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

Posted on 19 November 2009

After a rough night in the tent, thinking I was going to be blown back to Cape Town on several occassions, first port of call was a little cleaning where possible. The wind in the night had blown half the Karoo sand into the tent & it covered EVERYTHING! Once the worst was gone, camp was broken and off I set. Target for the day: somewhere a few kilometres from Matjiesfontein.

With the first few kilometres behind me before I’m usually even mobile, I enjoyed the first rest break at a thatched rest stop on the side of the N1 – a little more comfortable than sitting on the railway line. After a good break & when I felt the time was right, I crossed the highway again and headed for the station a little further ahead – Tweedside. Again, a collection of ruins is all that is left of what appears to have been a fairly substantial rail stop in its day.

The rail swung east from there and climbed a fairly long hill… make that very long! Gradient wasn’t bad, but it went on forever! And will climbing I kept thinking about the snakes that everyone was warning me about and that I hadn’t seen any yet (and hope not to see any either). It was then that I saw a rather large hole in the ground, larger than any I’d see thus far. I quickly got a pic and moved swiftly along because I did not want to be around when the animal that lived in there came up for air or, worse still, food! See the gallery for the size of the hole.

A little after that a Transnet bakkie pulled up along side me and asked the usual questions about what I’m doing, and they said they were going to be working at the sub-station up ahead. Now, sub-stations on the line are usually about 12km apart and generally provide nice shade… the building itself obviously but also often some nice trees. And when I got to the top of the hill to the sub-station, there was the bakkie… and Piet standing outside inviting me in out of the howling wind.

I turned the GPS off when I went inside to save battery and just as well I did because Piet took me through some of the history of the line, the electrical workings of the line and then just a good general chat to. He’s even invited me to go stay with him next time I’m in Touwsrivier (and hopefully I’ll feel better than last time I was there!)

While Piet is an absolute legend and kept apologising for his poor English (his English though is still better than my Afrikaans!), I had to press on and make some ground. However, with no real rush to cover distance I took a few longer breaks than usual… checking my mail, having a quick snooze, checking out the map book and other such chilled things.

The service road next to the line was determined to make me work today, going up &and down more than a rollercoaster than a railway. I’ve been using the service road for safety reasons, as it’s quite dangerous to walk on the single line with trains coming. While I’ve learned to read the signals and am able to pickup signs that’ll help tell me a train is approaching [especially from behind], there often isn’t anywhere to go so you get stuck less than a metre away from a fast moving train.

Oh, I almost forgot – I saw the Eiffel Tower today! No jokes! There is an Eiffel Tower (not full sized, but pretty big) on a hillside out here near Memorial siding. It’s so weird and random. Would love to know who / where / why… anybody know?

Sorry if info is a little weird today, but I reckon I was pretty dehydrated to add to the woes of the week… as I found myself singing Eminem songs at the top of my voice, in a Nelson Mandela-type voice. Bizarre I know, but maybe it was my bodies way of saying “Hey Ray?! Forget about me did you? I am hungry… I am thirsty… help me out please”

So I did about 24km today and am now camped about 6km from Matjiesfontein – so about 90min walk in the morning.

I had ‘dinner’ around 5pm’ish because I was feeling hungry and am glad to say it’s settled nicely. Sun set about 15min ago, maybe 20min… so there’s not much more for me to do other than roll over and enjoy a night under the stars. I can’t see a single cloud… so the stars should be good! Just a pity about the wind otherwise I would have left the flysheet off. Oh well, some other time…






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