Road trip …
Day 2
Aberdeen- Scottsburgh
We started the morning, packing the car really early after a wonderfully restful night at Die Pophuis in Aberdeen.
We wanted to get on the road as early as possible as we would be traveling for 14 hours in the car as we headed to Scotsburgh, KZN.
Travelling with kids is a challenge. Travelling 14 hours with a 6 year old, especially one who had been car sick the day before, was a whole new level of challenge.
We’ve travelled a lot with Hamish over the years, but haven’t done this long a trip since he was a few months old and I was worried that we would need to stop for medicine for car sickness. ( Thankfully we escaped with no more car sickness throughout our trip)
But first, a stop at Wimpy in Graaf reniet because “a great South African road trip deserves a great South African breakfast.”
Many years ago, I stayed in Graaf Reniet for 6 months. We rented the old Methodist manse and I loved the old house. We woke each morning to the most beautiful mountain view.
On my bucket list is a longer visit in Graaf Reniet to show Hamish all the places I love.
Once on the roads we discovered that the roads to Kzn were honestly at some stages, not the best.
Choosing to travel over the Easter weekend may not have been our smartest move and we came across a terrible accident later that evening, which would determine us breaking this stretch up into a 2 day drive travelling back home.
We stopped for bathroom and food breaks only, and Hamish kept himself occupied mostly on his phone and with the toys we had brought with.
I wrote a great post about kids and roadtrips here
At the end of day 2, we had traveled through 4 provinces.
Western Cape, Northern Cape, Eastern Cape and Kwa-Zulu natal.
It had been great for teaching Hamish how to read a map, understand the GPS, learn compass points, road signs, provinces and major land marks.
We also came across so many things that he doesn’t encounter in our city life. For him many of these were amazing things and all of them opened topics for conversation.
Things like:
📸 people selling chickens on the side of the street
📸 cows in the road
📸 different housing styles
📸 contrasts between urban and rural lifestyles
📸 cows, sheep and horses being transported
📸 a huge assortment of different modes of transport.
📸 How each provinces landscape changes during to their rainfall
I love that so much practical learning often happens outside of the classroom.
After a final stop for a quick pizza supper ( we ate way too much pizza on this trip) We were finally on the last stretch for day and we arrived in Scottsburgh just after 9 pm. To say we were exhausted an understatement.
We unpacked and washed up, and after a quick cup of coffee, we were fast asleep, ready to travel to the midlands for day 3.
Read about our first day here
