Sleeping Places

At the end of a day on the road, it is a pleasure to lay down and let sleep wash away the worries from the day, the frustrations of a head wind, the shoulder aches, the bruised bottom. Or a time when you can hold close to you the new friendships, the funny events during the day, a full belly. When you are so tired, any place you lay your head, however hard or lumpy, is a good spot.

But sleeping space is not the only thing we consider when we choose a camping spot. When traveling with a group of five people on a budget, there are many factors involved. Price is one factor: we prefer places that are free. Safety is another factor: we do not want to be disturbed in the middle of the night by wild animals or people interested in our stuff, so we need to be able to keep a low profile, which involves a bit more planning when there are five. Since leaving Cape Town, we have had several different types of places that we have stayed, and I would like to tell you a little bit about the places we have camped and the people who have put us up for the evening.

The Off-Road Campsite

This type of site is nice because it is free...the main concerns are finding a spot with low-visibility (again, you don't want people to stop by who are interested in your stuff and you also don't want to be awoken in the middle of the night to be asked to move in the middle of the night by concerned neighbors or law enforcement) and making sure you have enough water. We take care of the water bit by strapping empty 2L soda bottles filled with water to our bikes, and making sure we have enough filled when we settle down to camp at the night.

So far we have had three nights out of fifteen where we slept by the side of the road. We have been very lucky in these sites so far...each has been charming in its own way.

Gordon's Bay Campsite:
Our first night on the road we camped off a lookout point on the road just past Gordon's Bay. There was a cliff there with a reasonable slope. Closer to the water the slope leveled off even more before dropping more sharply into the bay. This level section was rocky and brushy, and kept us invisible to the road, while we could relax and look over the landscape. From where we sat we could watch the beach town community of Strand, with its funky architecture, and further away we could see Cape Town. A small group of right whales spouted in the bay and a group of seals played in the waters at our feet.

Some of the funky buildings in Strand:


Wilderness Campsite:
2km shy of a beachside community called Wilderness, on a long climb, we pulled of to the side to camp under a bridge. The bridge was more to stabilize the road in that place than to bridge a distance, as one side was right up against the hill, the right side open and looking down upon a ravine below. It was nice, open, dry and not buggy, protected from the rain and not visible to the road above. Orian ran down to scope the place out and pronounced it fit, so we all waited for a lull in traffic from both directions. By the time the lull had come, some people were walking down the hill towards town. It is okay for a few drivers to see you sneak your bikes off the road, especially if they are not cops, but you don't really want locals on foot or bicycles seeing you...too close to an invitation for them to join the party.

When you are camping in this type of spot it is better to minimize your use of lights after dark, because lights can give you away. Find a spot early enough in the evening for you to do your cooking and get organized without use of lights. As Orian says, "It would be okay if someone found you in the morning and asked you to leave, because that's what you are going to do anyway, but you don't want someone coming in the middle of the night". This night we saw some lights across the railroad bridge on a premontory overlooking the sea, and we did not want them to see our lights and come over to investigate, so we went to sleep early.

Before Humansdorp:

Our third campsite of this type was in a drainage culvert before Humansdorp by ~30km. It was our longest day so far...we had ridden 80-odd miles with a partial tail wind at our back, but we had begun early and it was getting late with grey clouds rolling in with some mist. For about 10km we kept pulling off to the side of the road and Orian and Quinn and Nate would scurry up and down the banks to see if there was a way down to the farms below the bridge. We were riding along the N2, a national road, and in this section there were many big farms or ranches amidst the dry landscape, but none had direct access from the road, miles and miles of barbed wire fence up. At the fourth stop there was a drainage culvert, a large tunnel beneath the road that was at least 10ft in diameter and suggested some pretty heavy flash floods during the rainy season. The way down was quite steep, but short and navigable. We pulled our panniers off of our bikes and passed everything down the hill assembly line style as quickly as possible.