6 day helicopter trip from Johannesburg, South Africa to the equator in Kenya

 

South Africa: Montagu to Somerset West. The end of the trip.

Thursday 16th July: Montagu to Somerset West.

We met for breakfast at 8am & were on the road soon after 10.

Sir John Montagu Guest House in Montagu

It is only 180 kms from Montagu to home although first I wanted to stop by Disa Motors in Gants centre near Somerset West. I bought Dusty from Pieter, one of the owners of Disa Motors. He’d owned it for about 7 years and had kept it in a condition that allowed us to undertake this trip. We just wanted to say thanks to him for that. Next stop was Al Dente for a wonderful chilli pasta and then La Piazza.

We pulled through the gates at about 3pm, quickly followed by Sylvia Owen, my friend and neighbour, who gave us both a huge hug and welcome. It’s good to be back. Oh, and the sun was blazing down on us, enough to be more than comfortable in a T-shirt.

Back home in La Piazza.

We’ve travelled 9811 kilometres since the 13th June from Nanyuki to Somerset West. It’s been fun, exciting, challenging. John & I have travelled 18,935 kms in the round trip. A few more statistics will be added if I ever work them out, like how many fried eggs did John & I eat. Certainly, John beat me on that.  As far as our cholesterol is concerned, doesn’t seem like any of us will be rushing off for a check just yet.

A huge thank to all of you who have been following our adventure. It must have been a bit frustrating waiting for updates but we really did have a problem finding internet access on the way down. If we couldn’t find a bed, we had no chance with an internet café!  Thanks again to each and every one of you for your messages and support since this trip started on the 15th February. It has meant a lot to us all. I’ll update again as we’re just off to the Ocean Basket for Fish & Chips. Finally, we popped into Harbour island in Gordon's Bay this afternoon where my friends Mike &Lily own an apartment. I am hoping to park Dusty in the underground car park there as my garage door isn’t high enough to get Dusty in with the roof rack on. We saw this car as we drove in. We all know the roads are dangerous in Africa but really, there’s a 10kph speed limit in this residential complex!  It must have been a good dinner party.

Harbour Island, Gordon's Bay

Very strange accident

Our Land Rover Disco was fantastic. Trusty Dusty was just that. The only real problem we had was a puncture coming into Mbeya in Tanzania. That we wasted 2 batteries was probably due to one just dying of old age and the other one, the one we used to keep the fridge going, was drained too many times. Despite all that, we still got enough out of it to ensure we had cold beer, wine & milk. What more could one want. It's going to get a full service now from Nekkies in Wellington. Thank you all for following our blog, and our adventures. There will be plenty more to follow in the years ahead I hope.

John & Frank signing out.

La Piazza, Somerset West.

South Africa: Graaf Reinet to Montagu.

Wednesday 15th July: Graaf Reinet-Oudtshoorn-Montagu.

Graaf Reinet

Trinity Methodist Church in Graaf Reinet

We were on the road at 9.15 for the 550 km drive to Montagu. I’ve already booked the John Montagu Guest House there and we’ll have our dinner in town to mark the last night of the journey. Montagu is in the mountains on Route 62, the longest wine route in the world. It’s far enough South to escape the summer heat of the Karoo and far enough North to escape the wet Cape winters, yet we’re only 180 kms from Somerset West at that point.

We hope to arrive Somerset west tomorrow in time for lunch at Al Dente, a small Italian Restaurant that does wonderful pasta. We stopped in Oudtshoorn for a toasted sandwich. It’s the Ostrich capital of SA.

We’d covered 350kms of the 550km journey. Amazingly, when we left Graaf-Reinet we drove on a stretch of road that was dead straight for 120kms. That was a first on this trip, and it was tarred to perfection.

Needless to say, there was a speed trap on it but at 120 limit, we didn’t need to worry. Dusty would have a hissy fit at 120. We always kept it to a max of 100 kph. We arrived into Montagu at 5pm, well before the daylight faded.

After settling into our guest house, we went to Jessicas restaurant for dinner and once again, a reasonably early night at 11pm.

Tuesday 14th July: Rhodes to Graaf-Reinet via Barkly East, Rossouw, Indwe, Lady Frere, Queenstown & Cradock.

This routing is a continuation of yesterdays, courtesy of Tony Owens friend. We were due back in Somerset West today but that is no longer achievable so we’ll just take our time and re plan for Thursday. We still have 1250 kms to go. The time we lost in Mozambique after the accident has caught up with us and the scenic routing we are taking is also slowing our journey but what a great way to end this wonderful trip. We were on the road at 9am this morning. It was a frosty start to the day and after we left town we noticed that it had snowed higher up last night.

We travelled through it for some time but it was not a problem. We really enjoyed the scenery as the hills rolled by. Mile after mile, we just had the road entirely to ourselves and even when we got onto tarred roads occasionally, they too were almost empty. We stopped in Queenstown for lunch and made ourselves a sandwich with fresh bread bought from Spar. That way, we could continue our journey and aim to complete it by 6pm. We rolled into Graaf-Reinet at 6 pm, 9 hrs and 600 kms from our departure town of Rhodes. We immediately found Karoopark, a guesthouse in the town centre and checked in. It has a bar & restaurant so we’ll probably stay in for the evening as it’s very cold. We’ve had dinner, lovely Karoo Lamb so we’re fed and watered as well as being finally up to date on the blog. I will load pics really soon and thanks for your patience. We’ve not seen internet since the Kruger.

