After a nice buffet breakfast, we headed inland towards Sani Pass. Monkeys seem to be on the road in the mornings. A nice group greeted us as we got going. A quick reminder that we are not in Texas anymore.
Great ride along vast and green rolling hills dotted with villages and farms everywhere. Great undulating road up and down the hills with perfect pavement. It is interesting that there seems to be a universal set of codes in most roads around the world – move to the shoulder of the road to let the vehicle behind pass, flash blinkers to say thank you, flash headlights to let you know there is police ahead. The world is getting smaller by the minute.
A lot of the villages we saw, had their houses built over a hill, all in a neat grid, nicely spaced, and all facing the same side of the mountain toward the sun ... with no discernible center of town or plaza or park ... just a grid of houses. We stopped for a cappuccino at McDonalds in Mthatha and for pizza for lunch in Kokstad. Again, everybody is so nice.
As we made our way into the inside plains, we started climbing. At some point, we reached 6,200 ft above sea level. There were two clear ecosystems … the rolling hills between 0-3500 ft and the higher and more sparsely populated 4,000-6,000ft mountains. At this higher level, we saw a lot of small lakes, colder temperatures, more agriculture (wheat, corn, etc.), the same beautiful rolling hills, and almost no villages.
We stopped in Himeville for the night … we head up to Sani Pass tomorrow … Sani Pass is a mountain pass located on the border between South Africa and Lesotho at 10,000ft. high ... the steep dirt road to get there is apparently full of tight switch backs with amazing views.
Mthatha - one of the many towns in the plains
A village on the hills
Our hostesses at McDonalds
Where are the trees?
A universal thing - boys and motorcycles : )
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