Ray Chaplin solo walk from Cape Town to Beit Bridge

Posted on 4 January 2010

Having been eaten alive last night by mosquitos and moving as quickly as possible to escape the waves of flying parasites, I neglected to eat breakfast… oops! But, thanks to a few handy Mule Bars I ate on the go and made good time this morning – until it started raining.

For fear of getting my lovely map book wet, I decided that I knew which road to take and took the one that felt right to me. However, with no landmarks to go by because of the extremely low cloud cover, my route could’ve been taking me Tokyo and I would not have known! It was only at an intersection that I realised my error some kilometres back – as nowhere on this sign did it say Wellington. Options were only Robertson and Paarl, both major detours from where I was standing.

As I sat contemplating my next move, two cars pulled up and five occupants climbed out – turns out they’re all related and were now parting ways at the end of their holiday so this was the final good-byes. And then the father / husband came across to chat with me about Tootsie, and it turns out they’re from Namibia – and have invited me to visit them whenever I’m in the area. Shwweet!! Will take you up on that, I promise.

They left and I decided to go straight… the road with no sign referring to destination, but it did pass the “wind farm” (with a whole three turbines, only one of which was turning) so all was good.

As I ventured down the road it became a gravel road – with a whole lot of corrugations and soft sand to mix things up. Going was tought but steady, and the police that seemed to use the road more than anyone else came to enjoy seeing me in various stages of torture.

I took a break at a soil company and while sitting under cover the skies opened and flooded the place. Oh dear… muddy road? Fortunately it drained well and I hardly noticed the difference underfoot. But my concern grew about just how much further I had to travel on this as I could see it impacting my progress to Wellington more than my directional error.

One police van stopped and chatted, asking if I needed a lift… but I saw he had someone in the back, so thought it best to say “thanks, but I’ll walk”.

I hit tar again and picked up speed, frequently chatting to the police on their many trips passed me [in both directions]. And then the Paarl Police Commissioner stopped to chat – asking all the questions and having a great chat. He actually provided some usual information and pretty accurate distances, so thanks to Johan Marais!

The roads were like a rollercoaster and the legs started to take strain, and I pulled over at the Boland Landbou school to have a drink and a break… and just as I was about to turn my phone off again to conserver power, Wouter called me to find out where I was. And he said he was on his way with cold drinks… wooohooooo!

Sure enough, within a few minutes, Wouter arrived with his family 🙂 Cold drinks and a lovely chat, what more could a soloist ask for?

With renewed energy I picked up the pace and got the R44 and turned left towards Wellington. I’d forgotten how far that intersection was from town itself, but it didn’t matter as my legs were moving. I wanted to get to the tourism office to check on the campsites that the Police Commissioner Johan had told me about, but I was too late.

So I followed signs for Bains Kloof Pass and Ceres, stopping at a garage for a refill and much needed chocolate. I chatted with the staff regarding distances to the pass, etc… but accurate distances to them seemed to be anywhere from 10-20km to the start of the pass, never mind total distance.

Well, I need to get up and over it, so put my head down and went for it – making pretty good time considering I’d already done 40km+ for the day. Many stared, some pointed, some shouted remarks… but they all had one thing in common! They were all wondering who would be stupid enough to walk up the pass… nevermind tow a trailer too!!!

Next thing I knew, a white car pulled up in front of me and a young guy pulled up, full of smiles. I feared that it was somebody I knew and had forgotten them – fortunately not. Jaco from the computer shop in Wellington had seen me in town and then again as I was leaving town and he reckoned he had to find out more and wanted to drop off some chow. Well, Jaco, thanks for the ice cream and muffins – they all went down like a homesick mole.

Jaco provided a slightly more accurate distance guide to the campsite, but was not entirely sure. So, when I arrived at Bergkroon I decided to ring the bell and find out if they knew.

Even better, they’ve allowed me to stay on their AWESOME premises! WOW! What a view! Bianca let me in and we spent most of the evening chatting… and now it’s midnight dinner and blogging before a big day of hill climbing on Monday.






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