A whole new world ....

We started our road trip today - a bit of a late start, but by 10 we were on the road. Nothing new as far as Underberg - we do that thrip quite often, although it is a long time since we drove that way in Autumn, with the beautiful colours of the Liquid Amber trees.

But from there on, it was quite uncharted territory for me. I've been to Swartberg once, but whenever I've been to Kokstad, it's been through Umzimkulu, so that part of the road was quite new for me. But once we got to Swartberg, it was new all the way. On the Underberg side of the trip, it was misty and overcast, but after Swartberg, the sun came out, the clouds lifted and we could see the mountains on our left. A poorly maintained dirt road to Matatiele - a challenge to drive on, I think, although Pete made little of it, and then a really good tar road through Mount Fletcher and to Maclear.

The scenery is very rugged - lots of steep roads, and deeply incised rivers. And rocks - everywhere you look, the veld is full of rocks. Not much farming can take place, and there is very little to be seen in the way of "civilisation." Until we got to Mount Fletcher. We knew when we were getting close when we saw hundreds of school children moving along the road in bioth directions - coming from one school or another, on their way home. A few houses, a garage, and then we hit the metropolis. We were behind a big, slow lorry on the steep uphill of the main road, and so we had a good view of the street. Many "Cash and Carry" types stores, and big furniture chains. Lots of little stores - especially cell phone stores and take-aways. But the best was the accommodation. The Hotel - known as Castle Rock Hotel. It must have been a typical country hotel at one time, but now! Some of the windows were broken and closed with cardboard, and it looked decidedly seedy. I wonder who stays there? But the best was Sun City D, B and B. Scary stuff! We wished we'd had the camera and been able to take a photo to send to Nic to say this was out first choice of accommodation, but we'd driven on - shades of Addington in Christchurch!

Where do all the people in a town like that come from? Where are they going? Where are the houses for the furniture bought at Ellerines to be put in? It's a mystery to me.

On to Maclear, our lovely B and B and a long walk thi evening. Tomorrow we will keep the camera close at hand so we have some pictures to post. The R56 trip is underway!