I wake up with Pebbles and give her a little cuddle. The morning starts and I’m on a slight mission to get going early. I have a nice chat with Leonard and Luke and wish them well, cash and up hit the road.
I head for Pietermaritsberg. It’s hot and I turn on the air conditioning for the first time this road trip. The mountains loom to my left and are slowly replaced by the endless hills of KZN. I pull into an enormous shopping mall and eat an amazing curry, two rottis and four samoosas for R29 at Kara Nichas. I read the afterword of Red Dog and am once again blown away.
Dischem is next and it’s an adventure finding the nicotine chewing gum. I buy both the 4mg and 2mg strengths to try them both out. When I leave I try the stronger one and it’s hectic! But I do think that this is the right way for me to go with fighting the nicotine addiction and stopping the beautiful smoking habit that I have.
I go to the iStore to replace my broken AirPods. Then I get the hell out of there. I test our the new earphones in the car and am so surprised at how good the audio quality and noise cancellation is. I treat myself to an ice cream and coffee before hitting the N3.
I listen to some more Alan Watts. I look at trucks and the drive passes quickly. Rather than having a cigarette I chew a gum and it seems to do the trick. Before I know it I’m at the Amphitheater Backpackers.
I check in and then promptly leave to go for a run at the Mahai campsite which just down the road. Before I pull in I download two routes that I might be able to do. It’s a bit of a mad dash to get ready and pack my delightfully small and light running pack. I have to be out the park in just under two hours.
I run off down the path and notice that there is a whole event getting set up - there seems to be a running race tomorrow. I do a proper warm up and a bakkie stops, the guy comments on my form as I’m doing some glute exercises and I thank him with a laugh.
I run. I run as fast as I can and then walk when I can’t run anymore. It seems to be working well for my body and I don’t feel any ITB pains. The hill is relentless and I’m not going to be able to complete the loop that I set out to do. I go find a nice high spot and sit out and look at the view for a bit and then run home.
As I arrive back Kassie calls me. I sit on the swing bench by my campsite and we have a lovely catchup. She tells me about her knew job that is going to relocate her to Zanzibar - it’s a beautiful opportunity and I’m so proud of her. I setup the car for sleeping, order a burger and have a shower.
When I come back for my burger I get stuck into a conversation with Heindrik at the bar. Born in Bloem but has lived all around the world. He has an international accent backed by Afrikaans and flavoured by Dubai. He’s living there now and I can see that his mind has been quite shaped by it. The veggie burger is incredible.
I go outside to write the last two days of travel journals. I flow through it and listen to nice music with absolutely no background noises. Smoking a cigarette is abrasive - a victory!