Friday 27th October 2017
Cathedral Peak to Phinda Game Reserve
Up at 5am for an early breakfast then on the road for 207 kms to get to Rorke's Drift where we are manning the Passage Control. Up in the mountains it was foggy and drizzling rain when we left. By 6.30am school children were walking along the roads to school.
We didn't take too much notice of the fuel in the tank, thinking that if Rorke's Drift had a Museum, it would have fuel and we were anxious to take up our official position!
As we were early we had a quick look around the small Museum commemorating this battle and surprised to see eleven Victoria Crosses were awarded.
Our Control was in the coffee shop which was nice & warm. Soon the cars started coming in and we recorded their arrival and stamped their time cards with an official elephant stamp.
It was obvious by now that there was no fuel in this village and the GPS indicated that the nearest was 21 kms away. We had 26 kms left in the tank! Placing our trust in the GPS she took us through rutted tracks in paddocks and over gullies and we began to wonder whether we should we turn back & hope that the sweep car was still at Rorke's Drift, or keep going. We decided to keep going.
Whilst we should have been heading east we had to go west for the nearest fuel at Nqutu. It was pretty tense as if we ran out of fuel here, nobody would know where we were and it was fairly isolated. We got to the main road, the R68, and arrived at the petrol station with 6 kms in the tank.
We eventually caught up with other rally cars and came to the busy town of Nongoma. It was market day and there were people, stalls, cars and trucks everywhere. It probably took us 30 minutes to get through the congested main route through town.
Nongoma
Men's Hair Stylist
Roasted corn for sale
About 30 kms out of town we turned onto Route 22 and had 42 kms of red dirt and gravel roads. It was raining and cars were covered in the red sticky mud.
We arrived at the Phinda Game Reserve and were allotted different lodges as none were big enough for our group. We were in Mountain Lodge which was luxurious. Same rules applied to walking about after sunset.
Not long after we arrived we had a 3 hour game drive.
Mr M, our tracker
Cathedral Peak to Phinda Game Reserve
Up at 5am for an early breakfast then on the road for 207 kms to get to Rorke's Drift where we are manning the Passage Control. Up in the mountains it was foggy and drizzling rain when we left. By 6.30am school children were walking along the roads to school.
We didn't take too much notice of the fuel in the tank, thinking that if Rorke's Drift had a Museum, it would have fuel and we were anxious to take up our official position!
As we were early we had a quick look around the small Museum commemorating this battle and surprised to see eleven Victoria Crosses were awarded.
Our Control was in the coffee shop which was nice & warm. Soon the cars started coming in and we recorded their arrival and stamped their time cards with an official elephant stamp.
It was obvious by now that there was no fuel in this village and the GPS indicated that the nearest was 21 kms away. We had 26 kms left in the tank! Placing our trust in the GPS she took us through rutted tracks in paddocks and over gullies and we began to wonder whether we should we turn back & hope that the sweep car was still at Rorke's Drift, or keep going. We decided to keep going.
Whilst we should have been heading east we had to go west for the nearest fuel at Nqutu. It was pretty tense as if we ran out of fuel here, nobody would know where we were and it was fairly isolated. We got to the main road, the R68, and arrived at the petrol station with 6 kms in the tank.
We eventually caught up with other rally cars and came to the busy town of Nongoma. It was market day and there were people, stalls, cars and trucks everywhere. It probably took us 30 minutes to get through the congested main route through town.
About 30 kms out of town we turned onto Route 22 and had 42 kms of red dirt and gravel roads. It was raining and cars were covered in the red sticky mud.
We arrived at the Phinda Game Reserve and were allotted different lodges as none were big enough for our group. We were in Mountain Lodge which was luxurious. Same rules applied to walking about after sunset.
Not long after we arrived we had a 3 hour game drive.
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