Day 51: Ndivho’s place to Malamulele

Cheers Ndivho. Another gurn into the sun shot.

I thanked Ndivho and headed off into valley. The first section was literally quite that. Going down into a valley before having to come up on the other side. And hell, the one section of the road was steep. Get off my bike and push steep. I dunno how any car other than a 4x4 could be here seeing as any other car would just get wrecked slowly but surely, but again not everyone has the money to just buy 4x4s. Eventually I reached the top of the road and enjoyed the view. It was a much easier ride from then on. Mostly downhill which is always fun.

Ok lets do this.

Looking back. So far so good.

The dreaded hill. Nothing to do but push.

I stopped at a café and bought some coke as well as a packet of Mopani worms. I had never eaten them before so I gave them a bash. They were quite tasty. Like crunchy biltong. I ate them slowly over the day. Finally I reached the tar section. I realized somewhere on this journey that all the roads which were gravel and terribly hilly would be the most fun to come back and ride without the luggage. Plus many times once I got onto flat tar, it actually got quite boring quite quickly as there was nothing to break up the sameness of it all. Each road had its place.

Dried mopani worms. Like crunchy biltong.

Finally back on the tar road.

Haha. The name if this place is awesome.

I finally crossed the Luvuvhu river and got on the road heading towards Xigalo. I also realized I had taken a different turn off that the police had told me about yesterday. I well. It just meant I would have to ride a couple extra kms which totaled probably 15 or so. But anyways, the road I was on would eventually lead me to the one I wanted to be on anyways.

Luvuvhu River.

Stopped here for a thirst quencher. The multiple services on offer with the advertising as well made for an interesting combo.

Nothing but toilets people. Call them to drain your toilet juice.

Round about 2oclock I stopped at a garage in Malamulele (another fun name to say) and was met by a bunch of people interested in what I was doing. I also met the same guy I saw at one of my earlier stops. So out of this whole rest I was asked if I wouldn’t mind doing a little radio interview on the local radio. Cool, I thought so I followed the guy about 2kms into Malamulele to the building of Malamulele Radio which is a community based radio station and had only be up and running for a few months at the time. It was a totally random interest piece which they slotted me into the one time slot with the two presenters at that time and it was fun to do, plus this was also my first radio interview ever so I tried to enjoy it as much as I could.

After saying thanks and wishing me well I was now on a mission to find a place to stay. My first thought was just to go to the police station but fate had better plans for me. As I was packing up I was approached by a lovely lady Nyiko. We had a lekker chat and she asked where I was planning on staying tonight which I told her my police plans, but she said I could just stay at her place. Yes. So off we went.

Malamulele FM 101.  Only realised later how serious the guy in the back looks now. Haha. Just timing as he was quite a lekker guy to talk to.

Post Interview. See, not so serious anymore.

Post interview with the other co presenter. She was a fiery one.

So we walked and talked on the way to her place which was about 20mins away and I was glad to have met her. She also does community work at the radio on some days and she was quite interested in what someone like me was doing at the radio station as it was clear I stood out like a sore thumb. As we walked I noticed a strong sense of community as she greeted many people along the way. This was in total contradiction to my own situation back home. I barely know my own neighbours where I was staying. Not a totally bad thing but just from what I was experiencing, the alternative was much more pleasant.

Once we arrived at her home I was told to just relax while she got her room ready. I had assumed there was just a spare room maybe but it turned out that Nyiko gave up her bed for me that night and she spent a little while getting it ready for me. I was again touched by this level of hospitality. I would have been happy to just have a place to sleep on the floor inside but I wasnt going to argue or stop someone from doing what they wanted to do in order to make me feel comfortable. And yes the bed was very comfrtable. Thanks Nyiko.

Shortly thereafter I met her mother and also her brother Teddy who was super interested in what I was doing. If you reading this Teddy, I hope you have done your own adventure that you have talking about. So after supper we headed out for a drive for ice cream before heading back and calling it a night.It was great to be in Malamulele.

Distance 55kms