“A man should know something of his own country, too, before he goes abroad” Laurence Stern
After a hectic few days of final preparations and some untimely delays I finally managed to depart on my great adventure. The above quote precisely depicts my view on travel; we have so much worth seeing in our own country that I thought it fitting to visit some of the places unknown to me before crossing the borders. My first day involved a straight forward stretch from Jo’burg to Clarens in the Free State. Even though I kept off the highways, the roads were still smooth sailing and the 350km past by fairly easily albeit without much in the way of interesting scenery
until I got closer to the Drakensberg mountains. The approach into Clarens was spectacular. I took a dirt track over the mountains through the Golden Gate National Park and the views made it hard to keep my eyes on the road. Upon arrival in Clarens I met a chap called Andre, who runs the backpackers and learned that some of the country’s best white water flows down the nearby Ash River. Andre, who doubles up as a river rafting guide, organised for me to join a rafting trip the following day and I managed to rent a kayak from the rafting company. The rapids lived up to the big talk and are undoubtedly the best I have experienced within South African borders. It was a fantastic day and gave me the perfect opportunity to test out my new waterproof helmet camera... thanks Jigs, it is brilliant!
Just before leaving Clarens the following day I met another couple staying at the backpackers who were travelling around the country making short films and they kindly offered to give me a lesson on using my new film editing software as they use the same program and editing software takes some getting used to. Their hour long tutorial will probably save me days of teaching myself so thank you Roy and Leanne.
A last minute change in plan saw me deciding to traverse Lesotho en route to th
To be continued...
I have now arrived at Cintsa, a small coastal town at the southern end of the Wild Coast. I decided to move on from Lesotho after just one night there as the cold made for extremely uncomfortable riding and the route I had planned to take was snowed over so I thought it best to head south in search of warmer climates as soon as possible. I spent two days in
The ride from Ho
Watch this space.
PS... SORRY FOR SUCH DELAY BUT I HAD NO INTERNET ALL THROUGH THE TRANSKEI, SHOULD PUT UP NEXT BLOG POST OF WILD COAST IN NEXT COUPLE DAYS
This rocks !!!! What an awesome blog post. Keep them coming. Amazing all the parts of SA we just dont know enough about. Good job Stof.
ReplyDeleteSounds great. Keep us posted. Regards De la Bats
ReplyDeleteSTOFFEL that s amazing!!!!!!!!! So great to hear your stories, and the photos are awesome!!! Please keep them coming :):):)
ReplyDeleteChris,
ReplyDeleteWhat an amazing adventure...keep the updates flowing!
All the best!
Andrew
Chris Fish you legend sir wow love hearing & seeing it all unfold!! Go you good thing - love, it what an incredible experience so far - talk about off the beaten track!! Can't wait to read more!!
ReplyDeleteThats brilliant Chris--and you havent even left the country--Sorry forgot about Roma---best kayaking,snowed in moutains, dirt tracks to Hogsback, incredible scenery---Your dream is becoming ours!!!
ReplyDeleteKeep goihg "Suzuki Chris"
A Cape Town friend