Day 408 South Africa 15/12/2011, Mthatha – Buccaneers backpackers, Chintsa. 27.26miles/43.79km, 2hr15minutes, Av 12mph.

Up at 5am this morning, which is fine as thanks to the noisy workers staying in the next tent we wouldn't have been able to stay asleep anyway. Shortly after 6am we loaded the bikes onto Angus' car roof rack and set off towards Butterworth. We were immediately thankful that we had taken a lift when we were greeted by a thick mist obscuring the road and surrounding hills. The main roads are fun enough as it is, without the added risk of being barely visible!

Despite being for the main part very rural, we don't feel that we have missed much by not riding this section. The landscape was certainly not as dramatic as we had been cycling through for the last few days. Passing Nelson Mandela's house was a bit of a highlight. We had obviously planned on stopping on the way through to ask if we could camp in his 'Ground Force' prepared garden, had we have been cycling. Having seen the fence and security outpost, it would be fair to say that the answer would have been no!

Passing Butterworth, we stopped for a coffee at the bottom of the Kei Cuttings. The cuttings were originally a border post separating the Transkei into its original two districts. Now it is a good place to stop for a coffee, especially if you are cycling. The steep nature of the cuttings makes it a good place to fortify yourself for the climb out. Obviously we didn't have to worry about that, as we were dropped just the other side. At a little after 8am we said a very grateful thank you to Angus and pedalled on our way towards Chintsa West and our home for a few days, Buccaneers backpackers.

Thankfully by now, the mist had lifted and we had a pretty easy 40km ride to our destination. The steep, rocky, dirt road down to the reception was a little unexpected and is going to be fun on the way out. Fortunately that isn't for a few days though!

Having checked in, we headed down to the camp-site and found ourselves a shady spot under some trees. Once we were settled in, we headed to the pool restaurant and had lunch and then sat down to wait for the advertised treasure hunt to start.

It wasn't so much the treasure hunt that had attracted us, as the promise of free wine! On top of the beers that we had had during lunch it looked to be a fairly drunken afternoon. Showing our true competitive natures, we are pleased to say that we won the treasure hunt, by quite some margin. In truth we didn't have a huge amount of competition, but you can only beat what is in front of you. We certainly attacked the challenge with plenty of enthusiasm, especially in the case of our team leader, the very excitable Debs. Better still the prize was a free dinner in the restaurant, which was great as we currently have no supplies with us at all.

The treasure hunt was followed by volleyball at which I have to confess to being pretty terrible. The wine and beer was probably why I seemed to spend a large amount of the match on the floor with the ball bouncing unreturned beside me.

The Mexican dinner in the restaurant turned out to be pretty good, but for two people who had been up at 5am and then had a rather full afternoon, it proved to be the last act of the day. To say that we have enjoyed our first day at Buccaneers is something of an understatement.

Day 407 South Africa 14/12/2011, Port St Johns – Mthatha Backpackers, Mthatha. We love it when a plan comes together!

Things started to look up this morning. We were informed that the transfer guy had got hold of trailer, so our bikes were taken care of. Better still, Debs phoned the backpackers in Mthatha and was informed that there was space, despite me being told they were full when I rang last night. It seemed everything was back on track for our continuing journey through the Wild Coast.

Loading the bikes was easy, with the added bonus that we could leave the luggage attached. Shortly before 12pm we were headed on our way to Mthatha. By 2pm we were standing outside the backpackers, unable to get anyone to answer the bell. A phone call later and it looked like we were back to square one. The backpackers was apparently closed for a private function, but we were told to wait as someone was coming. Ten minutes later and we were wondering what the problem was when the very friendly owner Angus turned up. It seems they had been taking the staff out for their end of the year thank you dinner and so hadn't planned to have anyone staying. Angus had then decided that they could have guests, when we phoned this morning. We were soon shown to a safari tent dorm room and then kindly given a lift to the nearest supermarket.

