Days 105 & 106: South Africa

Day 105

With the Congo visas obtained and our passports back, we tried to see if we could apply for any more, but after a morning of finding embassies where the waiting time for visas was over two weeks, we decided to carry on with our journey towards Cape Town.

Before we left Pretoria we had time to go and to see the Loftus Versveld Stadium where the security guard let us in to have a quick look, but sadly wouldn’t allow us to take any photos. The staff at the stadium all seemed to be gearing up heavily towards the world cup, and there was an air of excitement as it was the day that the remaining tickets went on sale to the general South African public.

The roads out of Pretoria led us south west past Jo-berg and down through a number of towns before it was time to look for somewhere to stop for the night. We eventually found a Guest house in a town called Wolmarandsstad knowing it would take us another two days to get to Cape Town from there.

Day 106

We had found that cheap accommodation isn’t really too prevalent in South Africa, and wanting to save on money we hit the road early so that we could attempt to get to a town near the coast called Oudsthoorp by the evening where we knew from the guide book that there was a cheap backpackers hostel.

The drive through the centre of South Africa was made quite tedious due to roadworks in preparation for the world cup, but by taking this route we avoided the tolled N1 route.

We arrived in Oudsthoorp just before sundown and found the hostel where we could park outside and sleep in the rooftent. Although it is often tricky to find an appropriate parking space where we can unfold the rooftent, at times it has been really easy to use, as after three months we can unfold it or pack it away in under two minutes time which is a lot quicker than erecting a normal tent.