Day 340 / 105

Date: 18 March 2023
Sleeping location: Wuthering Heights farm, 29.4540S 29.770407E, South Africa
Distance (km today/total/total Part 2): 85 / 21092 / 6255
Estimated climb (m today/total/total Part 2): 1600 / 191400 / 73400
Breasts studiously ignored: ca 20
Day in three words: Busy and empty

I set off late-but-not-too-late, slowly picking my way uphill through Estcourt’s suburbs, then farmland, then heading on a decent quiet road towards a landscape of dramatic cliffs, huge flat topped escarpments and steep grassy slopes. I was gradually climbing through a “black” area of scattered housing for several hours and it felt quite poor and underserviced - there were a couple of tankers dispensing water, which I guess means the mains supply wasn’t working or didn’t exist at all. There was a slightly odd vibe, not unfriendly but not entirely friendly either, and I was referred to as "white man" a couple of times instead of the usual "brother" or "my friend". There was also some begging for pretty much the first time in SA, though not much and quite subtle and half hearted. 

In the middle of this area I took a little dirt road shortcut through a section that wasn’t lived in, through a landscape of beautiful open forest, grassland and valleys. This involved a fast descent into a green valley which would have been fun if it wasn't so bumpy, then of course for the climb out there was a lovely smooth gravel road. The views became increasingly good, with a huge flat topped mountain to my right for a couple of hours and excellent views of more flat topped mountains and, behind in the distance, the huge Drakensberg escarpment that marks the border with Lesotho on its east and south sides. 

Back on the road and back in the big spread out town I saw about ten people walking down the hill towards me wearing the same “uniform”. As I got closer I realised that they were young girls and this “uniform” was actually black shorts and no top. I was climbing so I had quite a long time to not accidentally look at their breasts* and I spent a lot of that time staring intently at the lovely panorama to the right. As I passed them I tried to give a "hello" as casually as possible and look them in the eyes (just the eyes, just the eyes). So British. 

Lunch was delayed because I couldn't find anywhere to buy my daily massive soft drink, but right at the end of the built up area I got one and took lunch in the shade of a sign, out in the countryside of rolling grassy hills. Sarah had said that the next section was tarmac but komoot said dirt; in fact it was a score draw as it was a combination of the two, though it was nice that komoot was wrong in my favour for once.** The landscape became really beautiful, with a couple of unexpected lakes and amazing views of more flat topped mountains and the distant hazy blue Drakensbergs. The weather was lovely, nice and cool as I’d climbed several hundred metres, blue skies and a light tailwind. The road was generally flat-ish with some little stings here and there, and for most part I zipped along, listening to the best of Green Day, including the song Welcome To Paradise which seemed apt. 

Initially the landscape was farmland with quite frequent buildings, but towards sunset it became open grassland, surprisingly empty and with everything fenced off. This was not good wild camping territory, plus I hadn’t found anywhere to pick up water as the few buildings were off down long driveways. I gambled on getting water and a space to camp at the same place and kept going. Further proof of the serendipity of bike touring came in the form of a farm called Wuthering Heights (a Yorkshire classic), the first in a while and right on sunset. I went in and asked the first guy I saw if I could camp and take some water, he phoned his boss who was away, the boss said yes and all was well. With a nice level pitch on soft grass and a stone table and chairs on which to cook my dinner (a new experiment involving boiled eggs, pasta, chakalaka and avocado - 7/10 would do again) it was halfway to being a free campsite. The workers went off to their accommodation and it was just me, the bats and a very relaxed little dog overnight.

*Although I am assuming that would be bad form, but maybe it's the other way round and you're meant to stare as a sign of respect.

**Komoot usually claimed that everything in Africa was tarmac, to the point that until SA the feature was essentially useless. The straw that broke the camel's back was an impassable footpath in Ethiopia that it claimed was a tarmac road.