Ray Chaplin solo walk from Cape Town, South Africa to Beit Bridge, Zimbabwe

Posted on 24 January 2010

Having spent the most awesome night with Elsabe and Andre in Victoria West, it was sad to say good-bye… so I headed into to town to say Hi and Bye again, getting a few quick pics and then started making my way North towards Kimberley. They’d been kind enough to call ahead to friends of theirs 30 km out of town, who own Rietpoort Inn… and they in turn had been kind enough to put me up for the night.

I was not even out of town yet when I saw a young boy ahead of me carrying a large sack on his back… battling with the weight and the size of his load. As I caught up with him I asked if he needed some help, as we could put the sack on Tootsie and I could push the load for him. He was so happy he dumped it on and we walked to his place… chatting away the time & distance. He’s in grade 10 and plays wing for the school rugby team… and is also the 100 m champ. Clearly not the weight lifter kinda guy! We said our farewells as he picked up the sack and carried it inside and I headed off to Rietpoort.

My late departure and carrying assistance meant I was under a little pressure to get to my destination, as the hosts were leaving for a party in Vic West – but the distance, fortunately, passed fairly easily. My left knee & hip again felt rather tender as the day wore on, but nothing too serious to slow me down. However, something I need to be mindful of as I still have over 1500 km to cover.

With cell coverage again, I made contact with a few people and caught up on life as things have been a pretty quiet since Matjiesfontein really.

I picked up a slow p*n*t*r* along the way but with 10 km to go I was not going to stop and start patching it or replacing the tube… so I stopped every 2km, gave it some sky and pressed on. It seemed to work nicely and, before I knew it, I saw the 2km sign… yay! I was almost there.

As I came down the hill I could see a wind turbine (for power) and an oasis in the desert – that was my destination. It’s amazing how green all the communities and farm estates are, while between them one struggles to imagine how life exists.

Christo followed me in on his scrambler and welcomed me to the farm, and got me settled in… to a cottage! Yay! Way more than expected – I was expecting to camp! Absolute bonus I tell you!

Dirk arrived soon thereafter and welcomed me before setting off to the party, and I settled into a nice relaxing bath to sooth my joints. And then climbed into bed for a power nap.

I woke to make dinner which was fantastic (veggie rice with baked beans), but then struggled to fall asleep again. And, with no decent signal to update the site I ended up reading old magazines. Eventually I nodded off, but woke a few times lying on my left hip – in agony. Not cool!

This morning I woke to two flat tyres! Yes, I’d neglected to fix the puncture from yesterday… but had seemed to pickup one I didn’t know about. Grrrr! So that took me a little while to resolve, as I also had to re-tape both rims (super dry and super wet had resulted in peeling tape).

Setting off a little later than desired, I left the farm that is over 200 years old and headed towards Britstown. It was already getting warm, so I was glad I’d frozen 2L of water overnight. By my first stop after 12km the ice had already melted completely, and by about 18k it was almost too hot to drink! After 4hrs I was burning my lips and throat – scary!

I stopped at one of the ‘picnic’ break spots along the road where a bunch of roadworks vehicles are parked, both to escape the sun and rest my legs… and got chatting with the weekend shift security guard. Nico is his name, and he’s from Britstown. We had a good chat and I feel bad for disturbing his peace, but I’ve done some calculations and this is the perfect spot for me to break today. So, here I am, busy setting up camp for the night amongst some roadworks vehicles next to the N12 – with my camp buddy Nico.

Tomorrow I will push for 42km, the max I can do in a day, and by doing so stage myself for a brief trot into Britstown on Tuesday morning.

Good news, psychologically, is that I am currently 299 km from Kimberley – the half way point of my journey! YAY! So tonight I shall celebrate by adding a sauce to my tuna pasta – I believe it’s a cheese sauce.






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