Day 59: Sehlabathebe (Old Lodge) – Matebeng-Pass – Bob's Campsite

The Matebeng-Pass, our project today.

It goes through a spectacular mountain world up to an altitude of 2,940 m. And on a path that sometimes looks more like a dirt road than a track.

Coming from the south, the climb to the pass is arduous, but without any particular complications. What follows after the top of the pass is more challenging:

Gravel, stones, washouts, ruts, potholes, clay, inclines, declines. And water: often crossing in curves, flowing over and on the road, over and over again.

We hadn't imagined the whole thing to be so long and labor-intensive: seven and a half hours for 47.2 km (Old Lodge National Park to Bob's Campsite). Others seem to have managed it faster, but whether we were particularly careful or had bad luck with water and washouts – who knows.

We carried away or rearranged more stones than on the notorious border stretch from Nigeria to Cameroon.

Carrying them away so that we didn't have to drive over them or touch them sideways and ruin our tires. Unfortunately, they still sustained a bit of minor damage. Rearranging them to compensate for differences in height or to protect ourselves from slipping.

After the top of the pass, there is a large rock on the track. We can get past it with a few centimeters of distance sidewards. Seeing that the road drops into the abyss right next to the left tire is a bit of a thrill.

The thrill was a bit more intense at a point where the road was leaning heavily – sliding into a rut here would have been a nasty experience.

And finally, the washouts were very unpleasant in two or three places, especially in curves. And Brigitte feel very scared when she sees the deformation that the tires have to endure on these rocky passages.

For the last three washouts we have help from a local who has a good eye for how to master the places and move stones for us and with us. "Madam" shouldn't lift so heavy, he thinks. After he has helped us for the first time and made it clear to us that there are two more such washouts to come, we let him ride in the car and give him some money. The money is accepted with thanks, driving the car makes his eyes light up. He only considers the thing with the seat belt strange and we somehow explain that it beeps annoyingly if he doesn't put it on :-) It's funny anyway how you can communicate without knowing the other person's language. It's just that the names don't work – he can't pronounce ours and we can pronounce his.

At the end our helper shows us a short shortcut across a meadow and signals that he wants to get out. From here on, he says with gestures, it's really smooth. It's not quite like that, but the worst part is behind us.

Bob's Campsite, our destination for today, is a nice place by the river, beautifully situated under old trees and with a drop toilet. There is no one there except us, the locals just say hello briefly, we cook, make a small fire and let the adventurous day come to a quiet end.