This morning it was still drizzling on and off slightly when we woke up. Alison had cooked breakfast, French toast, by the time I got down from the tent. As I was enjoying the breakfast she pestered me to put the tent down which irritated me a little and I told her so. But immediately after finishing my coffee I got the awning down with a little help from her. As the awning was wet I didn’t want to fold but rolled it with the poles in place.

I didn’t have a shower this morning as I was still feeling a little irritated as we left after saying goodbye to Izette. We had a long drive to do but the rain was holding us back with visibility down to 50 meters at times due to low clouds. We continued on the R61 to Mthatha, Nelson Mandela country where it has a museum with Mandelas’ story in his own words but unfortunately closed on Sundays. If I am not mistaken he is back at his village where he was born Qiba, about 100kms from Mthatha..

We then proceeded on the N2 towards Port Elizabeth and on passing King Williams Town missed the turning to Port Elizabeth only realizing after 15 kms up the R346, so significant was the signage to N2. We had to turn back and slowly find the turning to the N2. At Mthatha Alison had bought us some pies for lunch and mine was mutton curry. As we didn’t bother to stop, I had my lunch while driving and I must say I really enjoyed that mutton Curry pie.

All along Alison had mentioned to take the R355 to Addo for the campsite but suddenly when she saw a turn off to Paterson she said tat we could also go down that route. I turned Tuah into the R342 a gravel road. When I was told that it was 30 kms or so to Paterson I turned Tuah round as I didn’t fancy driving on that kind of road in the dark.

We found the R355 without any problem but the distance to the campsite was. All the while I thought it was just a short distance off the main road but when Alison called up the landlady told her that it was 32 kms in. I was pretty annoyed that we had to drive all that distance out of the way but held on to my cool.

We eventually got to the Homestead lodge and after checking in Alison cooked us Maggi Mee in silence for fear that one of us may say the wrong thing and upset the other. As we finished our dinner without any heated exchange of words, thank God, we started to plan for tomorrow when I have to cut Adrian’s hair and Alison to sort his toys out before proceeding to Plettenberg Bay.