Sometime early this morning we start feeling that it’s very cold inside the tent and the top of the blankets are actually wet from the condensation. Both of us were too lazy and too cold to get up to get more blankets or sleeping bags though, so we stuck it out. When we eventually got out of the tent it had a layer of ice on it.
Ice on the tent
In record time and with freezing hands we had our camp site setup and packed away. We headed for the showers, but before that I checked the temperature in the car. It was -2!
-2 Degrees
After a nice hot shower we got some hot coffee and tea and drove off towards Harrismith. At this point in time we thought we had more than enough time to drive around and explore the park. So we took the 2 circular routes you can drive.
The golden rolling hills and mountains are amazing in this part. We didn’t see any wild, but just seeing the surroundings was more than enough. The sun was also starting to come out now and you could feel how your body starts heating up.
Goldengate Park
Goldengate Park
Goldengate Park
On the way to Harrismith I noticed a huge dam on my GPS screen and decided to go and check it out. We drove through gates right up to the edge of the Sterkfontein Dam. As we stopped there I noticed a car coming racing down to us where far across the damn. Didn’t pay much notice to it and we got out and took some photos.
Sterksfontein Dam
When the car stopped a guy got out and walked over to me. I was about to greet him friendly when he just blurted out,” You are you doing here?”, and I replied to him saying we’re just taking some photos. He told us to leave immediately and we were trespassing. So we left, not too much in a hurry 
Only on driving out of the gates did we see the NO ENTRY sign on the inside of the gate! On driving out I took another detour on a gravel / mud road. This turned out to be a interesting detour because at one stage I had to do a bit of maneuvering to not get stuck in the mud in the middle of no where in a 4×2!
At 9:00 we arrived in Harrismith to have some breakfast. After that we starting driving towards Pongola through Ladismith. We had a couple of stops and a few detours, but the most interesting came just before the Pongola Dam.
Somewhere around mid day I realized if we follow the directions the Spirit of Africa guys gave us, we’re going to be doing an extra 200km when we could just as well go straight to the meeting point (because I knew where it was) and save that 200km. This would also mean being on time or being 2 hours late! So I setup another route for us on the GPS, and at one point we reached a gravel road that the GPS thought would be a main road. Needless to say there were no alternatives so we turned into it. Unfortunately we ended up being a Landrover Defender that seemed to be on a Sunday afternoon drive. The road was too narrow to pass as well. If it was my own vehicle I would’ve driving up on the side and passed him, but I couldn’t do it with this bakkie. So after a torturous few kilometers we finally go onto a main road again.
This took us to the Pongola Dam. It looks like this dam just carries on forever and ever. From here we made our way to Jozini. At some points on the road it is better to actually drive on the side of the road than in it. There are potholes the size of the bakkie that we had dodge. And among dodging potholes there were goats, people and cows to also avoid.
A smaller pothole
The next 2 hours were spent racing to get to the meeting point on time. I hate being late, and we sort of saw it as a challenge to get to the meeting point at just the right time, 15:30.
More potholes, dodging people, speeding, we finally stopped at the meeting point at exactly 15:30.
There we were met by 2 other vehicles that comprised out of 3 teams. Funny enough, one of the teams were also from Port Elizabeth! We stood around for about an hour talking about previous events, and various other things while waiting for the SOA escorts to come and take us to the camp site.
We were taken to the camp site, and as we were about another 1km away from the camp site, the bakkie’s fuel reserve light came on. I thought it would last a bit longer, but driving the 4×2 in the 8km to the camp site chowed the petrol a bit. So now I wondered if I’d make it back to the nearest petrol station that is about 30km away!
I put that thought out of my head as we meet the rest of the teams and get our initial briefing and team numbers. We ended up being Team 4.
After getting our tents sorted out and doing final registrations at the office, the evening is spent around the fire and having a very nice dinner. Even though everyone is excited about what the next day will hold, it’s off early to bed for everyone.
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