Day 399 South Africa 06/12/2011, Durban – Blue Sky Backpackers, Warner Beach. 23.08miles/37.41km, 2hrs, Av 11.4mph.

I was reminded this morning why I hate large city backpackers. No one is particularly friendly and we were greeted today by no cups, no bowls and a sink full of washing-up, despite the fact that you are supposed to do your own. Perhaps the younger clientèle still believe the washing up faeries do it for them. From what we could see, not too many of the older ones were any better either. We must say that the staff were pretty friendly though.

As often seems to be the way on a cycling day, we both woke having had a terrible night's sleep. After a slower than planned start to the day, we loaded the bikes and headed out into the city streets.

Riding out of the city was pretty straightforward, although cycling down a three lane highway surrounded by fast moving traffic isn't ideal. We have no idea whether we were supposed to be riding along the M4, but several police cars passed us and didn't seem terribly bothered. Having followed the signs out of Durban we weren't given a great deal of alternatives. As always on dual and triple carriageway roads getting past the busy slip roads involves a certain amount of closing your eyes and hoping! Having to cross two lanes of the N2 (main highway) to get to the road we wanted, when the M4 ended involved a bit of praying as well. It was a pretty terrified Debs that joined me on the other side. With the highway dealt with, the coast road was thankfully much quieter and we started to relax.

Having failed to get Debs a replacement Ipod in Durban, we spotted a large shopping mall off the main road and stopped to have a look. The mall was enormous and Debs returned with a new Ipod shuffle, not quite what she had before, but it goes some way to putting previous unfortunate events behind us. In the meantime I had been waiting with the bikes, we had decided wisely against leaving them unattended or we may have been replacing even more gear!

While Debs was shopping, I had been looking at the map and came to the conclusion that we were probably not going to make it to our expected destination. Having left Durban a day earlier than planned, we had time for another stop and it just so happened that there looked like a good place about 10km up the road. Setting off again, we continued down the coast road and got greeted by a guy taking photos of us as we came up a small hill. He hastily introduced himself as Colin Sydney, saying that he loved seeing people doing this kind of thing, having been a runner and sports fanatic in his younger days. We had a nice chat and he took a few more photos, before we slowly continued on our way to Warner Beach.

Arriving in Warner Beach, we stopped to make a phone call as we had no idea where the hostel was situated. Before we could get the phone out, a man in a van stopped to ask us if we needed any help and upon asking directions he told us to follow him. About 500m along the road he stopped and we were pointed up a ridiculously steep hill which led to the backpackers. The guy told us that there was another way round, but this was the quickest and assured us that the place we wanted was just at the top. He suggested that we would be unlikely to be able to ride the hill, but it was just a short push. Obviously bravado Matt came to the fore and exclaiming that I hadn't felt the need to push yet, I set off up the hill.

According to Debs I received a certain amount of incredulous looks, but I am pleased to say that I made it to the top! I may have been seeing stars and I arrived in a state that made two wheezing old ladies, who tried to engage me in conversation, look positively youthful but my ego was fully intact. Leaving my bike propped against a tree, which elicited some worry from the two ladies, I headed back to help Debs. We are not in the habit of leaving the gear unattended, but at the time a four year old child would probably have been able to overpower me, so locking the bike seemed far too much effort. Getting Debs up the hill was a bit of a struggle, but we were soon settling into a ready erected tent. We had planned on using our own, but the camp-site was full and using one of the hostels tents wasn't much dearer. It was obviously too good to last, as later today we had to put our own tent up, when we were informed that the one we were in had already been reserved. Thankfully a camping spot had become available in the meantime.

The remainder of the day has been spent having a walk along the beach, doing a bit of food shopping, blogging, having a dip in the pool and getting Debs Ipod loaded with music. The wind has once again been pretty strong, but so far it has been blowing in our favour . Hopefully it will stay favourable tomorrow, when we make the now shorter distance to our next destination.

Day 398 South Africa 5/12/2011, Happy Hippo backpackers, Durban. Home Affairs, Marine World and a stroll to the shops in a very windy Durban.

