We actually slept in a tad today, not really getting our 05:00 start we wanted. I kid of course, we were never going to get up at 05:00!! Andries sorts us some delicious breakfast of fried eggs, toast and left over steak chunks. Mmmmm, steeeeeaaak. It’s the new bacon.
Quick shower, pack up and ready to go by 10:30 and we say our goodbyes and good luck’s. In no time flat we are back on the N1 and grinding away at the last bit of asphalt home, a grand total of 1023 KM’s to go!
We make pretty good progress before reaching our 1st road works stop. “10 minutes wait”, says the man. Said man returns 10 minutes later to inform us that there has been an accident in the stretch ahead, so we can expect some minor delays. Much later, and after catching up with two Mythbusters episodes on my laptop, I make a call that we double back and try to get onto one of the dust roads running parallel with the N1.
Easy does it, best dirt road we’ve ever seen. :) It snakes through the koppies this way and that, mostly running next to the train tracks and national road off the right so we know we’re heading the right direction. We don’t have GPS, so it’s terribly old skool navigation. A few cars coming the other direction can at least verify where we will end up and we trade directions (since they want to go the other way). Not long before more people catch on to the alternative road and more cars fill the narrow bypass.
Finally, we rejoin the N1 and my goodness, it doesn’t look any better on this side either! Cars, trucks and trailers backed up for kilometres. We make a quick stop at a block in the road where people have climbed out of their cars and I relay the terrible news: you’re gonna be here a while. But I’m a bad news / good news kinda guy and offer them the “secret” route around the carnage. I later found out a truck and a 4x4 bakkie had a serious collision, hence the fire trucks and no doubt jaws-of-life operation that had to take place.
We push on, but it is now increasingly likely that we will not be making it all the way home today. This sentiment is somewhat lightened when we seem to again be making really good time and dashed equally as we get stuck behind yet another few sets of successive road blocks. We’re lucky that they at least stick to the plus-minus 10 minute wait time.
By the late afternoon we roll into Three Sisters, aptly named for the three tall (for this area) free standing mountains. It gets progressively dark by the time we get close to Laingsburg and even though we are in striking distance to Cape Town we make decide that it would be so stupid to rush home now. By our ETA we would only arrive by something dumb like 11 o’clock, and what’s the point in that??
Laingsburg isn’t the largest town I’ve ever seen, but that have 3 decent looking inns / hotels and we’re ready to have a serious sit down dinner for a change, having only had Provita bisquits and cheese (the same cheese we bought way way back in Kenya! Still... delicious!).
The Laings Inn happens to have one double bedroom available and we snatch it up, unpack our sleep over gear and head out to one of 3 dining options at the Cafe Hart Hotel. The other options where Steers and the Wimpy at the petrol station as you drive into town. Heh heh, small town indeed.
The Cafe Hart seems to have quite a rich family history and is quite cosy on this cold evening. The bar is quite buzzing when we arrive. An extensive menu covers all the basic food groups, of meat, meat, fish, and meat. We order the ribs with chips and wash it down with whatever the house red was.
Even before dinner is done I could feel a very real weariness creeping into me and I mention that I am really glad we didn’t push through like lunatics.
Tomorrow we will take our time and pay a visit to Matjiesfontein, only 15 kilometres down the road.
Back at the inn, we settle into the big double bed, have a quick night cap and doze off.
Highlights: Feeling very homesick man, very pleased we’re almost home.
[G & A], out
ya’ll know the lyrics, com’on and sing with me!
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