Thursday, 22 Dec 2011

We woke up at 05h30 to a bright and beautiful day in Ramsgate. Tarryn arrived at 07h00 and we enjoyed a delicious breakfast together at our B & B, before hitting the road.

We departed at 08h10 on our way to the Hole in the Wall which is on the Wild Coast of KwaZulu Natal. “Oh my goodness, what a trip...!”

Our first stop was Port Edward to replenish groceries and fuel up.

We travelled for a large part of the day on gravel roads - very bad gravel roads. We went through some small towns such as Magusheni, Flagstaff & Lusikisiki that were all frantic hives of bustling activity. Each town took about 30 min to get through (bear in mind that these towns are so small that, normally, if you blink once too often as you are driving through, you would miss them!) and we suppose that this was mainly due to people on their way to friends and family for the Christmas weekend. (It made Dubai traffic congestion look like a peaceful Friday morning!)

The last 90km took us 3,5hrs to negotiate. The scenery around us, once again, made up for the travelling conditions, with breathtakingly beautiful, panoramic views of rolling green mountains, deep valleys and some thick, indigenous forests.

We arrived at Hole in the Wall at 15h30, three hours later than planned, feeling a little travel weary due to the intense concentration needed along the route. It had started to rain and so we decided that a chalet would be more appropriate than camping as it really is not much fun to set up “home” while it is raining and the camping facilities were not that great either.

At around 17h30, we drove to the lookout to view the scene which gave this quaint seaside town its name. If you look at the stunning scene below, the huge rock in the centre of the photo has a hole all the way through it. We sat in the Landy, clinked our sun-downer glasses together, and drank to yet another breathtaking view in this very beautiful part of South Africa.

Note: While driving towards the lookout, “Gypsy” the GPS, (yes, Lynne names everything!) kept warning us (frantically!!) that we should not proceed as it was too dangerous. Gypsy obviously did not realise that we were driving George, our trusty Land Rover!