Day 197. Friday, 9th July. From Kingsburgh to Mount Currie Nature Reserve, just outside of Kokstad.

On the road again.

The day has finally arrived and we are mobile again. We left Key Largo at 09.30, saying goodbye to Adam (temporarily). Sadly, Adam is still battling with South African bureaucracy in an effort to get his Landy re-registered. He is hoping to catch us up early next week. Our first stop was a visit to a local barber for Dennis to get a haircut, so we were properly on the road by 10.00.

Progressing south from Kingsburgh, once we had left the townships which scatter the hills on the outskirts of any town, the landscape is one of gently rolling hills. The predominant crop is sugarcane. Large trucks are loaded with the decaying stalks. The trucks are open sided so bits of cane fall and litter the roadsides. Later on there are orchards. We are unsure of the fruit, but suspect it is a type of citrus. 

Until just beyond Port Shepston it is a tolled motorway. Once this ceases is it single track with regular third lanes for passing. It becomes much more hilly and the scenery changes to forests. Eucalyptus and pine. These are very densely planted to force the saplings to grow upwards to obtain more sunlight. This produces timber which is comparatively slender, but dead straight.

We stop in Kokstad to find a Vodacom shop in order to buy some more data. The campsite we are aiming for is just outside Kokstad. iOverlander and Google Maps take us and we are soon out of town and on a on a dirt road. Poki is happy! 

The surrounding mountains are dry and vegetation sparse. Varying hues of ochre, orange and yellow in the sun. A sign soon directs us to Mount Currie Nature Reserve. At the gate are a group of people struggling to free a stuck tractor trailer. We proceed to reception and a smiling young lady welcomes us. She gives us the “seniors” camping rate. A princely sum of ZAR (rand) 72 for each of us. About £3.40 each. She advises we are the only campers, unless anyone turns up later.

We are advised to proceed down the track to the green gate and we can park anywhere beyond this. As we enter the gate we frighten away a flock of guinea fowl. We find a nice flat spot on the grassy terrace beside the lake. The sanitation block is just 50meters away. It has hot showers and something I have never seen at a campsite before. A bath!

Previous campers, who have written reports on iOverlander, advise they have seen Zebra and some sort of Bok. There is plenty of evidence of animals as there are droppings everywhere. On the hills, through binoculars, we saw a few Eland type creatures in the distance, but nothing other than birdlife in the campsite, so far.

It is beautifully tranquil. The only disruption to the peace. Some noisy, squabbling coots on the lake. We have a late lunch and then get the tent down from the roof. We were concerned it may have been damp after we last used it (so long ago we can’t remember when that was!) If it had been damp, it could be mouldy. Fortunately it wasn’t. Just smelled a little musty. 

Having put the tent up, we discovered that wifi was virtually non existent and tried a walk to higher ground to see if we could get a connection. Not much joy, but the scenery was lovely.

When we first arrived it had been quite breezy, but as the sun went down it became completely still. I decided to write the blog, while Dennis is writing his memoir. Next task will be dinner and then an early night.

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