Day 400 South Africa 07/12/2011, Warner Beach – Mantis and Moon, Umzumbe. 46.82miles/75.85km, 4hr59minutes, Av 9.4mph.

Aaaaargh another bad night's sleep! This time it was brought on by the fact that there was no flat ground in the camp-site, so we were pitched on a slope. We both spent most of the night waking up and bracing ourselves against sliding into each other. Feeling extremely tired, we packed up the tent and set off down the coast to Umzumbe.

To say that it was a difficult day on the road, would be an understatement. Debs is suffering from a crisis of confidence since her roadside incident and really struggled. When a young guy pulled out of a field and cycled slowly behind her, she became convinced that something was going to happen. It turned out that he was just cycling very slowly and waved as he passed us, when we stopped. Meanwhile I stood on the roadside trying to comfort a very upset Debs. I know that she is a lot stronger than she feels at the moment and fully believe that her confidence will return. In her own words she doesn't want one incident to ruin the whole experience for her.

It certainly wasn't only Debs suffering, my legs felt leaden all day and my bike has rarely felt heavier. In fact, both of us were left feeling like we were cycling through treacle. Hot weather and a steeper than expected road certainly didn't improve matters.

For once we wished that instead of taking the quieter old main road, we had ridden along the N2 highway. Technically we are not allowed to be on it, but it had to be flatter and less meandering than the road we were on.

Arriving in Hibberdene made our spirits lift, as we finally rejoined the coast and we were able to get some much needed food. Better still we were only about 6km away from stopping for the day.

Mantis and Moon backpackers is a pretty cool place, set in a very nice jungle like garden. Unfortunately the camping spot is on a deck, which is no use at all if you don't have a free standing tent. Considering the terrible nights we have had lately, we elected to have a double room/hut instead. Which, assuming the monkeys stop jumping up and down on the roof and not too many more trains go by, we will hopefully get a good nights sleep in.

We have a shorter day tomorrow, so we don't have to rush in the morning. Dinner and maybe a beer is going to bring today to a close very shortly.

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.