April 26th, into week FOUR

I am not sure if Cami-Leigh has gone to a new world, been taken by the aliens or is just having so much fun she has forgotten about her family, we have not heard from her for a month so I am presuming the latter.

We have taken up residence at Winkelspruit Caravan Park with the camper just not wanting to move on it seems, just had Lucky come and bring me a large bright orange, thick plastic sheet, we need it for a ground cover so we can keep sleeping outside, but it is quite chilly in the mornings plus we wake up sopping wet from the due, so hopefully our plastic will cover us under the mattress and fold over and give us some cover on top as well, we will try it out tonight.

Mickey invited me to go jolling with the crowd tonight at their favourite hangout, he says he wants to show off a new girlfriend, I politely declined, they drink too much for me and are into some heavy substance abuse, I think I'll take the other option of sitting under the stars gabbing with Lorraine, Debs might pop by so she will add some local colour to the conversation, might be a night for a bottle of wine as it is full moon time, last night was great but tonight may be clearer.

It seems as though my card in my camera is full of viruses and may be why I cannot download my pictures, I have to find a place to buy a new card and see if that solves the problem, then will look for some computer nerd along the way to download the pics I have on my present card so I don't loose them, won't get them again obviously.

The campers roof is painted, both with roof sealant and now a white paint sealer, so it surely will not leak, Theuns does look as though he has found the water problem, wether he has solved it or not, i'm not sure, but no rush, he seems to be picking up all kinds of other problems and hopefully I will have a fully restored camper once he is done. She seems to be enjoying the rest.

At Richards Bay

Removing my pipes at Shanes

Had a swim with the dogs in the big pool, a bit icy cold but refreshing, the dogs are certainly making themselves at home, they don't let any other dogs into their territory here, even Theuns' little puppy gets the treatment, very territorial my four, poor Slick is just happy to sleep all day, had a long walk yesterday, we had to stop 20 times to give him a rest.

My home office

Lani and Pepi loving the water

23rd April 2013

Finally getting a chance to chill, with the camper out of action we're spending our days reading and walking a long lonely beach for hours, this may be the week that changes the mentality from holiday mode to new lifestyle mode, I am definately going to take it slower from now on ,this way of travelling is far more sane, no stress and less heat.

Winkelspruit caravan park

Attie and Amelia

My road construction signs

We have had time to make some friends, discover some new things and go into relax mode, the dogs are starting to get the hang of the surf, at first Josie ran away from it and Peps hopped around like a bunny trying to miss the waves, Lani won't come near the water and Slick only swims in the river, he quickly figured out that river water can be drunk but not sea water and they know where the two meet, right under the bridge with the trains thundering overhead.

I have not been able to source their food, Pro Pac so I have Lorraine hunting some down for me in sunny Durbs, otherwise they are going to have to try some new cuisine, the sea air has given them quite an appetite.

Weather is great so I can go back to sleeping outside again. Debs tracked me down and is coming for a visit, bringing a zoll with her apparently, she summed me up as the hippy type.

Pepi at Gods window, have not figured my pics yet, a fault with the camera or the card it seems.

Week THREE 19th April 2013

Still not sorted my picture problem, maybe some kind person will sort it out for me this weekend.

on the beach in Richards Bay

Sitting in a small rundown campsite made just for me, R55 bucks a night, hot shower, electricity, walking distance to Wikelspruit beach and I finally got access to 8.ta, first time on my travels Telkom has given me access.

So we had to stop here because the camper is giving us trouble again, stopped on the side of the road too many times and tried to fix it using mechanics 101, and just decided I need to do a more thorough job of fixing all the problems before moving on. So spent the first two nights on the beach as none of the camppsites I tried would take the dogs, today I found Shane who was kind enough to fit me in, I sent the morning under the van removing all the pipes, miles of them and he fitted a new radiator  in the engine at the back which we thought would solve the overheating problem, by the time I left at dusk, raining, dark, cold and miserable, the problem resurfaced straight away and the gauge shot back up to 120, so clearly we have not solved the problems, I also need my ball joints redone, so I needed to find a campsite in a hurry as another night on the beach with everything wet, dirty and mouldy, with no shower and the locals galvanised to move me off THEIR BEACH, wasn't a pleasant thought, so I took this drive to a lonely place in the bushes, I had been told it's a crummy place run by funny people, so I was expecting dracula to greet me, couldn't have been further from the truth, I met Charmaine who was charming, park where you like she said, dogs no problem, lots of their own, electricity, hot shower, walk to the beach and the dogs are safe.

