Kotzerus to Strandfontein - 127km

Day 18: 13th September 2014

                 West Coast tortoise

After some final directions from our host I am on my to the land of nowhere. Well, I have a vague idea as I am aiming for Koekenaap.I am hopeful that a tarred road will appear. A railway crossing is the first sign of life. Finally I hit tar and Namaqua Sands Mining generously offers me their asphalt.I suppose I have to be grateful for what they do for us cycling types!

End of Day

Small towns and their inhabitants in these outlying areas have their own psychology. When asking for directions things never stretch further than say 30-40km. Also responses are not given in mileage but rather visual descriptions of things like passing a water tower or some obscure hill or something totally baffling. So you humour the dude and start agreeing to not seem too disinterested, but you say to yourself, hier kom k….k . I think its their way of keeping sane and to deal with their localised environment, they say to themselves, don't go large or you may just question what you are doing in this small dorp! 
Well any route we follow out today still comes back to the same point. In fact this happens to us and we just smile at each other like two moegoes who have been taken for a ride. Even the GPS yearns for some direction in its now short lived life. Yep, this is the forgotten part of South Africa, even Pofadder, Pella or Keimoes gets more hits on the popularity ratings. If I ever want to hide from the tax man or Gerrie Nel, this would be my place of choice. We end up in Strandfontein much further than expected along with fish and chips and a pooped Eugene.
I don't know how he does it and I suppose I never will!