...the beginning

Today it all began! We picked up MAX the truck from Travelstar in Knysna at around 14h00 - had the quick electronics tour, and then reversed it out of their driveway into the road.

That doesn't sound like much, but it was a mission to find reverse, the driveway was sloping down towards the back, there were quite a few cars parked there, and everyone was watching! At that point I realised that an 11 tonne truck does feel very different from a big car - significantly different!

We drove through town, and had to find a dirt road quick - Phantom Pass was close enough, and there were even some mud puddles! Delicious!

Evening was coming so we went and found some parking at the waterfront which by now was all working quite nicely - we need just more width than 2 parkings end-to-end provide. Not sure if you can see us there in the background, but we're the white Mercedes in the background...

We drove to Jeffries Bay for the evening, and luckily we had already made the decision to be social campers (as opposed to reclusive campers) because everyone comes over and wants to have a chat and a look. After a looong family exercise walk on the beach and too much sun and the rest of the morning, we decided to head back towards Knysna so we could get there without too much travel time on Monday morning. We have a snag list which we need to discuss, including: TV doesn't work (for travel DVD's); the fridge opens if you wheel spin around a corner too fast; the toilet flush is super powered and sprays the door; and when the secondary fuel tank is pumped into the main tank, after a little while it all gets pumped onto the road! (much to the distress of the pump attendant at Tsitsikama).

Tonight we're near at Keurbooms Lagoon campsite - nice & lush, and right on the edge of the lagoon. Paradise. (note to self: dont forget to keep track of the days because we must get back home some time)