Aaah I feel so bad. You know how much I love my tent, but as with most relationships, if you spend too much time together under stressful circumstances, something is bound to break. My tent broke. And when it did, a little bit of me broke too. I was devastated! I can’t live without her. She’s a dome but we are A-frame for the next four weeks. I won’t say that this will help with all relationship problems, but I used a bit of silver tape TLC, which seems to have helped. All is forgiven. I’ve resolved to be more gentle going forward and, even if I’m being asked to fold her from the top to the base and then let go of one piece, grab another and move one piece under the other while the other two do their own thing, and then make it all into a circle that fits into a small bag, I promise to be patient and understanding.
I stopped for breakfast at a restaurant called Sophie’s Choice. I couldn’t drive past because Sophies Choice is one of my favourite movies. I cry every time I watch the movie when Sophie has to choose which child to sacrifice. They served my omelette in the shape of a heart which I really needed, given my tent heartbreak.
This was a day of being totally lost. Totally! All of my devices were off-line and I couldn’t find a map anywhere. I asked at many, many small villages but absolutely no maps to be found. At one point in the day I thought “I know I’m in South Africa, that’s all I know.” Even the road signs were blank. I’m not even kidding. They were so old that the paint had faded to nothing. I started making up signs and distances to fictitious towns to make myself feel better. Eventually I decided I didn’t care where I was. I would stop and camp wherever I was at 4pm and start fresh the next day. I was so lost, so off the beaten track that I had to stop my car for a meercat that was eating lunch in the middle of the road. Cute. No chance of being roadkill because I was probably the first car it had ever seen and ever would see. Again the scenery was beautiful. Wide open space as far as the eye could see.
And this is the weirdness of my trip. I’d set off for the Addo Elephant National Park in the morning, been lost ALL day and at 4pm I found myself at the Addo Elephant National Park. I don’t know how. My car obviously knows more about direction than I do. There was a sunset game drive at 16:30 and you won’t believe it, but I managed to secure my campsite, pitch my tent (the joys of a pop-up), grab beers and make it to the game drive pickup spot in time. Motivation! We saw ellies and a beautiful sunset and life was perfect again. Until my campsite neighbour started snoring… but that’s another story.