on winkelspruit beach for 2 nights

My roofvent is leaking like a sieve so will need to fix that tomorrow, but for now I am catching up on the blog as I have also managed to get an 8.ta connection for the first time on my travels, and the dogs are lying under the leaky roof covered in towels and blankets, snoring away, music blaring from my pc, and life is looking up.

Slicky is having a hard time, his hips have almost completely gone so I don't take him walking if possible, I think he may spend a lot more time sleeping in the camper on his own over the next few weeks, but we are going to drive a slower route from now on, being on the coast means we can stop often and for longer periods, inland proved difficult as there are few places to stop and be comfortable to let the dogs roam free. Too much of this country is owned by people who do nothing with vast tracks of land, seems wrong somehow, probably the problem the Bushman had with the settlers attitude to owning land and why they ended being wiped out as they did not believe in anyone owning land, especially on the coast, if a person lives on the beach it seems he thinks he owns it and others have no right to it;s use, I;m certainly walking on a lot of hallowed ground if that;s the case.

We were having one of our morning walks the other day when some kind local came to inform me that dogs were not allowed on the beach, I informed him that I would prefer not to have my clean dogs on his dirty beach, he thought I was pulling his leg, I said no my friend, I have never seen my dogs drop a piece of paper on the beach, or a packet or a bottle of beer, nor a stompie or a condom or wrap their shit in newspaper and discard it on the beach, I said your beach is full of the detritus of human waste and oil spills, I much prefer it if my dogs stay off it..................so as you can see, I am not endearing  myself to the locals, so goes life.

I did get a visit from Greg and Greg, they popped past in their fancy BMW and enquired of my camper and it's snake handler sign and my lifestyle, they were impressed by my uniqueness and comfortable chatting for a few hours about life and spiritualism, so I guess I appeal to some....

So we enter week three and life is taking on a new kind of routine, not yet fully over being a joburger, but getting there.

Week TWO April 2013

So, I hit the road and we are cruising along at 60km up the hills, Goerge is marvellous, he has fixed my baby like a star, we did a quick stop in at Pilgrim's Rest where I could not find the cemetary becasue it is now on the other side of the road, also popped into Sabie but did not like it so kept going, we headed for Dullstroom under cloudy misty skies, missed most of the beautiful scenery through Long Tom Pass, which we did manage to do at a fast click, I can't believe how we were driving before, laboriously.

Pilgrim's Rest Hotel

Long Toms Pass into Lydenburg

Spent a night with Eric and Alice staying in the camper in their backyard in little Dullstroom, one short street and a hundred trout farms, all privately owned so stopping for a walk and a stretch was, well a stretch..........

Bubbles and Alice

Bubbles and Eric

Alice and Erik in Dullstroom

We dashed through Carolina and Belfast and Piet Retief, just not good vibes, and ended up in Pongola after travelling through beautiful countyside with Swaziland in the distance looking pretty and green, found a lovely park to stay in and discovered it was part of the Pongola golf course, for some reason the locals took exception to us parking on their golf course, very particular these golfers, I could have told them the dogs would retrieve their balls for them, but we were not being well received so we left and ended up in the campsite, real crummy.