A good night's sleep saw us up and on our way to the home affairs office by 8am, or at least we would have been if there had been any taxis! Returning to the hostel where they ordered us a private cab, we sat down to wait, fully expecting it to be the 30 minutes or longer that they had quoted. For once Africa time wasn't working against us and about 10 minutes later the taxi arrived.

For large parts of the sea front, Durban looks like a thoroughly modern city. When it comes to the Home Affairs office though, it looks like anything but. Arriving in the visa office we sat down for what looked like a lengthy wait. There appeared to be at least two queues, neither of which were going anywhere fast. A constant stream of impatient people pushing their way through into the offices wasn't assisting the situation either. Fortunately we appeared to have selected the correct queue and slowly but surely we edged forward.

About two hours after we arrived, it was our turn and despite our fears the whole process went very easily. We may have had to leave and get a photocopy of our passports (something that you would have thought they might have mentioned on the application form) and queue once again in another department to pay the fee; but we were soon leaving with a letter that said we had applied. Note, I said a letter, not the actual visa. Apparently we will be notified by sms text when the visa is ready and as I have previously mentioned, will have to return to Durban to get it. We are obviously planning on ignoring any texts, or at the very least hoping that our visa application is not processed very rapidly. To make matters a little more awkward, if the visa doesn't come though on time we are still supposed to return to the office in Durban to get a letter saying that we have paid and can leave the country! Once again we have no choice but to plead ignorance.

All in all getting back to the hostel by about 10:30am was a bit of a pleasant surprise. After a quick dropping off of gear, we wandered down to uShaka Marine World to have a day of aquatic-based fun. The dolphin show, aquarium (built in and around a ship) and later seal pantomime were all very enjoyable. Had the weather been better, we would probably have made the most of the water park as well. As it was, having walked round for a few hours we left and headed to a mall to get some shopping.

By the time we had walked all the way to the mall and back again in a howling gale, all we really wanted to do was rest. Instead we headed back to the shops to get our coach tickets so that we could visit Debs' friend (Steph's daughter) Georgie for Christmas. We received the invite while we were at Steph and Tim's and had been trying to work out whether we could get there in time. Eventually we conceded that we could, assuming we didn't want to see anything along the way, and so set about hatching another plan. Now we are going to get about halfway there, leave our gear safely stashed and travel the rest of the way by coach. We will then return before new year and carry on down the coast at a more leisurely pace.

With all our chores completed it was back to the hostel where we have remained. Instead of another day in Durban, we are going to get moving tomorrow. The bicycles and the open road are beckoning, hopefully the wind will be kind to us tomorrow.

Day 389 – 397 South Africa 26/11/2011 – 04/12/2011, Lion's River. Great company, great food and a goodly amount of wine.

We have had a bit of a rest from the blogging for the last week. It is not that nothing much has happened, just that we have been enjoying the terrific hospitality of Steph and Tim. While staying at their home, we have enjoyed some great food in fantastic company, while keeping our blood alcohol topped up at a suitably high level!

The weather has occasionally been against us (it has rained fairly consistently), but we have still managed to go and have a look round the very colonial Pietermaritzberg (Kwazulu Natal's capital).

We also had a very enjoyable trip into the Drakensberg mountains. The trip to the Drakensberg involved a walk through Giant's Castle national park, to have a look at some ancient cave art. The rain thankfully held off until we were going home and we were treated to some breathtaking views.

On a more practical note, the bikes have had a bit of a service courtesy of yours truly and I have also mended the tent zips. We managed to get some new zip sliders from a large needlecraft store and I have, with only a small amount of swearing and a little blood loss, replaced the worn ones. Should anyone require their tent zips repaired in the future, then for a fee, I could make my services available.

The repairs to the bikes and tent may have been successful, our attempt to extend our tourist visas was less so. The process seems straightforward enough, but we didn't realise that we would require bank statements and a personal letter stating our reasons for needing an extension. The whole process is further complicated by the fact that the extension may take several months to be granted and we will have to return to the issuing office to collect the stamp. This is obviously not particularly easy when you are travelling by bicycle and will be 2000km away from the issuing office by the time we leave!

