ingredients are available for good veg or vegan food, you’ll be struggling to find it. For example, our breakfast place had a breakfast menu. Over a dozen types of dishes were available and only one had mushrooms to replace a meat ingredient. Plus at least 50% of them included chips/French fries.
The was one, just one, fruit and cereal bowl available as well.
I’m writing this in our next guesthouse and when we checked in we were asked if we want bacon and sausages for breakfast or just one or the other. Any thought of anything else is met with a look of slight incomprehension.

It turned out at the post office place we could have things ordered from the ‘extras’ menu, so we each has toast and scrambled eggs. The bread was pretty damned good and a slice of white, wholemeal and a rye were delivered to us to scoff.
We set off down a road called the Maloti Route. This is a road that skirts Lesotho heading south west and carries on eventually with a few changes to our destination of Burgersdorp.
The route is a scenic route, and it was, until it rained. Heavily. Bugger. But we drove through it after half an hour or so though it stayed cloudy, windy and threatening for the rest of the day.
We did stop at a farm deli to see what they sold, but if you didn’t want any meat it was a waste of time.

In Burgersdorp we realised we’d made a bit of a mistake.
It’s Sunday.
All the shops were closed and no restaurants were open.
We had a walk round and discussed if we had enough food/snacks with us to survive.
The conclusion was yes, just about.

The town is a little insular and well, different in some way. I think it was because nobody was about at all. I filled up with petrol on entering and had to wait for the attendant to appear from somewhere as though he’d been asleep.
It certainly has a history, not all of it good, but we had a walk round and took a few photos to give an idea -




















We stayed at the The Kingsman Boutique Hotel. An unusual hotel in an unusual place. Our room is 45 Euro including breakfast. This is the outside and it was built in 1855 -




This is our room. Unusual to put it mildly. We were shown a couple of others in case we didn’t like this one, and they were very similar.
Yes, I had a bath, whilst easily conversing with Mrs M who was reclining on the bed -







www.thekingsman.co.za/

My dinner consisted of a bread roll, two slices of processed cheese, a vegetable cup a soup, a packet of chutney flavoured crisps, a packet of salt crackers, an apple and a packet of fresh sugar peas.
A veritable feast.

[kerouac2]

I saw one of those Victorian fountains in Sydney.

You should be visiting Anyport member tod2 before long. She is delightful.

[bjd]

I don't know whether it's because you took your photos with your phone, but on the first pictures I saw (day6), the resolution is not very good but it makes interesting pictures. Not really fuzzy but more like blocked-in colours like a painting.

Glad Mrs M is no longer sick and can enjoy the trip.

[onlyMark]

Where is young Tod? Probably we'll not have time as I've not factored it in but curious as to what area.

bjd, yes, terrible really but I don't think my cheap phone camera likes bright light and wide scenery.

[bjd]

I believe she lives in Pietermaritzburg, if that's the right name of the town.

No, Mark -- the photos are interesting rather than terrible. At least those of the scenery.