28 January 2019, Vredefort to Viljoenskroon, 55km
ModukZ Guest House R300

Exhaustion makes your mind dull. So tired were we on this long day, that I forgot entirely to protect myself from the sun, arriving in Viljoenskroon with a burnt head. Charl says I look like one of those red lollipops children suck. In my defence, it was partly cloudy, with a nice cool breeze on our backs…
Everything hurts. My nether region, of course; my neck and shoulders and hands; my lower back. My sciatic feels as though it is pulling my toes inside out. Ouch.
We had some long climbs, though gentle, especially climbing out of the Vredefort Dome* and its ring of hills.
We were pretty shattered by the time we arrived at ModukZ, owned and run by Nelly Moduka. Nelly taught severely disabled children for 35 years and was the first black person to buy property in Viljoenskroon, which she did in 1991 when Eugene Terreblanche was “active” here (Nelly made horse riding motions while telling this story and talked of her dad’s concern for her safety).
We showered cool and slept long before braving the afternoon heat on foot, Charl’s problematic front wheel in tow. We were given a lift by a young man in a golf cart, physically disabled from a terrible car accident but cheerful and independent. And sent from AutoWare where he dropped us to a shop selling everything, including ball bearings, but unfortunately the wrong size. Between Charl and the young woman who assisted him there, they gerrymandered Charl’s wheel…
We shopped at the Spar and had an early supper at Al Rehman. The owner, a black woman with a Pakistani husband, told us the restaurant was busy only five days out of 30 and said she was very concerned about government’s minimum wage of R20 per hour. She has four employees. The new wage requirement amounts to R80 per hour. “And I still have to pay rent; and what about my needs?” she asked.

*Wikipedia: "The Vredefort crater is the largest verified impact crater on Earth, more than 300 kilometres (190 mi) across when it was formed.[1][2] What remains of it is located in the present-day Free State province of South Africa and named after the town of Vredefort, which is situated near its centre. Although the crater itself has long since eroded away, the remaining geological structures at its centre are known as the Vredefort Dome or Vredefort impact structure. The crater is estimated to be 2.023 billion years old (± 4 million years), with impact being in the Paleoproterozoic Era. It is the second-oldest-known crater on Earth. In 2005, the Vredefort Dome was added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage sites for its geologic interest."

For today's route see below photos
For overview route, click on ROUTE tab above...