Blog 6- Sani Pass and the Road to the Garden Coast
(I have internet access for 10 minutes so I'm uploading this - pix will follow soon, I hope.)
Can I just say…. You MUST travel by Bed and
Breakfast through South Africa. You
can’t be in a rush, mind you, the hospitality is wonderful, and the full
breakfasts with host/hostesses and guests to share it with are very
leisurely. We seldom left a place before
10, so we soon learned to tailor our plans accordingly, but still seldom made
It to our next destination before dark.
But the innkeepers would greet us warmly show us to the honor bar and
our rooms and offer all kinds of information about their area, where to go,
where not to, and seemed thrilled to have Americans travelling alone as guests.
KarMichael Farm was
no exception. It was once a working
farm, but now converted to a lovely B and B.
Larry decided he could stay here and write a book. Nola, the manager was friendly, and handed us
one of the three most valuable pieces of information we’ve received so
far. A book of B and B’s approved by the
South African Travel Association which was our bible for the rest of the
trip. The farm dogs adopted us and met
us at the door each time we left. Larry fell in love with the Jack Russells and
swears he’s going to adopt one when we return home.
The trip to Sani Pass was what can only be called a
harrowing ride. The road was more of a
goat trail, one vehicle wide, and thankfully we met only a few vehicles coming
down. It’s such a terrible road that
South Africa put it’s border post at the bottom and Lesotho put it’s post at
the top….. neither wanted to have to go up or down the mountain each day to man
their stations. At the top is the Sani
Pass Lodge where we toasted one and all with beer at the highest bar in the
world.
We also visited a traditional Lesothan community and were
invited inside a rondal – a round stone
hut with a thatch roof, a door and no windows by one of the villagers. It was basic housing with few amenities –
dirt floor, a fire pit in the center, a Dutch oven, a rack of cheap enameled
metal plates and bowls, a single bed and wood seating against the opposite
wall; and that was about all. A young
child slept on the bed while we were offered bread and were given a small taste
of the Lesothan way of life.
Another restful night at the KarMichael Farm and we
regretfully left the peace and quiet for another leg of our voyage -- the trip to the Garden Coast.
The Road to the Garden Coast
Leaving Underberg and skirting along the Drakensburg
mountains, we headed for the Garden Coast – the South Coast of South
Africa. The route we took was suggested
by one of our fellow B and B guests at breakfast and took us through rural
areas and many African townships on our way south. I have said before that South Africa has a
real divide between the rich and the poor, the whites and the blacks and this
drive certainly brought the fact close to home.
Black townships were mostly a collection of hovels, most only 1 room or
maybe 2, built out of scrap material and looking like very little protection
from the environment. I’m sure most of
the homes did not have running water, although some of the more prosperous did
seem to have solar panels. The towns,
when there was one, were much like those you would come across in the poorest
parts of Appalachia with a church, a grocery store, a gas station and usually a
KFC at the crossroads and/or next to a gas station. We stopped at one of these and paid cash for
our gas as credit cards were not something they dealt with. Most of their residents didn’t have jobs, so
credit was not something they catered to.
If there was a large town on the road, you’d drive through
the black township first then all of a sudden you’d come to the white community
where the churches were mostly of Dutch Reformed architecture and the houses
were large with gardeners to be seen outside and most likely black help inside
to do the heavy lifting.
We decided to stop part way to the Knysna – our next
destination, as the roads were not fast and we’d gotten our usual late start
out of the gate at Underberg. So we
chose Fort Beaufort, an early British Outpost for the Frontier Wars and now a
university town and discovered we were staying in a building that had first
been built by Piet Retief of early Boer War fame. Another reason to stay in B and B’s instead of
hotels.
A Historical Note: Piet Retief led the first Boers into Zulu
country and made a deal with Shaka, the famous Zulu king for farmland for he
and his followers in return for finding and returning some rustled cattle. Despite warnings from the missionary
residents and his own people, Piet believed Shaka would deal fairly and
returned the cattle, signed the papers and in the following Zulu celebration he
and his men were slaughtered by Zulu warriors. The Boers would continue to
fight with the Zulus until the Battle of Blood River when they finally defeated
the Zulus and were able to settle the land.
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