South Africa, my last country! I almost made it! I am only 700 km away from Cape Town, at the bottom of the continent. But let’s not celebrate yet, since plenty of things can happen. Not about the roads, since South African road infrastructure is among the best of Africa (probably behind Namibia, which is for example doing better than Iceland and much better than Mongolia for similar population density)(not having ice and subzero temperatures must help too), but about the people, since the country has lots of crime. I remember, when living in Johannesburg three years ago, being warned about carjacking: “keep your windows closed, always lock yourself in the vehicle, do not put your laptop/bags on the passenger seat, do not get out of your car out of a guarded parking or petrol station, and eventually, at night, you don’t have to stop at red lights if you see people nearby“. It was a bit exaggerated, but crime does happen.

So, how am I supposed to cope with that on a bicycle? How do I keep my windows closed? The fact is that someone sent to a new country for work or business will have to be “ready to operate” asap, and for this to happen, will effortlessly receive a package of safety guidelines, prejudices, colleagues, and characterless outing options. On the other hand, the traveler will have to figure it out on his/her own, will be more free to experiment, and will as a result gather more of a unique experience. Therefore, today I’m excited at re-discovering South Africa with a brand new eye.

Nevertheless, I still wouldn’t go roaming alone around Jo’Burg’s suburbs and townships on a relatively expensive bicycle loaded with all my belongings, and I doubt anyone sane who would try it. A parameter actually much more relevant than a “brand new eye” is that I will not go to Jo’Burg, but Northern Cape and Western Cape. These are the western provinces of South Africa, and can’t be compared with Gauteng, the province made up of Pretoria and Johannesburg. The population density in Western Cape is 45/km². Northern Cape is at 3.1/km², 300 times less than Gauteng (680/km²)! So basically, if you ignore the mining area of Kimberley and the farming region of Upington (far away to the east), there’s no more people here than in the Namib desert … . Lately, I have been asking South African tourists in Namibia about these provinces, and they all answered that safety is not even a concern: “Northern Cape è come Namibia“, they said, so it will be perfect for me. Yet, some Namibians who have been in SA for work find it dangerous, a bit like the many Beninese I met wouldn’t go to Nigeria, even if they were paid.

Namibia is one of the few countries in Africa that observe daylight saving time, and I have to adjust my clocks before entering South Africa. Actually, even before taking the first picture of the day, because it’s what it’s all about: my two cameras and phone-GPS must be synced for a proper geotagging of my photos. Each of my devices have options for time zone and DST, and it’s easy to get the settings wrong. I just hope my phone won’t change time automatically when it realizes it is passing the border. And I’ll sync my Swiss army knife later (it sounds weird, yes, but my knife is also an alarm and altimeter).

Dopo un fantastico giro lungo il fiume Orange, I am leaving Namibia with a huge goodbye sign quoting the Bible, and the immigration procedure is straightforward. It would have been, if I didn’t have a special request: I want all my stamps, since the first one from Morocco, on the same passport. I had made a new passport for this trip and it should have lasted until the end, but because South Africa requires two blank pages for a small stamp, I had to renew it in Windhoek. So I am asking the officer to stamp both my new passport (because it’s the law) and my old one (because it’s a souvenir). He looks confused, and I know my request may seem incompatible with his duties, but he finally agrees. It’s not like in Guinea or in Congo where border officials have no clue how a visa works, and let me play with stamps, but my old passport has a corner cut and I try not to look like someone forging documents.

After Namibia, I just have to cycle over a bridge that crosses the Orange river. The South African customs are right after. A bakkie and a large truck pass through it in seconds, but I am stopped for a long time. Eish, these two ladies like to talk. “So where do you come from? Was it safe? Weren’t you afraid? Did you get ebola? What do you eat? Did you carry your own food since where you come from? How many tires? And do you have cash to buy food? What about wild animals? …” I feel relieved when a car arrives behind me, but it doesn’t let me go: they tell the guy to move ahead so that they can keep chatting with me.

South Africa recently tightened its immigration policies against travelers: it’s still a 90-day visa-free entry, but the new regulations are very confusing. For sure it’s no more possible to hop from SA to Lesotho or Namibia and get a new 3-month permit. And the visa-free 3-month permit is only granted upon arrival at international airports, while land borders now have the freedom give me a 7-day or a 1-month permit if they want. Therefore, since I don’t want to take any risk of having a shorter permit (I do deserve my holidays in Cape Town), it’s safer to diligently chat with the border people. Plus, they could still ask me to unpack my whole luggage, and I hate that as much as having a puncture in the desert.

