Sunshine in the Garden Route

Our first fortnight on the road was spent meandering between the mountains and the coast between Cape Town and Stormsriver. We were lucky enough start our freelancing lifestyle at the get go and in the pursuit of more work we met a whole host of interesting people, many in their second or fourth life.

After an incredibly windy first night in Fishoek and breakfast with old friends we hit the road and spent the next couple of nights in the serene Brontebok National Park, which is simply beautiful. We organised Bruce, and headed to George for what turned into a series of meetings with a local solar company. The owner of which donated two solar home systems for us to install in a village with only one criterion - the recipient had to be a single mother*. With a lot more reasons to stay in George than originally anticipated we meandered along the Garden Route for a fortnight.

Inspired by the documentary, North of the Sun**, we bought a fishing rod to try to sustain ourselves with protein from the sea and not rely on buying food.

On Easter Sunday two things occurred (perhaps simultaneously): our anniversary and a flood that prompted an emergency evacuation of our campsite! Asleep in a rooftop tent we were the last to cotton on the rising water level but luckily our neighbour woke us up and we managed make our way out by 2:30am with only one shoe (mine) and one thong/flipflop (Andrew’s) given as tributes to the river. If anyone has a club left foot, we have an interesting shoe-ing solution for you.

Sole survivors of the Anniversary flood

Squatting with a view

To conclude our first adventure we ended up camping in a car park with a fantastic view of the ocean. The only daunting thing was the risk of being filmed on CCTV if we needed to use a bush toilet as we were in a pretty upmarket, and floodlit, neighbourhood. With everything wet we decided to chase the sun in higher ground and invested in a warm - and most importantly dry - bed in Outshorn. It was an unexpected blip of luxury on our anniversary and I didn’t regret it one bit. The only downside of the flood was we couldn’t meet friends on holiday as originally planned.

Amazing ensuite camping in Victoriabaai - we stayed here while we attended the battery demonstration

At the end of our time in the Garden Route we attended a battery commissioning workshop which was really a convention of second and fourth lives. We met an ex-reverend, who had left the church to paint houses so his children could go to University. There was an engineer/songwriter/Christian tv show producer and an ex auto parts trader. I met an ex-Major from Botswana who had always been interested in electrical engineering. His parents wanted him to work in something related to their business so he became an accountant and joined the military. It was only after they died he finally took up a vocation he wanted.

We had all gathered to witness the commissioning of flow batteries but what was most interesting for me was hearing everyone’s stories. An Afrikaans friend told me South Africa is a story country, and the story exchanges have been part of the highlights of the trip so far. To top it all off we were invited to stay at the house of one of the founders of the solar company and we were treated to a lovely supper.

During our Garden Route meander the prospect of new, permanent jobs was offered. We thought over it for a few days and decided we just too drawn to the nomadic way and perhaps another way of life that is currently unknown.

So we turned down the temptation of new jobs and instead left with plans to return. It was only fitting that our last day on the Garden Route was spent in a physical metaphor.

Bungee jumping off the Bloukrans Bridge

*We will post more on this and the company when we install the systems!

** North of the Sun is an entertaining documentary where two Norwegian guys spend a year living freely on a deserted beach. They lived freely, outside of society and also economically for free. They built a hut out of debris on a deserted beach in the North Sea. They spent their time surfing, fishing, cleaning up the beach, and snow boarding and paragliding when they can. They try to eat only free food which is Norway translates as food past their expiry date. Free food from supermarkets or skips isn’t going to be particularly easy to come but we’re fishing.