CAPE TOWN & KORINGBERG

24 NOVEMBER 2001

After two day's of muggie's piss rain (mosquito urine, in reference to the size of the raindrops), we loaded everything into the back of the truck and set off for Cape Agulhas and Cape Town. We stopped at the Storm's River bridge to gape down the ravine at the pools of black water in the depths, trundled into the woods to see the "big tree" a little further on, deciding to take a longer walk in a bid to get away from the busloads of tourists who plague the Garden Route the way flies hang around rubbish bins - noisy and stupid and shallow!
Then it was back on board for another long cruise to Arniston, stopping in Mossel Bay to fill our vacuum flasks with hot water, fill the truckand marvel at the basinless washstands - just a flat slanted slab of marble - which we only reached the following morning as we both admitted defeat about 30 km outside the town at about 2 am. Through Arniston, we took the road towards Cape Agulhas and the southern-most point of Africa. Signposting in that part of the world isn't the best - at the turn-off from the N2 there is a giant board indicating the way to the southern tip but Agulhas' signs point to Struisbaai instead and Struisbaai refers to L'Agulhas (the Lighthouse's name) and it's only when you reach the southern tip of the continent (and can't go any further anyway!) that a plaque tells you of this fact.
The "suidpunt" - 34 49.959'S 20 00.097E - isn't anything terribly spectacular and, if it wasn't for the big stone altar and greeny plaque, you wouldn't know you'd reached as far south as you can go. Tigger the water lover, of course, thought that it might be fun to try swimming the 6 000-odd kilometres to the South Pole but Lisa and I both thought it more practical to try reaching London first, especially as crows only have to fly about 9 797 km to get there.
Sunrise, which we missed by an hour or three, was at 5.25 am - about half an hour after we are going to have to wake up for most of this trip in order to take advantage of the cool patches of the day. We took the long and dusty route to Pearly Beach, Gansbaai and lunch in Hermanus, where for most of the time we were there, there was only a seal frolicking in the waves and trying to fill the whales' shoes (so to speak). As we were about to leave, two mothers and their calves moved close inshore, coming within about 50 metres of the rocks. Standing up on the cliffs above the old harbour, we were only about 150m from them but had the bonus of height to be able to see things better.
In Cape Town, we unpacked everything from the truck, slept like logs after a good bath, and woke to the (delayed) wedding celebrations on Saturday. We had to go shopping on the Saturday morning so that Lisa could find something "respectable" to wear!
The rest of the week was spent sorting things out and seeing friends. Monday night saw a great dinner with Angie Lazaro at the Brass Bell. Tuesday did have one really good spot: we found a PC shop, just down the road, that could, and did, help us with loading the Win95 cab files onto the laptop so that I could install Windows and we'd have something to sort out the Web page with and do the journal on (which explains why all of this has been written!).
Tuesday night, while I was trying to sort out the laptop, some little lumps of perambulating worm-infested excrement smashed a window on the truck (parked outside after the rush to the PC shop and forgotten when dinner was served) and stole the hifi speakers. Enough has been said about the honesty of Seffrica's previously disadvantaged peoples' current moral standards and affirmative shopping habits.
It cost us R200 to fix the window - fitted by someone who actually managed to induce sympathy in me, considering the residual rage over yet another theft. The poor bugger had had his wisdom teeth removed the day before in a State hospital, had 17 stitches in one side and 18 in the other and was understandably unhappy at having to work (or forfeit his annual bonus!).
Terry and Tracy Aitcheson force fed us another sumptuous meal and handed us an inverter - really dinky and compact - to enable us to charge the laptop battery from the truck. Terry also showed us all the places to buy all the other bits and pieces we needed.
Thursday morning was a last minute rush to get out of Cape Town, but we still fought with the packing and repacking process until about 1.30 pm before scuttling down to the PostNet to collect some parcels with a max/min thermometer (thanks Robert) and a spare regulator for the truck (Thanks Hennie and Trevor) and then off to the State Vet (on the other side of town, naturally) so that we could get Tigger's papers in order.
We're going to have to find the equivalent of the State Vet in every country we visit so that we can get access to the next country. It may turn into a mission but it's really nice having mutt with us.
Now we're relaxing with Lisa's mother, Gill, and her husband Paul in Koringberg, a small dorp about 130 km north of Cape Town. It is really quiet and peaceful here and we've managed to get new speaker box covers made (R6 each for the wood and the work!) and to sort out (for once and for all, we hope!) a judder I thought was the clutch but which may just be an old rubber "cushion" holding the propshaft in place which needs replaced.
We'll probably leave here on the 28th November, heading for the Namibian border and our next update will be from Swakopmund or Windhoek.