Troopercitos

We left Port Alfred early to get through to East London for some shopping before heading on to Cintsa in the Ciskei (Cis meaning “this side of”, Trans meaning “across”, the Kei river). We got our supplies and got to Buccaneers Backpackers late afternoon where we checked into a Safari tent for the night. The next day we walked along the beach and almost went for a kayak. Almost, because by the time we got down to the beach with the paddles it was a bit too windy & chilly to head out on the water. The following night we switched to camping and had a braai, which we actually preferred to the safari tent. We were on the road again the next day fairly early and it wasn’t long before we crossed the Kei River ... read more

We left Montagu aiming for the lesser used road between there and Sutherland, which went via Ladysmith and Maitjiesfontein. The road was beautiful and we could see snow on some of the peaks as we came into Ladysmith where we stopped briefly to buy some cheese. From Ladysmith we drove via a dirt road alongside a river stream through some red-brown and tightly folded mountains. On the other side of the pass we were faced with a loooong straight dirt road running back along the mountains and some wonderful scenery as well. The road between Maitjiesfontein and Sutherland is a beautiful strip of Klein Karoo climbing up a pass onto a plateau. As we were winding up the pass we were surrounded by lots of baaaaah’ing as we passed through about 500 sheep coming down the ... read more