None of us were looking forward to the road out of Coffee Bay but fortunately the owner of the place we were staying at gave us an alternative route which (while longer) cut off the worst 30 kms of potholes. We headed out at about 8:30am knowing the drive was around 5.5 hours (if we didn’t stop). The road was definitely better even though it was dirt road for most of the way. We could generally drive at 60 km/h except for one or two spots. Fortunately the weather was beautiful getting up into the mid 20s.

We then took the N2 to Kokstad. It was only just under 300 kms but the road is quite slow as you pass through a number of towns. The first major place is Mthatha (used to be called Umtata) which is more like a city than a town. The traffic was very heavy – it seems almost everyone with a car was out on the roads. It took us about 30 minutes to get through – fortunately there was no loadshedding as I would hate to know how what all the traffic light chaos would look like when that occurs. It was bad enough with taxis just behaving as if a red traffic light was a suggestion to stop.

We passed through a place called Tsolo. There it was chaotic – don’t think that is even a fitting description. The traffic was at a standstill, people wandering over the road pushing trolleys and wheelbarrows. One person almost pushed his trolley into A’s car (I witnessed it in the rear view mirror). One guy had a trolley with a number plate on it – clearly thought that made it a car and he could be on the road. The queues at the bank ATMs were 20-30 people regardless of bank. We inched forward and eventually cleared the town. You wondered what was causing the traffic jam as there are no traffic lights or stop signs even. I think it was just the significant number of people ambling in and across the road.

At some point, some of the group started to stretch their bladders but we struggled to find a petrol station with reasonable facilities. We eventually found an Engen 1-stop just outside Mount Frere and it too was teaming with people. We refueled the vehicles and everyone used the toilet. H had to drive from that point as I had to do a work meeting. We stopped at Kokstad to get groceries from the Woolworths for the next few days. I stayed in the car doing my meeting. I was amazed that for a fairly sizeable and organised town, the roads in Kokstad were a disaster. The tar roads in the town have become dirt roads and clearly no maintenance has been done for some time.

H continued to drive after Kokstad as I was still in my meeting but eventually the signal disconnected and I could not get back into the meeting. The tar road from Kokstad heading to Underberg was very poor in places with deep potholes. The type that if you hit them you could easily shred a tyre. We all concluded that road was far worse than the one to Coffee Bay because it looks like a good road, you’re traveling at 100 km/h and then suddenly there is a deep pothole. It definitely was more dangerous.

We made it to the place we are staying – The Lodge at Valley Lakes – just after 3pm. It is one house with 4 bedrooms and overlooks (unsurprisingly) the lake. After unloading we did a bird walk before the sunset. There is a suspension (pedestrian) bridge over the river which takes you into the fields on the other side and so we all braved the bridge (with varying confidence). Some water birds added to the trip list as well (we have been lacking so far). My trip list is at 80 birds now.

Dinner last night was a braai and we all headed to bed at before 9pm as we thought there was going to be loadshedding from 9pm. Turned out that no loadshedding happened at all and hasn’t again this morning either. However, if you’re wondering why I never posted a blog it is because the WiFi is terrible (and at some points unusable) and there is no cellphone signal either. Will try to add a few photos but a good chance that I won’t be able to do that given the weakness of the signal.

Until later today …

P, H (for driving yesterday while I had a meeting), B (he did the braaiing yesterday), S, O, A, R (never sent the photos until yesterday evening for Coffee Bay which is too late because I had already posted the blog), J (she said she likes being last so I’ve left her there)