Outside Amsterdam on a coffee break

I headed for Sodwana Bay next, never been there and decided to see what the fuss was about the place, well after driving for 97km from Hluhluwe, along bumps and slow down signs, along narrow roads with sharp bends and lots of traffic, hot and tired, we finally get to the gate only to be told ;no dogs' so I said okay, i've travelled a long way, the camper is hot and overheating, I'll walk the dogs for half an hour and we will leave,no chance, I was nearly locked up and the dogs nearly shot for daring to let them out for a wee in the CARPARK, well can you imagine what would have happened if we had walked onto the beach, which I could see but was not allowed to walk on, 12 security guards made sure of that, so back we went, 40km to Mkhuze where I wanted to see the Giant Fig trees, but, it was a game park and by rights, definately no dogs, but I ran into Themba, a lovely old black man with few teeth.

in the Pan with the crocodiles

our bed outside in Mkhuze

beautiful fever trees everywhere but the Fig trees are far away

love the water

He was in charge of resurrecting the Pan for his tribe, about 20 000 strong, he was due to receive R10 mill from the government to upgrade the area for tourism, we got chatting about alternate energy and so on and I found out he did a course on permaculture so we chatted about the possibilities, he asked me to stay and help him build the resort he has planned, I stayed the night, we camped next to the PAN, which is 14km long, full of wild bird life and many of the parks animals, we were watche dby 2 young crocs and heard a hippo wallowing further downstream, Themba took me to meet the Induna, the big chief, who wanted one of my dogs, I wasn't sure if the dog was to be a pet or for the pot, so I declined to hand one over, interesting character.

Excellent night and if I had to sum up the day and think about the paranoia of the security guards, who took photos of me, the van and the dogs and threatened all manners of horrors for daring to let my dogs out in the carpark, off leads mind you, and then we end up sleeping alongside some of Africa's wildlife in a park that is definately off limits to dogs, but Themba's attitude allowed it, not sure what the moral of the story is but I guess there's one there somewhere.

I'll keep in touch with Themba, he is an intelligent man with great ideas.

Can't post pics just yet as I have not figured how to download them as the computer keeps reading my camera as an empty folder.

Week TWO 11th April 2013

George fixing my baby

put the dogs in the camper in the mist and went to dinner

I took George out for a dinner last night in the fanciest restaurant in town, which turned out to be really fancy, the couple who own it previously ran a charter in the West Indies for 10 years or so and gave up because age and expense in keeping their boat afloat got to them, they came over here, bought the Summit, made it into a magnificent place and are now struggling, cost of petrol and tollgates have dried up the tourist trade too much plus I told them they are punching above their station, they are a 5 star place in a 2 star town so the town does not attract their client base, but the meal was wonderful, my third meal in a week, hopefully after this long stay in one place my appetite will come back.

It was raining cats and dogs last night, had to pack everything into the camper, close the dogs in, leave a light on for them and hope they sat out the storm in comfort, they were fine when we got back albeit a bit wet as the camper sprang another leak, but happy to see me. Don't know what will happen to them if one day I don't come back, I guess I better leave a note on the dashboard with someones number in case of a such a scenario, but I don't believe it will happen.

Still have to try and fix the accelerator cable which is sticking, but it rained all night and is still raining which makes working on the camper difficult for George, he is a senior citizen and will not want to be climbing under wet cars in the rain.

For now I am sitting at the pool making use of the Panarama's wi-fi, I am due to leave today and do not want to stay another day as their is nothing I can do with the dogs all day in this rain so I would prefer to be on the road, I made coffee for George this morning, he seems to have a plan for fixing the camper, let's hope it works.

Slick and Lani in their favourite spots

For now, I off to see if the dogs are all still in the camper keeping dry, only Pepi followed me in the rain to the reception and pool area.

Will post more pictures when the sun allows me to take some.

Observation

What are the odds that I would first, stop at a campsite, not something I intended to do as most do not accept dogs, secondly park next to the very person I would need, third have the camper break down in town on my way back to said campsite for a second night, and fourth have said person be kind enough and knowlegable enough to not only fix the exact problem with the gears, but to also solve the brake problem, the accelerator cable, the water pipes leaking and a few other things to boot. My camper was an accident waiting to happen and now George has made it whole again, he has also left it up to me to pay him what I think he was worth. She goes like a bomb, what a pleasure, no more crawling up hills at 20km an hour.

I want him to come and bring his skills and live on my farm.

