Day 2 - 1 Sept 2013
After a very nice dinner at the Meerkat Restaurant in Carnavon we were ready for an early start. It was Sunday, and we were heading towards our first camping night of the trip, at Cullinan Guest Farm near McCarthy's. We had quite a long drive ahead of us so we were eager to get going. As I said before there was frost around.. It became slightly warmer as we traveled north via Prieska. We crossed the might Orange River at the Frans Loots bridge.. built in 1970.. I am not saying a word... Shortly after crossing the Orange River we turned off towards Griekwastad. The dirt roads were badly corrugated and full of loose stones. But our trusty Hilux took it on like a pro, smoothing out all the bumps and we poshed on past Griekwastad towards Postmasburg. Then approx 20km before Postmasburg I felt that there was something amiss. Right... Left rear tyre was flat, well not completely yet, it was still hissing. We settled in for a repair job, got comfy and out came the compressor and the snot plugs. The tyre was cut quite badly by a stone right on the edge of the tread. Not wanting to go all the way and changing the tyre, I decided to plug it and see if it held out, at least until we got into town. It lasted fine, and in town we filled up with some more nice 50ppm diesel, did a spot of last minute shopping at the Spar, I angled the mirror so I could check the state of the left rear tyre from time to time, and headed out towards Kathu, and McCarthy's. About 30km outside of Postmasburg I looked back and saw that the left rear tyre was losing air again. We pulled over, and made quick plans. It seems that the puncture was too close to the edge of the tread to be fixed with a snot plug, and that the previous plug I put in was missing. Not wanting to venture out into the unknown with only 1 spare, we decided to plug the hole, only this time I needed 2 plugs to plug the hole... We headed back towards town. BUT we forgot one small detail... it was Sunday afternoon and everything was closed!! We ended up sleeping over in Postmasburg. Finding overnight accommodation in Postmasburg on a Sunday is a nightmare, but we settled for a room at Andrisha Lodge and Motel, where we braaied a lekker steak and settled for a early night. This put us 1 day behind schedule, but we were having fun and nobody was complaining...