HELL

21:27 sunday, sitting by the side of the road outside Mtabelanga waiting for someone who knows the rough route up the vuvu river valley. With our track record of navigation disasters and bumbling around in the dark we decided to play it safe. Eating evrything left - biiltong, wasabi peas, chutney corn, tenniS biscuits & prunes. A picnic complete with a smoky fire with wood scavenged from a derelict building.

The day started so well, we were ready at 1st light and august carstens, a racing contender sitting out a bad knee, showing us the tricky route out and up to black fountain- where he disappeared on his mission with our encouragemnent. Then all hell broke loose- a terrible gale force wind made it impossible to ride, blowing us off our bikes. Di took a bad tumble with bike even loosing a wheel in the process.

We spent the whole day criss crossing endless valleys and spurs after a bad call by deon took us down too early. We finally got to Tinana mission stn at 17h00 instead of the planned 11am.

Another bad call had us deciding to press on when we should have bunkered down. The 1st time we left the road we got lost in a little village Mjikelweni in pitch darkness. Fortunately a rare english speaker Spha (with dozens of squealing kids in tow) showed us the way down and thru the Tina river and out to the road to Vuvu. His mission for which he energetically tried to canvas our support, is get support to build an acceSs road and start an agricultural cooperative for the 23 families. We exchanged cell numbers and promised to stay in touch.

So here we are, staring at the fire hoping to tag along with an experienced racer, skoffing all our rations and watching the stars. The prospect of finding our way to cape town like this is a daunting thought.

Part 2
So after waiting for Tim for 2 hours huddled close to our hobo fire by the side of the road, we got mesg he was holed up "High up on the little berg, overlooking Tinana. Hiding from the wind and cooking up some soup. Biltong and chocolate" - tim at 21h38
Arrved at vuvu 4:20 Took the road after stmbling around looking for vuvu valley 4 2hrs. *#@+" terrible experience. Want to pushon to rhodes, leaving 8.30. 2.30 hrs fitful sleep - very noisy iin the village (we eat, slept at the school.

At least no wind today, hoping to make good time 2 rhodes - cheers