Karoo Park, Graaf Reinet

South Africa: Kokstad to Rhodes

Monday 13th July: Kokstad-Cedarville-Matatiele-Mount Fletcher- Lower Pitseng-Naudes Nek Mountain Pass-Rhodes.

 Before we left town, we had an oil & filter change at a local garage. Although we’re nearly at the end of our trip, it was overdue, given the type of driving we’ve been doing in all terrain. I mention today’s routing in detail because it was given to me by my friend & neighbour, Tony Owen in Somerset West. He received it from his friend who is a keen 4x4'er and when he heard we were in the Eastern Cape near the Drakensberg, he said we would enjoy this. We sure did although it took almost 7 hours to do 265 kms. If any of our followers of this blog ever come this way, factor in a day for this & you’ll think you’re someplace between heaven & Earth. It was stunning scenery all the way and we even encountered snow & ice at the top of Naudes Nek Pass.

From Dust and Diesel 2 - The return to the South

As well as snow & ice, we also encountered fire as it raced across acres of fields, near Lower Pitseng. 

When we realised it was crossing our route some kms further on, we had to make a dash for it to beat it to that point because it was moving quick.

We were not sure if it was selective burning that had got out of hand but we weren’t hanging around to find out.

We got to Rhodes with 30 minutes of daylight left and found ourselves the most exquisite accommodation at The Rhodes Hotel. It’s a tiny town, a village more likely, designed in a grid system with just a few streets but it’s really quaint and mostly holiday homes.

Dinner was served at 7.30 in the dining room with another roaring fire & we had our best steaks yet. They just melted in the mouth. We were tired although John was tempted back for a nightcap; he had to do it on his own. Because it’s co cold here, all beds have electric blankets fitted so it was nice to return to a warm and comfy bed knowing that snow is forecast in the night.

South Africa: Greytown to Kokstad, via Drakensberg & Sani Pass into Lesotho.

Sunday 12th July: Greytown to Drakensberg Mountains, Lesotho & Kokstad. We left Greytown at 8.45 am and headed for the nearby Town of Mooi River. That was our gateway into the World Heritage Site of uKhalamba Drakensberg Park.

We travelled right into the Highmoor Park and then worked our way along the length of the uKhahlamba Park until we came to the Sani Pass. This is the road that takes you from South Africa into the Kingdom of Lesotho. Lesotho is a sovereign country whose geographical boundary lies completely within South Africa. This is termed an enclave country and I discover that there are only 3 such enclaves in the world; The Vatican in Rome, San Marino in Italy and of course Lesotho in South Africa. OK, only San Marino left to do. As there was no sign of the forecast snow, especially knowing the reputation of this pass as being quite treacherous, we set off to visit the highest pub in Africa, the San Top. As we arrived at the South African border post we found that it was still 8 kms from that point and inside Lesotho. I was told it would take an hour to get up the pass from there.

Here is what Wikipedia writes about it " Sani Pass is a route that connects Kwazulu-Natal and Lesotho. It is a notoriously dangerous road, which requires the use of a 4x4 vehicle and above average driving experience. It has occasional remains of vehicles that did not succeed in navigating its steep gradients and poor traction surfaces, and has a catalogue of frightening stories of failed attempts at ascending the path over the Northern Lesotho mountains. While South African immigration at the bottom of pass prohibits vehicles deemed unsuitable for the journey, the Lesotho border agents at the top generally allow vehicles of all types to attempt the descent. The Pass is often closed due to weather conditions, especially during winter. "

Bad as the pass was before the border post, it now deteriorated into a pile of rocks and holes. Sometimes, you’d imagine it impassable.

 


The scenery was absolutely stunning, the climb quite hair-raising most of the way. The wheels were grabbing on lumps of rock and gravel, always looking for grip. Suddenly we were driving on lumps of ice as it was so cold up there. On one switchback bend the road was iced over with a big lump of ice, right on the bend.

That was rather interesting because on the way down, the drop the other side was thousands of feet. We eventually got to the Lesotho border post & we were through in a few minutes.

The Pub was just a few hundred metres away, and a few metres higher too. We met the owner who built it back in 1994 and he was most welcoming & informative. We were in Lesotho but light would be fading in 90 minutes so it was a quick drink. A local beer for John & a coffee for me.

We bade farewell & had our passports stamped out of Lesotho and then started the long trek back to the border post of South Africa, 8kms away.

Were we the quickest ever visitors to a country, as we only stayed 30 minutes. Probably not, by a long margin. It was pretty hair raising going down, and once we'd negotiated the icy bend with the big drop, we could relax a bit. Naturally, we were in low range drive for the entire round trip. Once back through the SA border post, the road was still very bad but further down it began to improve so we made a bit better pace.

Back on the main road, we set our sights on Kokstad, about 165 kms away. The road was excellent as well as being quiet so we got there by about 7.30pm. It took a while to find rooms as most places seemed full and then we found The Kilimanjaro Guest House. It sure was a long way back to Kilimanjaro. There seemed to be only 2 choices of where to eat in town on a Sunday night, KFC & Nandos. Nandos is a fast food place with a Portuguese flavour of Peri Peri sauce on everything so we opted for that.

Kilimanjaro Guest House Kokstad

It was too late to eat inside as the seating area was shut down so we ordered our take away & it was delivered to us in our car outside within 15 minutes. We returned to the guesthouse and I raided the kitchen for plates and cutlery. We also got to see a rerun of the Formula 1 grand prix that took place earlier in the day so John & I were really pleased with that. Bed was later than usual at almost midnight.