The two ladies end up giving me an orange, before letting me proceed to the immigration building. It’s quite fancy and professional, not surprisingly since South Africa is much closer (at least in appearance) to European standards than to African standards, if I have to compare with my previous experience in West/Central Africa. I am asked to show my old passport, like if they do make sure I’m not inventing that story of cycling the continent just to abuse their tourist visa. And since my old passport is now on the desk, I want my last stamp in it!

They are very reluctant to do it, but I’m even more annoyed by having in one passport all of my journey’s stamps but one. After quite some time negotiating, I finally get out with a 3-month entry in my new passport, and a small Vioolsdrift stamp in the old one: victory! My 32-page passport lasted exactly 2 years of cycling. I’m done with visas! It wasn’t that bad. Getting visas on the road has been a challenge, I remember the struggles to get the ones for Sierra Leone and Nigeria, the day spent trying to enter DRC, but that kind of visa-adventure (a 100% bribe-less one) is still more fun than boring paperwork at European Embassies. By the way, I notice a typo in my passport: the Benin official stamp reads “Republipue”.

I leave the border complex with recommendations that I shouldn’t leave my bike at the tuck shop, because of the kids who would steal anything unattended. I eventually manage to avoid another lengthy discussion with the guard at the exit booth, and I’m ready for South Africa!

Before leaving this tiny place of Vioolsdrif, I visit that tuck shop to get a local SIM card. Unfortunately they don’t sell any, and the shop owner says because of RICA (the South African SIM card registration policy, all mobile phone numbers must have an owner and an address), I won’t be able to get one until the next town with mobile operator stores, that is Springbok. I’ll be two days offline then.

The route profile above shows it clearly: my road until Steinkopf is constantly uphill. I want to make it to Steinkopf, the next town, so as to avoid camping by the national road tonight. Harsh sun + 60 km uphill + immigration in the morning = little time to idle by the road. I only take a few breaks. There is niente tanto da vedere anyway: one house in ruins (= shade) and a few dirt tracks leading to very remote farms or mining camps.

I am thinking about the safety tips for drivers in South Africa: “Do not take any hitchhiker, do not stop to help if you see an accident, it’s a trick to rob you, etc“, but I would be surprised if something happened here. There’s very little traffic on this very long and empty road, despite being the main traffic lane between Namibia and Western South Africa. The tar is brand new and there is a useful shoulder, that I am forced to use when trucks overtake me: they prefer passing as close to me as possible rather then making use of the opposite lane, despite being cleared until kilometers away.

Questa regione è chiamata Namaqualand, patria del popolo Nama, lo stesso che fu massacrato in massa dai tedeschi in Namibia. Namaqualandia in realtà si estende su entrambi i lati del fiume Orange, ed è vero che l'area in cui mi trovo ora sembra il lato orientale piatto e piuttosto noioso della regione di Karas in Namibia. Il namaqualand è molto più popolare in Sudafrica, perché è associato ai fiori: in primavera (agosto, settembre), molti sudafricani visitano questa regione per vedere colorati tappeti di fiori che occupano il paesaggio spoglio.

I have seen many ads about the Namaqualand flowers, where the land looks like a mosaic of colors, but it’s not at all what I see right now. Maybe it’s too early, or I’m at the wrong place. Yet, having some purple in the fields is already a great change.

And I make it to Steinkopf just for the night. There is a campsite at the entrance of the town, but camping is “not ready” and the self-catering options are fully booked. What? There’s nothing to see and the place is fully booked? Many South Africans adults and kids are running around. The reception tells me they come from all around the country until here to enjoy the quietness of the countryside. Nothing special, indeed … but at first it surprised me. When was the last time I’ve seen local tourists booking up a place? Certainly not recently. But I can hardly compare South Africa with West/Central Africa. South Africa was up to now the largest economy of the continent (Nigeria caught up) and uno dei pochiAfrican countries that attract tourists. Every lodge and outdoor activity of the region has a flyer at the campsite reception. Towns and ci1ties have proper supermarkets and plenty of ATMs. If evaluated only on its infrastructure and tourism facilities, it can easily be mistaken for a first world country.

I can abandon my “survival mode mindset” and worry less about mitigating all the risks linked to food / water / shelter / breakdowns. It’s funny, it’s a bit like the opposite of my impressions when I passed from Spain -> Morocco -> Mauritania -> Senegal. I was very excited on the way “into Africa”, so it feels now like I’m cycling out of it. In a way, the hardcore adventure is definitely over.

