Today was switch day - Linda going home and Bill coming in. With this in mnind, we decided to skip breakfast and head out at 7 am, as there was a lot of driving planned - about 120 miles more than the rest of the group to meet up with Antony.
The day was dull, grey and cold. The cloud base was very low, and the mist was thick. As Swaziland is such a mountainous country, we soon began climbing - up an up and by 300 feet we were in the thick o fit. Visibility was dropping rapidly and at 4000 frrt I could only see as far as the flying Lady on the front of the bonnet! Very slow driving - about 10 mpg, and even worse on the downhill. A contant fear of not being seen by a much faster moving vehicle coming up from behind. Two such passes and we had really slowed down. The, we were pulled over by a carload of cops - what could it possibly be? Well, they pulled me over because they just wanted to look at the car! Only in Swaziland.
Finally, the border post - we crossed both sides and called Antony. We were running very late - we still had to get to Piet Retief and then Ermelo. Antony, on the other hand was running early - so he drove all the way to Piet Retief and arrived very shortly after us - that saved me the extra 120 miles! Bill now joined the group, but we had to say goodbye to Linda. It's fair to say she had become fast friends with many of the participants and they were sorry to see her go, as was I.
So, now not far behind the main group we set off for the last 150 miles of the day. It went quite quickly, and we arrivd at the hotel in time for a light lunch. We then set off for the local museum, where Bill Kennedy did hios panoramic shot of all the cars - a great sight! A shrt tour of the museum - mining and the Anglo Boer War, and then back to the hotel.
Just before dinner we had a demonstration of a local reneactment group - they showed us weapons from those wars. Interesting.
Tomorrow a pleasant drive to the Drakensburg
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