Port Elizabeth

We had been at Knysna Elephant Park ( see Nate's blog, matembezi.blogspot.com) less than 24 hours, reveling in showers and unlimited access to a kettle for instant coffee and tea. Although Greg, the main guy, offered to let us stay another night, we were getting antsy to hit the road again. It had seemed so luxurious, at first, to be able to just sit around and do whatever we liked, but by early afternoon, after walking with elephants and a lovely breakfast, we yearned to see a new place. We hopped on our bikes the latest we've started a day of riding yet, 4:30 p.m. And we rode about 6-10km down the road to Plettenberg Bay, where we camped behind a gas station.

The gas station was luxurious by bike touring standards in its own way. There was a large patch of grass behind the gas station, between the gas station and the road, but was blocked from road view and noise by some bushes. We also had access to a 24-hour toilet with running water, which may have been more appreciated by the girls than the boys, but was still quite nice. Everyone worked on little sewing projects (I will write more about our projects in a separate post), and we made good progress. Orian made a little coin purse out of a piece of leopard-print cotton he found on the side of the road, Quinn and I sewed some bike inner tube onto our panniers to hold extra goods, and Minwah and Nate both made belts.

Next day with the wind at our backs we made good time to Tsitsikamma bungee jump site. We saw a solar eclipse, a baboon road crossing, and our first border crossing (from Western Cape into Eastern Cape) on the way. Tsitsikamma is the world's tallest commercially operated bungee jump, at 216m. We hung out there for awhile watching people jump of the bridge.

This day and the next day we rode and rode, hoping to get to Port Elizabeth within two days just because. Because there wasn't much between Plettenberg Bay and Port Elizabeth and because we had been trying to get there since leaving Cape Town two weeks prior. It would be our first big milestone of the trip.

And rode we did, first our first over 100-km day, and 83-mile day out of Plettenberg Bay, to the drainage culvert mentioned in an earlier post. The wind was at our backs the whole way, helping us up the hills and letting us coast on the flats. The next day we also broke 100-km into Port Elizabeth, celebrating with a mess of pizza. This is where Romano Satanassi met us, gorging ourselves on pizza and celebrating our arrival to P.E. with a bottle of South African wine.

Romano Satanassi was our contact in P.E., a family friend a couple of degrees removed (though now we consider him a direct contact). He is a charming Italian man with an accent that makes one think of Italy and an infallibly positive and laid-back attitude. He has eight lovely children, three of whom we got to hang out with in P.E.: Maria, Valentina (Val), and Martina.

We arrived at P.E. and Romano's on Tuesday in the afternoon. We rested in the evening, and Wednesday morning Romano took us all around to carry out the little errands we have to run. So efficient, everyone was back by 1p.m., and able to start working on their projects at home. We had a number of little bike repairs to make (Quinn needed a powder coat on his frame, O wanted to change his handlebars, Nate needed a new headset) and other minor bike maintenance.

We stayed one more day, finishing up bike repairs and waiting for a package that never came, as it was held up in customs. Hopefully the package can be forwarded on to us in Bloemfontain, where Romano has a friend. Bloemfontain is on our way to Botswana.

I'd like to talk more about the amazing hospitality we have seen and the friends we have made in another post. This is mostly to catch you readers at home up with some of the things we have been doing to get where we are today: staying at a Hospice in Cradock, Eastern Cape, South Africa.

I would also like to write a more serious post about the remnants of apartheid, catch up with some other food-related bits, and write about the climate. Orian wants me to write about the uncomfortable bits we experience too, "Readers like to hear about grit," he says. So that is six posts for you to look forward to.

With love,

Karen