The place is indeed not suited to welcome campers, but I can still stay on their premises. The most comfortable and flat floor I find is actually in a house in construction (it’s probably the future lavatory of the pool), and I manage to set up my tent in it. Back at an altitude of 850 m, it will be a cold night. It’s been also a long time since I didn’t look at the sky carefully. Helped with my smartphone planetarium, I realize that Mars and Saturn are close to each other, next to Scorpius and Centaurus. These two constellations are big and beautiful (and Scorpius actually looks pretty much like the animal it’s called after), and only visible in the southern sky.

Fare l'acrobata per montare la mia tenda là dentro è stata una buona idea, dato che la mattina fa così vento che il telo della mia tenda sbatte violentemente. Fortunatamente, per il resto della giornata il vento verrà da nord.

La strada da Steinkopf è la stessa di prima, ma non ha più banchina. Le macchine che mi sorpassano suonano il clacson, forse perché sono nella 'loro' corsia, o forse come saluto, ma non mi piace. Penso di essere diventato dipendente dal pedalare su strade sterrate, lontano da quasi tutte le auto, e non riesco più a farne a meno.

Ci sono dei fiori. Non molti, ma a volte profumano come il tè. Mi aspettavo una versione selvatica di ciò che avevo visto in Furano e Biei, mentre cicloturismo Hokkaido in Giappone, ma sembra che mi aspettassi un po' troppo… tuttavia sono felice di vedere colori dopo tanto deserto.

O’Kiep è il primo posto che sembra veramente arancione.

At first, I didn’t plan to cycle this road. This is the N7, the main north-south national road of the province, and I thought there would be too much traffic. Until South Africans in Namibia told me that it’s very quiet (it is indeed quiet and boring), I had considered cycling along the coast. There is a parallel road in the Northern Cape, by the Atlantic ocean, passing through many small mining towns. That area is similar to the Sperrgebiet in Namibia: dry, deserted, and used mainly for mining diamonds. Since it’s impossible for visitors to enter the Sperrgebiet, I don’t know if South Africa requires a permit or something to use that road. On satellite imagery, it looks almeno intrigante: almost every single of the 150 kilometers of coastline between Alexander Bay, at the border with Namibia, and Kleinzee, south of Port Nolloth, is scarred with mining activity. It even spreads further south to Koingnaas and Hondeklip Bay.

I reach Springbok, the largest town of Namaqualand with a population just above 10’000, early afternoon. It’s Sunday, and it feels like everybody is away.

The main street is Voortrekker St, named after the first Afrikaner settlers. Since I won’t be seeing another town this “big” until close to Cape Town, I decide to stay here for the night, and get a SIM card once the stores open tomorrow.

While moving on the main street, I notice a tuck shop is open. It’s an Indian guy watching a Bollywood movie at his desk and selling ice cold Coke, leaving me refreshing in the shade of his store and observing the very little movement in the main street. And he happens to sell MTN SIM cards as well. MTN is my favorite brand, the quickest to work in West Africa, “but I’d need to register it before I can use it, right?“. The shopkeeper answers that the SIM is “pre-registered”.

Quindi, come funziona? Il Sudafrica impone la registrazione delle SIM con un documento d'identità per prevenire il crimine, e dall'altra parte, la gente le vende già registrate? Non ha senso ed è probabilmente una truffa. In passato, ho perso ore cercando di far funzionare le SIM, ma per 5 rand sono troppo curioso per lasciar perdere.

Provo comunque la SIM, e funziona davvero. Internet, eccoti! E non devo più restare in città. Mentre smanetto con i menu USSD della MTN sul marciapiede, una macchina si ferma davanti a me e una signora chiede: "Sei il ciclista che devo prendere?" Hem... no, non che io sappia... "Va bene, resta lì, torno subito“.

Pochi minuti dopo, Davida torna, seguita da un altro ciclista. È Jakkie, sui settant'anni, che percorre in bicicletta 5000 KM lungo il perimetro del Sudafrica e raccoglie fondi per l'Istituto per i Ciechi. È piuttosto impressionante, e Davida offre spontaneamente di ospitarmi. Due ciclisti al prezzo di uno.

E non è finita: a Jakkie si uniscono altri due ciclisti da Pretoria appena arrivati oggi, quindi siamo effettivamente in sei, tra cui quattro ciclisti. Perfetto per un delizioso braai! La Namibia è stata deliziosa per la carne, così come il Sudafrica è meglio goduto dai non vegetariani. A quanto pare è più economico e gustoso in Namibia (secondo i miei calcoli, attualmente, sul suolo namibiano, ci sono 35 kg di carne di orice che crescono allo stato selvatico per abitante), ma la popolazione del Sudafrica essendo di 53 milioni, se le persone sulla mia strada sono ospitali come Davida, ho 25 volte più probabilità di fare un braai!

