Ray Chaplin’s solo walk from Cape Town to Beit Bridge

Posted on 18 January 2010

Sleeping at the house of the senior engineer for SALT has its advantages – you get to sleep at the observatory, you get a private stargazing experience and you get a private tour of SALT in the morning. Yip, I got the tour that very few people get (and certainly not the general public) and got inside SALT and into places only staff are permitted.

Getting up close & personal with the $32-million beast is incredible! While not actually operational at present, there is loads on the go and it’s amazing to see what all goes into making the enormous structure and systems work.

Words can’t describe the experience, nor can photographs! I took plenty pics and got some video too, and can’t even pronounce half the words to name much of the equipment – it’s way too scientific for me – but all I can say is that this is one thing you HAVE to see!

I set off from SAAO with my eyes opened and completely in awe, heading for the town of Fraserburg – about 100km away. I’d frozen 8L of water in Chris’s freezer so was well stocked, and slowly headed off… almost sad to leave. I wanted to stay longer and learn more, but time is ticking and I have to make progress every day.

The road to Fraserburg is, well, terrible! Everyone drives along the middle of the road to give more space for the animals that tend to appear in the road, so the side are sandy, full of large stones or corrugations. I regularly found myself switching sides to try find easier going… but it generally didn’t turn out that way.

The terrain and scenery is spectacular along this stretch and, apart from the road being so bad, I can’t believe why more people don’t drive this stretch. Only five cars passed me in a day! Oh, and one motorbike that came so close I thought he was going to come straight through me… damn!

Each passing car created a sandstorm which engulfed Tootsie and I, leaving me coughing and dusting myself off. Fortunately Tootsie’s cargo storage is pretty well sealed, and the bags on top are dry bags, so she’s pretty well sealed. I, on the other hand, keep finding dust and sand in every possible spot – often not too pleasant…

Thanks to Martin I have started developing blisters. Why Martin? Well, he asked the other day about blisters and up until that point I didn’t have any. So, thanks Martin for jinxing me! Two are on the front of toes, so don’t really bother me… the one is under my baby toe on my right foot which isn’t pleasant… and the other is one my right foot next to my big toe. It’s not pleasant at al! I have drained it, creamed and plastered it, and now just hoping it gets better soon.

Camping has been awesome these past few days, as there have been no clouds and I could leave the flysheet off. The wind has been a bit chilly at night, but I’ve slept with a Buff on top covering my ears and head so have slept pretty well. Sadly, my sleeping bag doesn’t perform too well in the wind. It appears to let through some breeze so even though ambient temperatures are well above rating, the wind is knocking it.

Despite the blisters, my body has held up pretty well and has allowed me to do big mileage these last two days: 40 km from the South African Astronomical Observatory, then 52 km followed my 11 km this morning to get into Fraserburg. My average speed has increased and I can now maintain 6 km/h without too much effort – a clear sign that I am getting stronger and fitter. However, my left knee is taking a bit of strain on the rough terrain and on serious hills… so I am looking forward to tar between Loxton and Carnarvon.

I’m currently sitting with Daniel and Debbie, two ex-Capetonians who moved to Fraserburg three years back and have made this home. Debbie is a painter and Daniel, while being a graphic designer, is the most computer literate person in town so doubles as the IT guy. We bumped into each other at the cafe and they invited me for tea – pretty cool.

The town is a lot different to what I expected – it certainly has more than I thought it would. While no bustling metropolis (especially not on a Sunday), there are more shops and facilities than anyone had told me about.

I’ll park here for a while, probably a little after 3pm when the shop re-opens so that I can pick up ice and some treats for the road, then head 15 km or so out of town to setup camp and prepare to hit Loxton on Wednesday morning.

Cellphone signal is practically non-existent out here, so sadly updates are erratic at best, and GPS position uploads are not possible. But that looks to change once I hit Carnarvon. However, the next update will be in Loxton – Wednesday if all goes to plan.






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