Wednesday 2 October 2013

Day 2 - tar roads can be misleading

There was no border post to be visited today as we managed to visit Saldanha Bay on day 1. We headed north towards Alexander Bay and tried to avoid the N7 as much as possible. 

From Jacobsbay we took the roads as close to the West coast as possible, passing Elandsbay, Lambertsbay, Strandfontein using Transnet's toll roads (fee = free). Just a few kilometers from Strandfontein we took a short detour to the mouth of the Olifantsriver.

From Lutzville we wanted to go to Nuwerus where we would join the N7 again. However, a tar road next to a water pipeline appeared to be the better road. We ended up at Namakwa Sands mine with no more roads except farm roads through Namaqua land. 

We passed Lepelfontein and Kotzesrus, two very small villages, before reaching Garies much later than anticipated. This was a real gravel road, in line with DriveOut's motto, and not on a GPS or printed map. But Namaqua land had lots of rain and the scenery compensated for the longer drive. 

Tomorrow we drive from Port Nolloth to Alexander Bay, the first road border post on our trip.  

Apologies for the lack of pictures - we focussed so much on the road that we completely forgot to take pictures for this blog!