Still feeling the waning effects of my accidental little holiday from reality, I found myself on the road to Aliwal North in the morning. Five am I got moving. 
Didn't like to talk to people during the summer of 2009. Not always anyway. But the road became more forgiving as I rolled down off the Lesotho border country, the Eastern Free State on the South African side.
Now in 2009 I rode through the Malutis, past Ladygrey and then stopping in Barkley East. There is still a little municipal campsite there, and the morning ride down the Barkley pass to Elliot was spectacular. That road led me through mountains like huge monster's teeth to a job with a farmer to maintain water wells in the Southern Maluti villages and rural areas. Fun.
Wound up driving along mountain tops with my friend Vrik's prize winning stuffed trout on my lap while another friend clung to the back of the bakkie trying to prevent Vrik's daughter's hair dressing salon equipment from falling off and bouncing down the apparently infinite mountainside. I could only imagine what the inquest would conclude from the peculiar evidence they would find in the event of a crash, but Vrik's grip on the wheel was sure and he had in any event been exploring these mountains since his childhood. You felt safe with Vrik, even though one of the first things he would tell you about himself was that he had part of his brain removed. Kind old guy. In his way. Not so kind to the workers on his farm, but they were stereotypically unswervingly loyal to him. I have never understood South Africa. I never will. Probably why I tend to seek solitude. That ride to Ugie, and then down to Coffee bay in 2009, that ride I try so hard to remember every detail of because of how amazing it was to finally be free. That ride changed me. 2013 was great, Look, here's a bathtub on top of a mountain in Hogsback. It's a featue of the accomodation at Away With the Faeries.
One of the truly breathtaking rides of my lifehappened back in 2009, but ja, no photos, so snap back to 2013 when I rode on through dull, hot Aliwal North to pass through Jamestown. In April I stopped only a moment before pressing on to Queenstown, but in December, not long before Christmas, I asked for a spot of help in the town and was given it. Directed by a shopkeeper to the 'agri co-op' (farmer's supply store) and then to a man named Nico.
Nico, ja. That's him.
The man had inherited a small house here in Jamestown and was determined to make the best of it. I didn't ask his story, but I was glad of the bedroom he could offer me and he even declined my plea to pay him R150 for the night. Now I think of this, I have stayed over there in Jamestown another time, in the back of a guest house in a disused portion of the building I was allowed to sleep there for a hundred bucks once. Jamestown is unremarkable but beautiful enough, especially setting out at dawn
In 2013 I was fit as I could get, eating well and by december had quit smoking. I would eat a head of broccoli just like that, as it comes, washed. In April of 2013 I struggled with the next piece of road, the N6 down to East London, but a non smoking version of myself managed to miss the Stutterheim pass in December of that year and ride up to Hogsback. I LOVE mountain towns and Hogsback has haunted me since my childhood.
Before Hogsback though, I must tell you about Queenstown and the best innkeeper I have ever known. Uwis Olivier. A startlingly eccentric, handsome fellow in brightly coloured clothes who is perfectly positioned in Queenstown to give a traveller some rest. Although, as he himself acknowledges, at least half the business of any guest house is marital indiscretion. But that's not our business. That's hospitality.
I'll indulge myself with a photo of just one of the marvellous things Mr Olivier has done to make his place interesting. .JPG)
Ag whatever. I'll show you the whole place. SOuth Africans make a sound like 'ugh' instead of saying 'ah'. DO you do that? It's a bit gross but its how most of us talk. Sort of troll language a bit. Some of the people I met in the mountains were pretty much trolls you know. Really. Anyway I digress, it's just that there was this one fellow who could show you where he had cut off his own damaged thumb with a pair of snippers while the doctor tried to get to work with a little tiny saw... Really, that was back in 2009 when I met Frik Vorster in Ugie. He was a class act and gave me a month's work while I cycled all over the Maclear, Matatiele and Ugie end of the Maluti mountains. But ja, Queenstown, here are the pics, it's a great place and I know I can always count on my friend Uwis for a room and a breakfast and a grin like a lighthouse.
I have to say, so that all the interwebs can know, that the back road to Hogsback from Queenstown via Whittlesea is just brilliant. It was definitely one of the better days on the road despite ascending most of the day. Hogsback perches right on top of the escarpment and looks down on the far coastal lands below. and the people in the villages were friendly, helpful andinteresting to talk to about history adn life and coca cola. I love the Eastern Cape provice of South Africa. The air takes on a new feeling as you come downout of the mountains. Beautiful.
Tried to capture the light patches endlessly shifting across the landscape. These trips created so much source material for my landscape painting I could never possibly finish.
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Wowed...
Yours are really grand too. I was impressed.