30 January 2019, Bothaville
Elgro Hotel R350

On the fourth day, we rested. Charl walked to the nearby OK Bazaars to stock up on “padkos” (road food) and cold water, but otherwise we remained room-bound in our aircon family room, only popping down to the Spur one floor below for a shared double pepper burger at dinner time. A sign outside the Spur reads: “Disabled Parking. Stupidity is not a Disability.” And one on the lift in the hotel: “Due to consistently changing LOAD SHEDDING schedules, and LOAD SHEDDING without prior warning by Eskom, you might get stuck in the elevator till the power has been restored. Use at own risk.”
“Africa” is closer than you think. Just a couple of hours outside Johannesburg, you find yourself disconnected, in a world where wifi is not the norm in accommodation options, and where, if it is available, it is painfully slow. Sad to see entire communities essentially missing out on the fourth industrial revolution. Today it took literally HOURS to upload one daily blog and several related photos, something that elsewhere may have taken ten minutes.
In between, we slept and ate and worried about tomorrow’s long ride.

For overview route, click on ROUTE tab above...