Day SIX 9th April 2013

So I took off this morning with all four dogs, had no milk yesterday and am having withdrawal symptoms, silly thing to do, to try and walk four dogs 4km when each one walks in a different direction and at a different pace, on a busy road with no paths or sidewalk, what a mission, I was dragging Slicky because he was scared of the trucks flying past, Lani was biting everyone, Pepi was trying to stay far away from her and Josie insisted in walking in the street, I got to the garage and paid an exhorbitant amount of money for milk and hightailed it back up the hill dragging the dogs with me, never again, the older ones will get locked in the camper in future, my nerves can't handle it.

having a rest on the way back, but no water was to be had.

Back at camp I discovered that George had found someone to take him into Sabie to see to his knee at the hospital, so I took everything out of the camper to sort out, clean out and reorganize properly, then I set up all my tools and the 2x20watt solar panels, converter, regulator and 11m of cables and I fitted all of the system together, except for connecting it to the battery in the car because it kept giving me a shock, I thought I'd leave that to George, who came back at lunch time much improved and full of antibiotics.

Great guy, he got stuck into the camper, connected the vacuum for my brakes, redid the accelerator so now I will have more power from the carburettor and should make the hills at 50km and not 20km any ore, will make driving much easier, tomorrow we fix the rest.

I had a chance to set up my music as well, first time I have been able to get organised enough to find all the cables and get the computer out, George is aslo giving me a whole lot of software that I apparently need.

I did discover that Dev did not have a clue and his wires and springs and odd connections have mostly ended up in the bin.

So I managed to eat a pie this morning and have some decent coffee, no other food I think from tomorrow I might need to go back to eating, my stomach rumbles too much.

Am sitting in the coffee shop blogging and need to go and Find Slicky who did not follow me today and may be wandering around like a lost Jew.

my music setup

my panels finally connected, not yet working though, but I have electricity here so no problem with power.

So have paid for another 2 nights, been quite a luxury and the dogs have mostly enjoyed relaxing and chasing the ball and other dogs who come near us, another night under the bright sky. Apparently it is going to storm tomorrow, not a worry, I waterproofed the camper, we will see if it holds up.

Day FIVE 8th April

Nice to spend another night under the stars, we took off for God's Window this morning, 12 km out of town, 5 of them straight up again, I'm getting tired of these hills I must say, the camper does not respond well to them, I'm surprised we haven't bust a gasket yet.

Well we arrived at the parking lot expecting to find the old hiking trail still in operation, no such luck, now it's market stalls with local curios, paths, paving, inadequate signs, lookout points and all manners of fat tourists, I think I was supposed to pay as well but the gate guy was reluctant to approach the camper when he saw a hoard of dogs being disgorged. 

So we strapped on the hiking bag and took off up the path and found lots of good views but failed to find the window, ended up going way beyond the path onto the original hiking path, up to the top of the mountain, spent 2 hours in hard hiking, even got ourselves a bit lost, dogs are weary and tired, not any water for them to drink along the way except a little rain puddle, and we never found the big rock with a hole in it, where I assume 'GOD'S WINDOW' comes from, I guess it's like everything in Africa, if it's not bolted down, someone will steal it.

So back to town we end, thankfully mostly down hill, ended up in the middle of Gaskop....and lost our gears, just could not engage any gear, so we pushed her to the side and went under and had a look, had a few black okes come and look, gave all kinds of opinions from your pin is broken, you need a new gear box, new clutch cable, jeez, even I knew they were all taking crap, had to wait for Pieter to come and tow us back to Panarama, all of 2km, he wanted R600 but I got him down to R400, still a ripoff for a 2km journey, anyway got my camper back home, did get to eat my second meal of my trip at one of the 4 pancake houses, we were parked outside it, so we had a burger at the pancake house.

Back at the campsite I discovered that George, my neighbour, a senior citizen, previously from Europe, now a South African, is probably the best person to have as a neighbour a he has done many camper conversions and took one look at my camper and knew what the problem was, the CV Joint that Dev fitted had come loose, he also noted my brakes were faulty, my accelerator cable was too loose and a few other things needed seeing to, well how lucky am I to land up in the one place that has the perfect person too fix my camper, unfortunately he has a wonky knee and needs to go to hospital to get it seen to first before he can fix my baby.

