Day 108: East London to Gcinisa

Cant remember is name but he was all energy. Saying gbye at the Domoneys in East London.

I was back on the N2 and was now on the Sunshine coast stretch of road. It was fairly pleasant to begin with as the city gave way to open fields dedicated to cattle grazing. It was also nice to ride over the odd bridge or two near the river mouths nearby the oceans. The rest of the road was pretty straightforward. It was also windy again. The road turned left and headed downhill where I ended up having a talk to a guy at about 3pm. He was nice guy to talk to and he was busy to road side vegetation maintenance. He told me about a place to check out near Knysna which I made note of. The talk turned to one of safety and which ended up with him showing me the gun he carries around for protection. A .38 special fully loaded with hollow points. I had to get me a photo holding that gun and I did. Wow, I just got a gun from a complete stranger. I carefully handed it back to him. He wished me well saying he would never forget meeting me.

EE-Yeah!!!! Sunchine Coast.!!!

The start of clover country as the sign boards said.

Like a blight on the land. hahaha. Not really. Termite mounds.

Waitng to jump passserbys.

Cannot remember the name of this place.

The Mgabela Memorial where I had a rest for lunch.

Lovely view.

I have my hands on a gun!!! .38 Special, fully loaded with hollow points.

My target for today was Bray but before I was there I had a little rest beside a security building at 5pm mainly to get the hell out of the wind. I was told Bray was about 5 kms away. Cool I thought. I can do this last push, no matter how tired and cold I am. I was hoping to stay at the police station in Bray but I unfortunately rode past it as there was no sign, though I did recall a police sign. I thought it was somewhere else. It confused me as the town looked to be on the main road I was on, but it was actually off that turn off I missed. I was 2 kms past it now and I honestly wasn’t going to go back. I would take my chance asking someone I saw on the road, which I did. He couldn’t help me but said just try someone in the small settlement just up the road. I went ahead. I was lucky to see a lady outside her house and I asked quite desperately if I could camp beside the one room was that was beside the main house. The sun had just gone down and it was getting dark so I needed to sort this out. It was a surprise for her but she said it was okay.

Her name was Pumza Mbendeni. She was busy cooking something on a fire outside the one room which her mother was in, and inside there was also a fire going. They said I could just sleep inside the room as there is a bed. I said yes. Way more comfy and warmer than outside. The only thing I was concerned about was the smoke from the small indoor fire but that was quickly sorted. The outside fire was moved away and the remaining parts of the indoor fire were taken to that one. Cool, smoke problem sorted. I was very happy to have a place to stay for the night and thanked my hosts. Turns out the place I was staying at was called Gcinisa and it had a wonderful sunset as the as the sun went down. I also hit the 6000km mark which I was chuffed about. Ha, looking back at when I left Van Zylsrus, I had thought that by now at 6000kms I would be back in Cape Town. Still a while to go.

Distance 88kms