After a lovely night in Bloemhof and a massive breakfast, I packed up my stuff, including clean laundry, and set off out of town heading east. First stop was the Bles Bridges memorial on the outskirts of town. I didn’t even know he’d passed away.
The road was narrow with no yellow line and long grass on the sides, making the going dangerous and frustrating for me. Everytime a vehicle passed I either had to swing to the other side of the road or ditch into the long grass – which I tried to avoid due to the ever present snake threat. Looooong rolling hills made this even more of an issue, as I never knew what was coming over the hill ahead.
A few kilometres out of town, a youngish lady pulled up in front of me and climbed out of her car. With the usual questions out the way, she grabbed my arm and started to pray for my safety and success. I must say that she was the second most emotional person I’ve met on this trip!!
I plodded onwards and it wasn’t long before another car stopped… well, drove past me and turned to come stop next to me and chat. He’s a local, who recently moved back to the area after some time away. He’s come back to mine the family land! After a chat he pulled R100 from his pocket and gave it to me, insisting I take it and buy myself a cold drink and something nice in the next town. Johan – thank you!
My body seemed to be hanging in there and all going well considering the narrow roads, although punctures were becoming a growing concern – as the roads were getting busier and I was spending more time off the road than on it.
My lunch break was in the baking sun as there was no shade to be found. This didn’t help progress in the afternoon as I hadn’t had the opportunity to help drop my core temperature and get me back to ‘normal’. But, help came a little later in the afternoon as I approached Boskuil. A 4×4 pulled over and the guys chatted, then invited me to stay on the farm. At least a bit of a push would mean I could enjoy something cold in the evening.
As I approached the turn-off, my pucnture luck ran out and Tootsie’s right tyre slowly went down. I pumped it and hoped it’d last to the turn-off as there were some trees – so at least I could do repairs in the shade. I barely made it and flew into the shade, and did the quickest repair I’ve ever done.
I hitched a lift along the 6 km farm road, and would return the next morning to start from the same spot. My stay on the farm with Oom Cas and his family was great. I enjoyed a relaxing bath, great food and good conversation… and some time to repair the other wheel which had also decided it was going to go down. Grrrrr…
