Day six of Ray Chaplin’s solo walk to Beit Bridge.

Posted on 13 November 2009

Wind and driving rain coming through in enormous spells woke me on several occassions last night, which I guess was good in some ways as I was able to keep an eye on security.

But, what it did mean was that I didn’t quite manage to get out of bed in time for sunrise, although I didn’t miss much as it was solid cloud this morning and was still raining lightly.

Well, I packed and got everything ready for a relatively early start as I had to be at the mall in Worcester by 11am to meet Big Steve from Salomon at the Cape Union Mart store.

So, I put my head down and went for it: 14 km without a proper break, not too bad. Don’t worry though, I took in the scenery and did get some pics, and managed to cross the Breede River in the process.

The river is, well, pretty wide at the moment (not sure if it’s always that wide actually?) with all the rains from the week. With small gaps in the weather, light aircraft were obviously able to fly again and I was buzzed a few times, somewhere deep down wishing it was my friend Kelly who promises she’s going to fly out to visit me along the way. Sadly it wasn’t, but I headed into town and followed plenty bad directions and took the extremely long route round town to the mall.

As I arrived, Big Steve pulled in and then, as I was putting on something a little sweeter smelling Ian arrived too, so in we headed to go say hi at Cape Union Mart. After a little story telling and pics, Ian left us to visit some CAPESTORM retailers in the area and Big Steve took me for lunch, as I apparently look like a stick! I promise I’m not feeling hungry though!

Some errands were run and a quick stop at Mellins Optometrist before heading for the tourism to find out just what is going on the area and where would be best for me to stay tonight.

Lana and Bianca at the tourism office were exceptionally helpful and hooked me up at Toeka, a small restaurant just out of town on the way to De Doorns. It’s at a Caltex garage, so it’ll be fairly busy tonight, but I’ve found a spot out back that should be quiet enough for a good night’s rest.

My shoulders are taking the most strain and I’m not managing much more than an hour with the pack on. This is a result of the back being too short for me, hip belt not taking enough of the weight and then weight having to be loaded onto the shoulders.

To add to my list of whinges, the top of my right foot is pretty darn sore too. This could be as a result of a number of things: laces too tight, gaiters pressing on the bone, foot POD pressing on the bone… not sure at the moment, but gonna move the foot POD to my left foot tomorrow and see if that changes anything.

Good news is that I hit the railway line tomorrow – finally on the route that was originally conceived and planned for the journey. I’ll have to trudge along the N1 a little from Toeka to meet up with the railway, but the majority of the day will be on the railway. Will be nice to get rid of cars and be a little more removed.

It would appear that my timing stinks – as there is a music festival in Worcester this weekend. The “Forbidden Fruit” festival at Kleinplaasie could’ve been a good way to rest the legs and spend some time with the locals… hmmmm… maybe I could… shall see how I feel in the morning.






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