On the road again

Civilisation was lovely – daily showers, gourmet food, cold drinks, beds, machine-washed, nice smelling clothes and a splash of mascara. But it was definitely time to eat a spoonful of cement (toughen up) and get back to bush camps and ‘the real Africa’. (As mentioned, I decided to extend my trip all the way back up to Egypt...)

We eased back into the trip by starting at Stellenbosch, a wine region approximately 50 kilometres from Cape Town. Evidently no-one wanted to drive, so we all went on a wine-tasting tour in two minibuses to four vineyards.

My favourite of the four was Fairview with the label ‘Goats do Roam’. They even have a proper mountain goat in their garden so as not to disappoint!

We were still in dorm room bunk beds at Stellenbosch but soon were back in our (all too familiar) tents.

Our next stop was Noordoewer where we had an amazing campsite with pool,

volleyball court, masseuse, restaurant, bar and flat, green, manicured lawn for our tents.

I believe it was one of the best campsites we’ve had, if not the best (excluding bush camps of course). Five of us took a canoeing trip for a few hours

and I opted for the guide’s boat in the hope that I could get away with a little less paddling and time to put my feet up.

The plan backfired, however, as I ended up doing even more paddling going up and down the river checking on the other canoes. Serves me right for trying to take the easy option, but at least I got a smidgen of exercise. Last time I exercised was, um…Mount Cameroon in February?!

In Noordoewer we met up with other trucks including the other Trans trip that was 2 weeks behind us and about to go into South Africa. I think it’s safe to say, they are just as nuts as we are. Meanwhile, we were reunited with our own (now sparkling clean) truck and I was happy to have everything back in its rightful place – I’ve gotten used to the truck being our home away from home. The rest of the group who stayed on from Windhoek cleaned the whole truck including the ‘kitchen’ and all of the pots and pans so everything felt like new…but alas, not for long!

New cook groups were also made and I’m in with Chris, Dom and Amy. Chris appears to be the fire-master and Dom the head chef. Phew. I’m happy to shop, chop and wash up but am (slowly) learning how to make a few dishes…! (Current success rate for fried eggs is one out of three though!) Oh dear, perhaps I should stick to what I’m good at – whatever that is ;)

Essentially, we are back on the road again in search of the real Africa and making our way mankily (‘manky’ being one of our most-used truck lingo) back up to Egypt.