Day 335 / 100

Date: 13 March 2023
Sleeping location: Cadle House, Vryheid, South Africa
Distance (km today/total/total Part 2): 126 / 20725 / 5888
Estimated climb (m today/total/total Part 2): 1500 / 186300 / 68300
Lunch: weird, big
Day in three words: Dash for freedom*

*Vryheid means “freedom” in Afrikaans

I was away pretty early and back onto the dirt road into Piet Retief. It was in alright condition, with some bits fun but others steep and rutted, but just a few km into the day I felt some alarming steering vagueness and stopped to check if the troublesome rear wheel had deflated again. It was fine, but the front was flat. I swore a lot. A thorn had gone through again - what is it about the thorns of South Africa? After no punctures all the way up to its border I’ve had five since (although one thorn that I might have picked up in Zim accounted for three of those). I couldn't get all of the thorn out of the tyre without major and risky surgery so Maggie is now part wooden. 

In Piet Retief I headed for a cafe to charge some devices, take a second breakfast and figure out my next steps after several days without the ability to route plan properly. Simone behind the till was very friendly and helpful for all of my needs and recommended a sort of big pizza/focaccia filled with breakfast things that was absolutely delicious. Whilst eating this I realised that the town of Vryheid was 105km away, via a route that was all on tarmac and not excessively hilly, and that it had a good looking and affordable hotel. By now it was about 10.30, but this was doable and the hotel was a nice reward for putting in a big day. I booked it. 

This was going to require some commitment, so I got going sharpish and decided to do the first 50km to Paulpietersberg in one go. This was initially along the big and busy N2 road but soon I turned off onto a quiet road through pine and eucalyptus forest, big open farmland and rolling hills. It was overcast and a nice temperature and it kind of felt like home. The road had occasional huge potholes, which Simone had warned about, but there was so little traffic that I could swerve them with gay abandon. 

In Paulpietersberg I went to the supermarket and picked up lunch consisting mainly of weird things: a "Manager special" mixture of a piece of fried chicken (or fried manager??) with rice and sides, a "Dagwood" sandwich of chicken escalope, egg and mayo, "Egg and Igwinha" which appeared to be a boiled egg alongside some sort of hand grenade, although I never got to try it as I accidentally left it somewhere, a "Lunch Bar" which was sort of like a big Lion Bar and actually pretty good, and 1.5L of passion fruit soda, all consumed on a rock in a park that for some reason had no bins to accommodate the masses of waste the meal produced.

After the weird lunch the landscape was similar but with additional beauty provided by some craggy peaks dotted around**. The clouds had cleared and the sun was now beating down. I had left PPB without topping up my water, as it had been overcast, and as there was absolutely nowhere to fill up along the road I began rationing what I had left. This problem was solved in a timely manner when a man called Chris stopped his car ahead of me and offered me some of his water. Yet another example of openness and helpfulness from people in this country.
 
I arrived bang on sunset which was very satisfying. The hotel initially seemed empty as the lights were off and the front door locked, but I had forgotten about load shedding - the owners were all sat in the dark round the back. The room had decent cooking facilities so I picked up a load of exciting food at the nearby supermarket, but for the evening I fancied a meal out for the first time in ages and went looking for something. There doesn’t seem to be much of a restaurant culture here so the least bad option was a chain steakhouse, which was nothing more than fine but I did at least get to have draft beer for the first time in Africa. 

**I am not suggesting the weird lunch caused the craggy peaks to appear, but it’s an interesting idea

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