The road to Dwesa.

Our next destination was Dwesa, a Nature reserve on the Wild Coast. When we left East London on Sunday morning we headed out on N2, shortly after that to turn off to Morgan Bay and then Kei Mouth.  The reason for this was to cross the Kei river by Ferry and then to follow the “smiley” route to Dwesa. We had now moved off normal maps and were on the Slingsby map for the Wild Coast. Wonderful maps these are as there is so much detail on them. This particular one indicates scenic routes with a “smiley” and difficult routes with a “jeep”. These are serious 4x4 routes, not to be tackled in your own, or so we were advised. After some of the scenic routes, I am very grateful that we did not.

Anyway, we stopped in Kei mouth for a quick lunch at the Green Lantern. Best Burger on the way so far and fantastic value for money. Then the ferry, which still looks like a design from the late fifties but still working very well. It is now powered by a Suzuki outboard engine and the trip takes all of 5 minutes. R60 a trip and free for pedestrians, of which there were a few. There were even onboard curious for sale!!Not sure if it was duty free or not. On the other side of the Kei river we were in the Old Transkei. What a beautiful part of the country this is. It is GREEN and hilly, with all these traditional houses scattered all over the hill sides. Mind you a traditional house is no longer as it used to be. It is now a brick and mortar building and mainly painted in bright colours.  The roads are rough and even more so when wet. We were happily travelling along with our Slingby map and I was quite chuffed that we were following it and that we were on the correct route. I have to add that there are ZERO indications along the road to tell you where you are. It is you and the map and then of course my interpretation of the map. I had just said to Dick that I cannot think that one could travel in this part of the country without a map, unless you were a local and knew where you were. Well “murphies law” struck at that very moment. Dick remarked that we were travel south and that we were supposed to be going north. This caused some heated discussion and e release of some unvented frustrations!  Well back to the GPS and the coordinates and half an hour later we were back on track. We are still not sure where we went wrong and we have buried the issue now.

The roads are mostly rough and it is shared with animals, people, dogs and other cars, so travelling is slow in daylight and we were rapidly running out of that commodity.  So the last hour of the scenic route was done in half light and later in no light. Conversation was cancelled and prayer engaged. We made it to the gate of the camp site just before 6.30. Now it was check in and all that goes with it and it is all slow. Arriving at a camp site in the dark is difficult, but to find the correct place to camp is nearly impossible, especially if there is no light at all. We had no idea of where there was an ablution block or anything, but we saw a long drop and a vacant place and we parked right there.  Luckily the guy next to us came along and informed us on some basic’s, like where to find water, etc. In no time we had sorted our place out, had a glass of wine in the hand , some left over Warthog fillet from the night before and the spirits were back to where they should be. Amazing how quickly one can do an “about turn”.