Day 13

We’re up at 7am, and the power is still off. It comes back in time for breakfast, and with everything packed into the car we head off to the border.

At the border crossing, we get stamped out of Swaziland, and stamped (again) back into South Africa for the third time. We drive through customs with nothing to declare except a lot of Swazi dirt which is now attached to the car.

Day 13

I am not a superstitious person, so once I was back in London, I was amused to discover that the events I am about to retell occurred on day 13 of the trip. It all started innocently enough – it was to be a two-day long trek into the jungle, nothing particularly onerous, but it would involve an overnight camp.

Day 13

We left Novgorod at 10, today aiming for Lake Metz, another forest camp.  Decent music was on the stereo and traffic was light.  We arrived in time for lunch.

Day 13

location:Addo / Port Elizabeth
summary:Morning game drive, evening flight home to London via Johannesburg
trip:sa02
day:13

Day 13

It turned out that there were other guests at Zita’s, a German mountain biking couple. They spoke English in addition to German and a smattering of Italian, so we talked over breakfast about walking, cycling and why Britain hadn’t adopted the Euro.I left my big bag at Zita’s, using a complicated series of signs and muttered Italian to indicate that I would return for the next day, but no I wouldn’t be staying the night. I left with my day pack, in which I’d stowed a change of clothes, towel, waterproof, first aid kit, camera, water, map and documents. My plan was to undertake a circular trek back to Cortina, staying in a mountain refuge overnight.

Day 13

I slept reasonably well despite there being essentially no difference between the mattress and the floor. We left at 08:30 for Hellfire Pass, which is a cutting through a rocky outcrop that was dug by POWs. The work continued night and day, and during the night flaming torches were used to illuminate the area, casting flickering shadows of malnourished prisoners on the grey rock. This led to the nickname ‘hellfire’. The museum on the site was excellent, with many well written and presented exhibits, a model of the railway, and a short video. It concentrated mostly on the Australian POWs, since the museum is financed by the Australian government. The pass itself is now devoid of any railway, and in fact has a big tree growing up from the floor of the cutting. Two kilometers from the hellfire pass, we reached the riverbank and launched the kayaks that we had brought with us. Initially I had a single one, until I realised that my arms obviously weren’t cut out for this sort of thing. I switched with Charlotte and got a spot in one of the doubles. The other occupant of my kayak was a guide who was really starting to get on my nerves by calling my name all the time for no apparent reason, and Lorna’s even more often.

Day 13

Simon runs a small shop for the community surrounding Basil’s Harare office. Today Simon, David and I go to the local supermarket (significantly less local than you might expect), to get some stock for it, and fill up three big trolleys with consumables. The prices are generally about three or four times lower than the UK, but in some cases the difference is staggering. Cigarettes are over fifty times cheaper – no doubt due to far lower taxes, and natively grown tobacco. Good job I don’t smoke.

Day 13

No journal available

location:Noosa – Brisbane
summary:Met Cat & Luke, David’s friends, Theatre Sports
trip:australia00
day:13