East London to Himeville

Friday the 7th November was a day of cultural diversity and changing landscapes. We knew it was going to be a long coach day as we had 550 kms of travel ahead of us but the changing landscape helped it fly by fairly quickly. At this point I will relate to the pictures which were mostly taken out of the bus window and are of poor quality.

Once you leave the industrialized city of East London and head north on the N2 farming tends to be more subsistence with small herds of sheep, goats and cattle being the norm. Each of them had a minder and quite often they were on the verges of the main highway precariously dodging the passing traffic. Vast areas of land alongside the highway are dotted with shanty huts of better quality than what we saw in the intensive settlements closer to Cape Town. This type of settlement literally went on for hundreds of kilometres with the odd chaotic town thrown in along the way. Most of the settlers don't have a car so you simply wait alongside the road until a taxi comes and hail it as this woman is doing in the 1st photo. The school boys in the next photo were walking as we crawled through a town and then hitched a ride. They enjoyed overtaking us in the ute.

All school children wear uniforms and they always look immaculate as the next photos indicate. Many of the children were matriculating and when they saw me with the camera in the bus loved to pose or wave. My photos of the towns don't do justice to the chaos or the variety of street vendors and market stalls. Litter is a major problem in the towns and pretty much along most of the route we took yesterday, at least until we reached the town of Kokstad. The main culprit is plastic bags and they are a real blight on the landscape.

Another massive problem is soil erosion through poor cultivation techniques. The dispersed settlement of poor subsistence farmers means there is no local money to improve the situation. There is some light for the poor with government housing units being built. The orange colored huts in the accompanying photo gives you some idea of the orderly nature of these with electricity and sanitation provided. Each must have a minimum area of 35 square metres. Many of the poor houses have a round or hexagonal barn, often with a thatched roof. These are reminiscent of yurts but it would appear that it is a style here but no one knows why. Many houses also have a kraal to lock up the small subsistence herd at night and these can be made of traditional sticks or timber. I would imagine there is more worry of rustling than rogue lions in these areas.

Leaving Kokstad, the subsistence life gives way to lush pastures for dairy farming and many of the farmers have modern irrigation infrastructure to keep the fields in high yield. Each farmer supported a small stand of intensive housing for the farm workers but the contrast to earlier in the day was huge. As we approached Himeville in the southern end of the Drakensberg Mountains the mist rolled in and you could believe you were in Bowral or Blackheath. The air was crisp and cool and rather refreshing after a day traveling and many of the houses quite upmarket. The hotel has a golf course attached to it and all rooms have spectacular views as the 2 last photos show. The 4 wheel drive adventure up Sani Pass awaits tomorrow.