So we are now spending another night here and the dogs are pleased, other dogs here may not be too happy as Pepi has it in for them, but their little sausage dog keeps attacking Lani so I don't mind if Peps gives them a hard time, the camp is quiet so no harm done. Got to sit by the beautiful pool and use the free internet to get my blog up to date.

Observation

We are still in holiday mode so hard to take in that we have no home to go to any more once we get tired of travelling, I tried to explain that to the puppies but they don't get it, I am hoping that they will soon get used to the campervan as home, at the moment they follow me everywhere like Mary's 4 little lambs.

Day FOUR Sunday 7th April

How awesome to sleep next to this majestic 2000 year old tree,  all alone in the world with the birds and hyenas keeping us company, I went to sleep by counting the stars, got to 2,5 billion - then lost count.
All our blankets, duvets, pillows, towels and other sleeping paraphanalia were wet from the dew over night, will have to dry as we drive because we left early, I left all my change with the broken lock even though I don't believe they have the right to lock this tree away from people coming a long way to see it.
Headed to Graskop via Bushbuckridge, which was a squatter camp last time I came this way, now it looks like a stretch of about 50km with lots of well built houses  all over the rolling green hills, very African, I'm very impressed, but still nowhere to stop, no lookout points, long uphills and slow, hot travel, we stopped at a river so the dogs could cool off and play with the ball for a while, we discovered it was washing day so had time to interact with the locals.

 I got the camper caught in a donga and required a bunch of kids to help push me out, we also had to unlock someones bakkie and push it out the way, the kids managed it in a jiffy, again, very African.
Okay so if I had remembered Kowyns pass, I would never have gone this way, only 38km from the CBD to Graskop, but my word, all uphill and the last bit by the pass is 8km straight up, snake turns, no place to stop or pass, thank goodness traffic was light, not that that made much of a difference as everyone passed me regardless, uphill, solid white lines, steep curves, made no difference, a truck overtook and was heading straight for another truck coming the other way, me and two guys behind me took evasive action climbing onto the curb and stopping, not wanting to get caught if they crashed into each other, idiots with no regard for life, anyones!!!!
Came down the hill towards Graskop and pulled in to Panarama camping site, could not face setting up camp on the side of the road after this hard day. 174km today felt like a 1000.
Found a nice spot to sleep overlooking the valley and met George who lives here, he has a VW van he converted with a V6 engine, he showed it off to me. Nice to have a bath and sleep safely outside, no appetite but did have a great cup of coffee.

OBSERVATION

I drove for two solid days to see a tree, and then never saw it, I ended up parked the night next to the most magnificent Baobab I've ever seen, maybe these things happen for a reason, not sure I would have gone out of my way to see the second one if I had seen the first one.

Day THREE Saturday 6th April 2013

Woke up again to find Lani missing, will have to chin her to the camper if this continues, took us ages to find her, then tried to find the hiking trail in town, could not, then tried to get a new petrol cap as mine leaks, could not, so had the guy at the tyre shop cut me some inner tubing, will have to fashion a new rubber for my cap sometime.

Headed back the way we had come down to the turnoff to Tzaneen, this time missing the tollgate as the turnoff was the right side for me going North, headed for Tzaneen at a snails pace up the hills, 20km per hour, the cyclists were passing me, the runners were passing me, hell I wouldn't be surprised if the snails crawled faster than me......but ti does give us some time to look at the scenery, lots of hills, and trees, and fences..........nowhere to stop on the side of the road, long fences bordering game farms and no lookout points or campsites away from the road, makes it hard for the dogs who are not into this camping thing at the moment.

After 380km yesterday and about 12 hours in the camper, I needed today to be an easier day, we hit Tzaneen, went straight to the dam, paid my 20 bucks and spent some pleasant hours throwing the ball for the dogs, I also managed to waterproof the back window and fashion a new rubber seal for the petrol cap, wanted to camp the night there but was told we would be kicked out at 8pm, so back in the camp and headed for the mineral springs 30km away, never found them, so continued to the giant Baobab at Gravelot, finally made it there, nearly 5pm, dogs hot and tired, me fed up with the hours of driving and not getting to see much of what was on my list, finally got to the turnoff for the tree....and was met with a fence and a great big padlock aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh..........

