African Overlanders

I was up at 6:30am and Ellie was just a few minutes behind me. It was already warming up and it looked like it was going to be a lovely day. Great for making sure all our stuff was dry.
After a couple of coffees we gradually started packing things away. We really took our time. We took the Sun Tarp off and laid it on the floor for 20 minutes to dry and this also allowed any condensation to dry on the awning. Slowly things were put away for the last time, our clothes went into a storage box and we loaded the cases and at 11am we left Onrus camp for the last time and drove 2 miles down the road to the car wash where I had pre arranged to wash the car and caravan on Saturday. While the car was being washed we walked down to the row of shops and had fish and chips for breakfast At 12:15pm the car was done, they had done an amazing job getting all of the dirt and sand from the trip from the underneath.
We set the sat nav and took the longer scenic route along the whale coast route, past the penguins back through Cape Town.
We had to pass Cape Flats and Marshall Plains again and stopping at the lights was pretty much terrifying especially the final set of lights where we had to come off of a slip road leaving the N2 to join the N7. Fortunately nothing went wrong but we don’t think we’ll be taking that route again.
We got to African Overlanders at 3pm and finally met up with Duncan who Ellie has been messaging for months. Duncan is British but now lives in Atlantis running a storage and shipping company with his Spanish girlfriend and daughter. None of whom have South African residency.
We went into a reception area and were immediately disappointed when he said he just disconnects the batteries and doesn’t charge them. He also said we would have to pay extra for servicing which happens 2 weeks before we pick the car up. Otherwise it is just left. This isn’t the service we thought we were getting and we very disappointed. We have spent a lot of money getting a new vehicle and caravan and obviously there’s the battery saga so we settled on him taking our car out of the container every 2 months and charging the battery.
Duncan was putting us up in a room for the night and he’d had 2 old stables converted into dormitories they were beautifully done but very warm.
We had some Swiss people staying next to us and we spoke to some German Overlanders camping and they all reassured us that Duncan was the man to leave the car with so hopefully it will be fine.
Once settled we took Ghost out for the final drive and went to a local chequers and got some hot food then we went back to camp and had dinner.
At 6:30pm with the sun setting we did a final sweep of the car and caravan before saying goodbye to Ghost and the Gnu. Both have served us well and looked after us, we have stayed at 20 Campsites, travelled the entire length of the country travelling 8074 kilometres ( 5016 miles) spending 171 hours in the car seeing all of it’s beauty and some things not so beautiful. We feel we have negotiated the roads, and the South African system in general pretty well.
Back in the room we reflected on our highs and lows of the trip, best parts were the Kruger and seeing Pete again and going to the national parks. The mountains over the garden route were the most incredible drive. We could have skipped the Panorama route, and the Drakensberg, both were disappointing but you don’t know until you go and now we have places to go back to in the future. We are going to miss South Africa, we are going to miss the South African people, everyone is so happy and want to stop and talk, we’re going to miss living simply outside and the outdoor cooking. We are sad that this trip has come to an end, but Ghost and the Gnu will be here waiting for us when we return.Читать далее