Suo marito era nell'SADF, l'esercito sudafricano, che è stato piuttosto attivo durante gli anni non così gloriosi della storia del paese. Mi sono interessato a un poster in casa:

Il punto che indica Norton de Matos sulla mappa è in realtà Balombo (mappa di guerra), vicino a Benguela. Balombo? C'è stato sei mesi fa. Sono stato ospitato alla missione cattolica e portato alle sorgenti termali di Kotakota, che sono dominate da una grande villa in rovina, su una collina.

Non abbiamo parlato della guerra angolana a quel tempo, ma ho incontrato angolani che mi raccontavano storie di proiettili, mine terrestri e aerei che facevano cadere bombe sulle loro teste. A Balombo, non avrei immaginato che 2400 km più a sud, sarei stato ospite di qualcuno che ha partecipato a questa guerra, ma nell'altro campo. Il Sudafrica offrì supporto militare all'UNITA, che ricevette anche supporto finanziario dagli USA, dalla Francia e dalla Cina. Alla fine furono sconfitti dall'MPLA, dell'attuale presidente Dos Santos, sostenuto da Cuba e dall'Unione Sovietica.

Quarant'anni dopo (e 12 dopo la fine della guerra), la ferita è ancora fresca, i carri armati abbandonati ancora lungo la strada e le cicatrici dei proiettili su alcune case. Sono stato accusato di essere dell'UNITA mentre andavo in bicicletta in Angola. Ma alcuni ex militari sudafricani sono già stati in visita.

Antonie e John si uniscono a noi, ora stiamo tutti andando a Città del Capo. La carne e il brandy sono scesi lungo le gambe, c'è una buona colazione per la giornata, e parto molto prima di prima.

Jakkie è molto disciplinato, in ottima forma, e ha sempre un piano per la notte. Andremo a Kamieskroon oggi, la prossima piccola città (1000 anime) sulla N7, e arriveremo abbastanza presto.

Il catrame è buono, ma con molti alti e molti bassi. Non c'è ancora nessuna spalla ai lati, dopo la linea gialla, e diverse auto ci stanno ancora suonando il clacson. È sicuramente un saluto, che John apprezza, ma non credo che mi abituerò mai.

C'è abbastanza vento e non ci sono molti fiori.

E finalmente, posso scattare le stesse foto che ho visto nei volantini che pubblicizzano Namaqualand.

Ma in realtà non è così comune.

We stop 10 km before Kamieskroon, in a self-catering house Jakkie had organized, and have plenty of time to go and buy meat and charcoal for the braai. Antonie must find a lift back to Springbok to get his rear wheel re-spoked and trued, since he doesn’t have the tools for removing his cassette (that’s another bonus point for the Rohloff speedhub! Spokes have an unusual length, but they can be changed quickly).

Antonie and John don’t carry as much luggage and tools as I do, yet they have an invaluable gear item: a self-dosing plastic brandy flask. Pap and braai end the day.

The morning is cold and cloudy, and it looks like a European autumn in the hills. We cycle quickly to Kamieskroon where I pack a large amount of vetkoek, that should fuel me for the whole day. Vetkoeks are almost the same as the fried dough beignets, that I think I had in every country, under different names, since Guinea. It’s probably the only food that I’ve seen more widespread than cassava/manioc.

Ma non riuscirò a tenere il passo con la mia nuova squadra di ciclisti. La strada N7 è piuttosto noiosa, non mi piacciono ancora le auto, e se voglio vedere un po' del Sudafrica, non dovrei restare lì. Invece, c'è una strada sterrata parallela che sale tra passi e colline. Gli altri decidono di rimanere sull'asfalto, quindi ci incontreremo di nuovo stasera a Garies, 60 km dopo per loro, 90 km dopo per me.

Questi segnali stradali illustrano anche l'ampio settore dell'ospitalità, così tanti letti per una città di 1000 abitanti. È solo per la stagione dei fiori?

Kamieskroon è una città che si è trasferita nel 1924, perché la posizione originale, situata alla fine di una valle vicino al luogo in cui ci siamo fermati, stava diventando troppo stretta. Kroon significa corona e si riferisce a una roccia sulla cima di un picco che domina la città.

E dietro quella kroon che la mia strada mi porta, verso Garies passando per Leliefontein.

Subito dopo aver lasciato Kamieskroon, la strada sterrata sostituisce l'asfalto e sale per 8 km. È il passo di Kamiesberg.