So, I took out my hammer and hammered it off, closed the gates behind me so no passerby would come and investigate, and we went in and spent a glorious night under the stars next the majestic 2000 year old Baobab who welcomed us with open arms. Our first night sleeping out, water was available so I had a really nice large bucket bath, with lots of hot water, did not care how much gas I wasted, I did not eat today as well, just coffee, the driving is hard and hot and I have no appetite. Only drove 188km today so my headache is easing.

Day TWO Friday 5th April 2013

The day started well, had a storm over night and Pepi got rained on as the roof leaks, will have to fix that sometime, after finding Lani I managed to heat enough water for coffee and a bucket bath, hit the road and drove on the old 101 ALL THE WAY UP TO Polokwane, where I used to go to boarding school when it was called Pietersburg or something similar. Then continued following the 101 and ended up on the N1 highway, got to a tollgate, which I refuse to use, and had to pay R33 or go back home, that made me grumpy and I was determined not to pay another one, unfortunately, the road led through Louis Trichard and up to the Tshipise turnoff, which is where I was going, but we hit the next tollgate 500m before the turnoff, well if I wasn't already grumpy I certainly would have been now, I fought with everyone about not having an alternative road to drive on therefore they could not charge me a toll, fell on deaf ears, after a long hard day of driving and the dogs not happy, and too many hours in the van with fumes from the engine giving us all headaches, I just got gatvol, told them I'm not paying and drove through with my R32 firmly in my pocket, I took the turn to Tshipise, wanted to go and see the biggest baobab tree in the country, but it was late, the dogs were hungry, I had not eaten all day, and I was fed up, so I took a side road to the dam hoping to camp by the water for the night and try again in the morning to find this tree, which did not seem to want to arrive, and we headed down the worst corrugated sand road I have ever driven on, jolted my poor camper to her very bones, I never saw a sign for the dam, we went 22km in 2 hours, it was pitch dark, nowhere to stop, hot and tired, and irritable, and we ended p back on the N1 just about where we had come out after Louis Trichard and the Tunnels, well was I now pissed off, so badly that I just drove the 30 km back to Louis Trichard, stopped in an empty park and collapsed, poor dogs were buggered.

48 Hours on the road and my headache had reached MIGRAINE STATUS.

Day ONE Thursday 4th April 2013

After having to pack the camper in a hurry yesterday because the new tenants moved in earlier than planned, I finally left at 6am this morning with a very disorganized and an over packed camper, not great, a sleepy Julian saw me off and let me out the gate as I no longer have any keys, handed them all over to Beau Gosse.

We made slow time to the Tswaing crater where we were told 'NO DOGS ALLOWED', had to talk my way through the security guard, then the receptionist, then had to drive to another gate and talk my way through that guard, then headed for the camp site and before I could get going, some white oke in a fancy 4x4 arrived and said I couldn't take the dogs, I told him I sorted with the receptionist, he said he would go and check, before he rounded the corner on screaming tyres, we were lready on the path and gone....heavy walk for the old dogs but they made it up to the lookout point, would not have made it all the way around so we turned around and came back, the oke was pretty mad but did not say anything.

I had a bad meal along the way, dry pancake and even drier mince with a cold cup of coffee for my R51.
The day got worse, very hot, brakes are hard to use, accelerator is worse, the dogs did not much like the camper and a lot of sms's up and down with an ex tenant at Semarja, caustic and nasty, and Johann got himself stuck on the highway in the Jetta, which he has just bought from me and now he does not want the car.

I hi Nylsvlei and was tired of driving so we found an abandoned road and set up camp for the night, slept inside, woke up in the morning, stiff and sore from having two dogs on top of me....and Lani had disappeared in the night, I searched all the bushes for her with no luck, had to tell the puppies 'Walkies, find your mom' and luckily their strong noses went looking in the bushes and a few minutes later out came a very wet Lani, it would help in future if the deaf dog was not the one to go walkabouts.

After 24 hours on the road I had a MASSIVE HEADACHE, and we only did about 230 very slow kilometres.

The sign that keeps everyone away from the camper.....