Day 76: Mtunzini to Ballito

Cheers Richard. Man I love both our expressions in this pic.

Looking back at entrance to Mtunzini.

The road was once again filled with easy up and down hills with plenty sugar cane all over the place. It was a long ride and I decided to turn into Salt Rock to get off the N2. I think Salt Rock was the highest up Natal I had ever been before my trip so I was definitely back in an area I had been before. I arrived just after 3:30 and was planning on sussing the place out to find a place to stay, either here or on Ballito but it was time for something to break.

Ahh, kwazulu natal.

While on my way out of Salt Rock, I heard a loud ‘crack’ sound and my bum shifted backwards a bit and my one bag fell off. WTF just happened? The bolt that holds my seat to the stand had snapped in two! I couldn’t believe it at first as this was the last thing I ever thought would happen. But after some thought I realized that the weight that I was hanging from under my seat must have since the beginning been slowly but surely placing immense pressure on the bolt by pulling the seat ever so slightly and the bolt couldn’t take it anymore. Great I thought. Now I have this to deal with. Plus it turns out I didn’t have an extra bolt spare cause like I said, I never thought that this would happen. So collected my stuff and backtracked a little to the garage I had just passed and managed to get a bolt to keep my seat loosely in place while I headed off for a proper bike shop in Ballito.

Snap,crackle went my bolt.

Took a little while to find the place including having to ride up probably the steepest in Ballito but I eventually found the bike shop behind all the malls and car dealers and such. It was now 4:50 when I rolled in there. I was fortunate to meet a guy called Mike who was the mechanic and he sorted it all out. It was way past closing time but he got the job done and I was immensely grateful for his help at such short notice and for staying way past closing time.

It was now close to six and the sun was almost set as I rode out of there. I arrived at the one Shell garage and asked where the police station was. I was told it was about 4kms away. No ways was I riding there now. I figured here was as good a place as any and got permission to camp on a section of grass on the garage property. I was so relieved after that little seat bolt incident.

Mmmm, delicious.

Distance