Sopra, c'è un altopiano con fiori, mucche e fattorie. Ah, molto meglio della N7.

Kamieskroon was at 750 m, and it’s still going up. I will eventually reach 1350 m. Well done, as while passing the Orange river, I didn’t think I’d be above 1000 m again.

I’m pushing this time, being quite tired, and also tired of never seeing this Leliefontein. In fact, the town is hidden just behind the radio masts. It’s Namaqualand’s oldest village, and home to a Nama community (it was a “coloured reserve” during apartheid), a Methodist church and a mission. It’s quite a big village for a town not even appearing on some maps, and despite the cold temperature, that slope is pushing me straight into a shop. Fortunately there’s one with plenty of cold cokes, thank you electricity.

La città si trova a 1350 m di altezza, e il negoziante mi dice che ha nevicato tre volte quest'anno. Pensavo che l'Africa australe vedesse la neve solo in Lesotho e nei dintorni del Drakensberg, ma ora so che può nevicare anche a Windhoek, negli altopiani di Khomas e persino nel Namaqualand (forse non tutti gli inverni, però). Mi dice anche che d'ora in poi dovrebbe essere solo discesa fino alla fine. Buone notizie!

Ci sono alcune fattorie e poco altro, ed è una bella campagna. Si potrebbe dire che è come la Namibia. Ma bagnato (per gli standard della Namibia).

Esso ’ s abbastanza verde qui e la foto satellitare shows well the farmland around the roads and rivers. By the way, while exploring the surroundings with satellite imagery (at the time of writing), I noticed qualcosa di sospetto near Platbakkies: a landstrip, a building, a few geometric roads, holes of a precise geometry in the middle of nowhere, and nothing else. It looks too clean to me to be innocent farmland, and it reminds me of something that Mark had shown me before: the Vastrap military airfield and underground nuclear weapon test site, nel Kalahari(cioè anche nel bel mezzo del nulla). Lì, due pozzi trivellati nel 1979, profondi fino a 385 m, sono stati sigillati nel 1993. Si dice che non sia mai avvenuta alcuna detonazione lì, ma d'altra parte, non è ancora chiaro se siano stati i sudafricani o gli israeliani, o entrambi, responsabili del 1979Doppio flash vela nell'Atlantico Meridionale.

Tornando alla mia infrastruttura sospetta sulla mappa a Namaqualand: una piccola ricerca (OpenStreetMap è ottimo per questo) mi fa 'scoprire' l'unico smaltimento di rifiuti radioattivi nel paese: è Vaalputs, e il loro sito web li mostra seppellendo barili gialli of nuclear waste originating from Koeberg (the only nuclear power plant of the continent, that I will see on my way to Cape Town) in a land basically described as deserted except for sheep farming. If Necsa (the nuclear energy corporation) is managed with the same sloppiness as Eskom (the main energy producer), I may end up with superhero muscles, because I’m ready to eat a million lamb chops. (Just kidding, my legs are already equipped with superhero muscles).

I don’t mean to spy on the nuclear facilities of South Africa (it seems harder to hide a single shaft in the Karoo or the Kalahari than a whole city in DRC’s jungle), but three years ago I happened to be jogging around the Centro di ricerca NECSA in Pelindaba, vicino a Pretoria. Il sentiero di Hennops offre una bella vista delle strutture, che includono un mini reattore nucleare e gli edifici che hanno ospitato la Bomba atomica sudafricano(forse vero, forse falso, un sacco di storie che coinvolgono Israele, ma le immagini meritano un'occhiata).

La discesa reale avviene tramite il Studer ’ passo s, davvero impressionante: 15 km in discesa, da 1000 m a 300 m, ai margini della montagna, acqua in abbondanza, fiume e pan, solo poche auto e cielo azzurro di tanto in tanto. È ancora più sorprendente perché non mi aspettavo niente di così bello.

Sta diventando sera dopo la discesa, e ho ancora 10 km di strada sterrata prima di raggiungere Garies. È stata una giornata molto lunga! In totale, oggi ho percorso 80 dei miei 90 km su strade sterrate, e gli ultimi tratti sono ondulati. La Namibia può fare meglio. Passo davanti a una piccola Wollastonite mine, snap a kilomilestone photo for my 26000 KM, and finally get into town, where I find Jakkie, Antonie and John. I had quite an intense day and a consequent mileage, considering the road surface and elevation profile, and despite my exhaustion, I’m very excited to have made it to Garies and meet them again. Our hospitable hosts are Toelie and Tanya, and they treat us with lots of delicious meat. Another dinner in South Africa, another braai. My eyes, stomach and legs are 100% satisfied!