East London
Clear skies! Finally! We hit the road early and halfway through the morning, pulled over to see how Andrew would do behind the wheel. Aside from a few start then stall then start again moments, he did great!
I thought the houses along the way were so beautiful, dotting the landscape of green and brown with bright punches of color. We rolled into Knysna towards dusk and were given directions to Mitchell’s Brewery for a beer tasting before we called it a night.
Our gracious host suggested we stay another day because of the weather. We weren’t planning to, but then I woke up exhausted. That kind of exhaustion that courses through both your arms, your legs, your head, your everything. It was raining again, so I knew it would just be me driving again, and I knew I wasn’t up for it. We decided to stay another day. Also, Andrew needed to practice driving.
We headed to the mall (in the rain) to get a wire to hook up an ipod to the car stereo, eat lunch, and practice driving. Andrew very rarely gets frustrated, so when he does, I find it very entertaining. It also puts me in check on how entertaining it must be for him when I get frustrated. He kept demanding when he was supposed to change gears. I didn’t know the answer other than…
“I don’t know, you just feel it… Don’t you feel that?” I asked as the gear strained needing to change.
“No!” He responded frustrated.
“Shift!” I demanded. He grumbled. I laughed. He didn’t. But he got a little more comfortable and I told him he just needed more practice, which hopefully if the rain let up, he would get en route to Cape Town.
Road-trip 2013! Andrew and I picked up our car early in the morning and headed down through the Transkei to East London where we planned to stay one night with yet another couchsurfer host to help break up our drive down to Cape Town.
We knew it would be a bit more expensive, but we were in desperate need of some freedom. Driving again (I haven’t had a car since… college?) was a little challenging. Not only has it been at least 5 years since I’ve driven a car, but shifting gears with my left hand and driving on the left side of the road, in pouring rain were not factors we considered.
Furthermore, one of the tires was low. Andrew pointed this out to the rental company right away. They assured us it was just because it had been sitting in the parking lot for awhile, and had it pumped up for us “to make us feel better.”
Driving through the Transkei was everything our South African friends warned us about. There were cows and goats wandering across the road whenever they wanted. I’m still a bit skeptical why there were absolutely no fences for these herds. If I had a herd of cattle, I would think fencing them in would eliminate accidental deaths of cows crossing the road on a highway where the majority of the people driving through are INSANE.
At one point, a woman wandered in the middle of the road- without looking and I had to swerve around her. It was raining. There was fog. Animals. People. Construction. It was a FEAT getting into East London that night. Andrew is not as experienced driving a standard (shift) car. I was nervous enough adapting to driving on the other side of the road, shifting with my left hand, in the rain, we both figured it was probably a safer bet for him to continue navigating and me continue driving.
Meanwhile, our tire kept losing air. Every time we stopped for gas, we had our tire pumped up.
We were late getting into East London. It was still pouring when we pulled up to our couchsurfer host’s house. Not house, more like mansion. We discovered we were actually staying in their bed and breakfast that was attached to their house. A beautiful room with a loft all to ourselves. We were drenched. I was exhausted. Our host, an older woman in her early sixties I’m guessing- but a youthful sixties- offered us some soup. I immediately accepted and we sat around her kitchen talking about our travels, warming up over homemade soup with fresh bread and butter.
Her and her husband had traveled up through Africa and ended up couchsurfing. They had a really positive experience doing so, and had since decided to attempt to give back to the community. I was so grateful. I am still so grateful. I can’t even imagine getting the same kind of reception if we had showed up to a generic hostel or hotel in town. Can you?