We have been offered a lift tomorrow by Angus as he will be heading south. It has always been our intention to cycle through South Africa, but the prospect of a main road and only B&Bs to stay in, means that we have accepted his kind offer. It will mean that we will have a few extra days to spend on the coast at a cheaper backpackers. Which should save us quite a lot of money, not to mention Debs knees!

Day 406 South Africa 13/12/2011, Jungle Monkeys, Port St Johns. Thick headed and very tired.

I literally had to drag myself out of bed this morning. Debs seemed to be fairing a little better, but neither of us were exactly the picture of health. Breakfast helped a little and we were feeling alright when we went to broach the subject of a transfer to the hostel staff. Suddenly things are not looking so good, to say the staff here are a little vague is an understatement. We might have to try and persuade a local minibus driver to take us, which may or may not be possible. We left the staff saying that they would make some calls and come up with a plan. The owner fortunately seems a bit more clued up, so we are cautiously hopeful.

The walk round the supermarket was painful for me and it was all I could do not to fall asleep. Today is clearly not going to be terribly productive, although we did manage a walk along the beach road. If the wind hadn't been blowing a gale whipping up sand in our faces it would have been very pleasant. It is certainly pretty impressive watching the turbulent sea join the fast moving river water.

Unfortunately thanks to the unhurried attitude of the staff towards our wish to organise a transfer, we haven't really been able to relax and see more of the area. Instead we have been trying to make contingency plans in case we have to ride back up to the main road. In the end after prompting the staff continually, a phone call was made and everything was sorted. It was just a shame it took all day to get an answer, when as far as we could tell the phone call could have been made yesterday when we arrived.

With the transfer sorted we then hit a bit of a wall when it came to arranging somewhere to stay in Mthatha. The backpackers that we wanted to stay at are full, so we will probably end up in another expensive B&B. It all seemed so easy when we were riding in!

Instead of getting stressed about the whole situation, we decided to have a couple of beers and then sleep on it. Things generally have a way of working themselves out in the end.

Day 405 South Africa 12/12/2011, Flagstaff – Jungle Monkey, Port St Johns. 51.87miles/84.18km, 5hr44minutes, Av 9.0mph.

The water came on, we were in the right room, the price was as quoted and eventually a very drunk staff member came to the room so that we could pay and get checked in. All in all it was a very strange experience, which we are happy to say ended with us having a restful night's sleep.

Leaving the hotel, it was onto the road and back into the hills. Thankfully there was a little more cloud cover than yesterday, so the temperature wasn't too bad. In theory today should have been an easier day. We left Flagstaff at a little over 1000m above sea level and were heading over the next 80km to Port St Johns which is at sea level. It doesn't take much thought to realise that we should have been going downhill. Why then did we seem to be climbing for three quarters of the day?!

The hills continued relentlessly as we headed towards Lusikisiki. Seeing a petrol station we decided to stop and have a cold drink. While we were parking our bikes a young Indian guy, who may have been the owner, came over for a chat. He asked us if we were alright and enjoying cycling through the area. We told him that we had only encountered friendly people and so far everything had been fine.

He then went on to tell us that another cyclist had stopped there a week or so ago, who had had to fight off a local from trying to steal his bike, when he had stopped to shelter from the rain. Enquiring further, it seems that the cyclist must have been Udo from Germany, who we had met in St Lucia. Having had such a good time so far, it is a bit of a cautionary tale and reminder that we still need to be on our guard. We hope that Udo is alright, from what the guy said he had obviously managed to fight off his assailants. As a nice parting gesture, the guy gave us a chocolate bar each saying that he knew we needed to keep our energy levels up.

Perhaps the Indian guy's comments were playing on our minds, but as travelling through Lusikisiki the people didn't seem as friendly as they had earlier. Shortly after we stopped for lunch on a hillside, a pick-up pulled up and two guys introduced themselves as off duty police detectives. They told us that this was a very high robbery area and we should move on as quickly as possible, preferably not stopping until Port St Johns a further 30km away. To illustrate the point, they went on to tell us that a shopkeeper had been recently gunned down in a robbery around the corner from where we were stopped. Explaining that we had to eat fell a bit on deaf ears, and they weren't happy until we started to pack away our stuff. Shoving bananas and whatever we could we could into our mouths, we set off again; it hadn't been an ideal lunch!