We will apply for the extension when we get to Durban, keep hold of our receipt and then plead ignorance when we get to the airport. With any luck there will be no problem, our only consideration being that Debs may go back to work in travel and would rather not have a black mark on her passport regarding visiting South Africa.

With all the serious things taken care of, it has been back to the usual pattern of eating, chatting, napping and drinking. We were lucky enough to time our stay for when Dennis was coming down from Mozambique to see his partner Trish, Steph's neighbour. It was nice to see him again and great to hear about what he has been up to with the Barra and Tofo sites.

Watching the Dubai rugby sevens took up a large part of our final day. With obviously a certain amount of mixed loyalties when it came to the partaking teams. Toad happily exchanged jerseys with a Springbok and I am pleased to say that in the end England reigned supreme! While on the sporting subject, it should be known that I am the undisputed, retired unbeaten, South African edition no less, Trivial Pursuit champion. So jolly well go me!

For our final night in Lion's River we got invited, through Steph and Tim, to a 21^st birthday party at a neighbour's farm, where we felt rather under-dressed. We hadn't expected it to be such a formal affair, fortunately we were welcomed happily by the hosts. To be honest the night is a bit of a blur and rounding it off with a generous glass of whisky didn't help much. By the state of all four of us in the morning, it was obviously a good one though.

Saying goodbye to Steph and Tim was a very sad, as we have had such a good time. We can only thank them hugely for their hospitality and hope to see them again. Checking into an albeit nice city hostel wasn't the same as the warm friendly atmosphere we have become used to. Raging hangovers didn't make it any better either, although we did manage to drag ourselves out for lunch which made us feel a little better.

In the end it was all we could do to sit in our room and watch a movie, without falling asleep. Tomorrow we have an early start to go to the Home Affairs office to extend our visas. Assuming we aren't held up all day, we will be spending the afternoon at the nearby uShaka Marine World.

Day 388 South Africa 25/11/2011, Ballito – Durban – Lion's River. 30.37miles/48.80km, 3hr19minutes, Av 9.1mph.

The rain had stopped this morning which was good news, however yesterday's blustery wind still remained. Saying goodbye to Shaun and Louie we set off towards Durban at just before 8am.

The climb out of Ballito soon had our muscles warmed up and we were on our way. With only about 45km to go we were confident that we would reach the city by 12pm where we would meet Debs' friends, Steph and Tim.

The journey along the M4 was easy, although the headwind and the traffic made it bit more challenging. It was nice to be riding along the coast through generally attractive scenery though.

As we neared the outskirts of Durban, the road became less fun as we had to negotiate several slip roads. These are never fun when you have cars trying to leave the main carriageway at 100km/h when we are only doing 20km/h at best. The fact that hardly anyone indicates and most people seem to wait to the last minute to cut across, means that it is not for the faint hearted! We are of course by now old hands at dealing with busy roads, so we arrived in Durban without incident.

Leaving the main road behind we rode through the city along the beach promenade. It was thanks to Shaun and Louie that we knew it existed. The route was certainly nicer than our original plan would have been. Passing along the promenade we got to have a look at Durban's beach front and it looks like it will be a nice place to spend a few days when we return.

Having arrived in good time, we wended our way slowly to the fisherman's wharf and Café Fish where we were to be met by Steph and Tim. Despite them running late, having been stuck in traffic, we didn't have to wait long. We were soon having a beer and a nice lunch in the restaurant. Steph was Debbie's tetrathlon coach and good friend from her pony club days. She has been living with her husband Tim in Lion's River for some time. It was great for Debs to catch up and after lunch we were on our way to their home.

Lion's River is a beautiful part of South Africa and their home couldn't be in a nicer setting. After getting settled into a lovely room, we wandered down into the fields to inspect the cows. Tim and Steph breed Murray Grey cows, which they have been introducing into South Africa.

Having had a stroll through the fields and a look at the river, we returned to the house and had a welcome beer on the verandah. A lovely dinner was followed by wine, more chatting and eventually a port or two. It has been a terrific day and just what Debs needed to help her get over her ordeal. A few days rest in lovely company will be extremely welcome.