Cycle Touring In South Africa: One Week Of Rain

I was already in a bad mood because of the news I received from back home about the people renting my condo bailing on me at the last moment. I had been in a bad mood about this for about a week now. So when the weather turned sour and I had to continue cycling east, I wasn’t in the best of spirits. However, it was just a short 2-day bike ride from Burgersdorp to Lady Grey, South Africa – my next destination. So I sucked it up and cycled east.

In the city of Aliwal North I stopped to get some bananas and water at a corner market and gave a few bananas to the young boy who “watched my bicycle” while I was inside the shop. I normally don’t give anything to these people, but because there was no one else around, I gave the boy some of my food. He seemed happy with that… and so was I.

Then I spent the night camping about 10 kilometers east of the city, behind a barbed wire fence, in a cow pasture near a large country estate. It rained all night, it was extremely cold, and even though I was only on the road for two days between Burgersdorp and Lady Grey, it felt like an entire week.