Having cycled up and then down several more hills, we approached what looked like the steepest yet. While we were mentally preparing ourselves for the climb I heard a hiss coming from my front tyre. What luck, three punctures in three days and once again the glass littered roadside was to blame!

Having been warned about the area, we really didn't need to be stopped on the side of the road fixing a puncture. Fortunately I have become well practised over the last few days and we were soon back on the road. The best thing I can say about the hill was that at least it didn't mess about. It just got on with going up and as quickly as possible. By now we were nursing pretty tired limbs but slowly and surely we got to the top, only to be greeted by another a few kilometres further along. Thankfully it was the last up of any length and we were soon heading down rapidly to Port St Johns, which to be honest looks like a dump! It is however pretty dramatically set, surrounded by steep cliffs, jungle and the sea.

To be expected, Jungle Monkey backpackers is up a hill; their camp-site is fortunately, unlike some others, not on a slope. Having got our tent pitched, we sat down to a well earned beer and the bar is where I pretty much stayed. Any further exploration of the area will have to wait. If it hadn't been for meeting Debbie and her partner, from a nearby dive school, we would have been having a very early night. As it was we both drank rather more than we planned and hit the sack a lot later than was probably wise.

Tomorrow we have to try and arrange a transfer out of here, we would really rather not cycle the 90km up, up being the operative word, to the main road.

Day 404 South Africa 11/12/2011, Mbizana – Flagstaff Hotel, Flagstaff. 37.38miles/60.51km, 4hr40minutes, Av 7.9mph.

Having had a slightly strange breakfast experience; we were watched like hawks as we helped ourselves to cereal and yoghurt and then had to wait 20 minutes for a cup of instant coffee, we said our goodbyes and set off into a bright sunny morning. Daph's B&B may have been an unlikely place to stay, but we had a pretty good time there and we were made to feel very welcome.

Any ideas that the road was going to level out were ended pretty quickly and we found ourselves climbing steadily on what was now a very warm day. Once again the people of the Wild Coast were there to buoy us along with friendly waves and greetings. We were even accompanied at one point by two guys on horseback shouting Happy Christmas!

Continuing the festive theme a 4x4 full of Santa hat clad South Africans pulled alongside and asked if we would like a beer! It was a lovely offer but we politely refused, we had enough problems with the heat and the hills as it was. With all the greetings not only did our legs get a good work out, our waving arms did as well! Some of us got a bit more of a workout, as I had to fix yet another puncture. It seems that when I repaired the inner tube yesterday, I neglected to remove all the glass from the tyre.

The warm weather and blue skies may have made for some hot going, but it certainly highlighted the beauty of the scenery. Some of South Africa's landscape is truly breathtaking, or maybe it was just the hills!

Slowly but surely we made it to Flagstaff, having narrowly avoided a thunderstorm along the way, and set about finding the hotel. The hotel was easy to find, staff however were an entirely different matter. While Debs went to try and find someone, I stayed with the bikes and had an encounter with three guys all competing for the drunkest man in Flagstaff competition. Handshakes, hugs and pats on the back later and I was pleased to see Debs return saying that we had a room. We are now checked into a room that once again has no water, it has been promised later in the day, are not certain of the price and have no one to pay anyway. The only staff we have encountered so far, are cleaning staff who speak limited English. We have to assume that they were allowed to give us a room and hope that the price they told us was correct.

Having got settled in we wandered into town to get some food and then returned to the hotel. With any luck the water will come on later as promised and we will get a decent night's sleep. We have a slightly longer day ahead of us tomorrow when we head back down to sea level and the town of Port St Johns. We will be replacing the B&Bs and Marie Celeste like hotels with a few nights at one of the seafront backpackers.