Day 353 South Africa 21/10/2011, Sabie Backpackers, Sabie – Sheri's Lodge, Graskop. 17.80miles/28.46km, 2hr50minutes, Av 6.2mph.

I may still have been feeling weak, but I woke feeling much better than I did yesterday. It looked like we were good to move on. This may have been slightly influenced by the fact that we didn't really like Sabie Backpackers that much.

Packing our gear, we set off up the road towards Graskop, with the emphasis on the word up! It certainly wasn't going to be a flat day.

The scenery was once again beautiful and was only enhanced by a stop to see the Mac Mac Falls along the way.

Fortunately, the altitude and cloud cover kept the temperature and humidity within the boundaries of bearable. It may have been a bit of a struggle, cycling whilst feeling ill is not the easiest of pastimes, but eventually we made it to the town of Graskop.

Finding Sheri's Lodge was very easy, thanks mainly to the large signposts, and we were soon checked into a dorm room. We had planned on camping, but it seems that despite advertising to suggest that we could, there is no camping available. Instead we have been given a dorm room to ourselves. Clearly this is the bonus of travelling in the low season.

Having settled in, we met Rod 'Sheri' Sheridan (the mildly eccentric owner) and were immediately offered the keys to his car so that we could go and have a look at the Blyde River Canyon. Obviously this seemed like a pretty good offer and it was, until I tried to drive the car! We had already been warned that it had a few problems, but being a Mercedes you have to wonder how many it could actually have. As it turned out quite a few! Firstly it wouldn't idle, which in an automatic car is a bit of a problem.

Also the ignition had been rigged so that you could just twist it with a screwdriver/flat key. The ignition issue became of great significance when the car stalled outside the 'Three Rondavels' and I couldn't restart it. To make matters worse we didn't have our phone with us either. Borrowing a phone from one of the really helpful park staff, we phoned Rod who suggested that the battery lead had come loose. This proved to be not the case, although it wasn't what you would call securely attached. Apparently because of the security problems with having a hot-wired car, Rod often removes the battery lead to stop it being stolen!

At certain times of your life you have to question whether a generous offer, such as the lending of a car, is actually that generous. After we had attempted a jump start, had the car looked at by several bystanders, who all shook their heads, we called Rod again. This time he said that he would have to come out to us, which obviously would have been better if we weren't 50km away.

While we waited, the gate staff flagged down a couple of tourists and asked them to give us a lift to see the Three Rondavels. Consequently, two slightly bemused elderly Germans ended up with a pair of hitch hikers! In truth they took it in good spirits and happily drove us to the view point, which turned out to be pretty spectacular.

The Blyde River Canyon is the world's third largest and the only green canyon. Considering the fact that it is the only canyon that is still actively growing, potentially it could end up as the largest. Hopefully not in the time it took us to get the car started!

Eventually Rod turned up with mechanics in tow and yes, you guessed it, it started first go! It seems that with no key, you have to make sure that you turn it all the way to off and then when you turn the starter, it sticks a bit so you have to give it an extra twist. With hindsight it seems obvious that I wasn't turning the starter far enough, but in my defence I have never driven a car with the ignition switch broken off!

Feeling slightly embarrassed, we left the Rondavels behind, with three extra passengers. The staff at the gate had been so good to us, that we could hardly refuse them a lift. Sadly a combination of the afternoon wearing on, me still feeling a bit under the weather and a total lack of confidence in the car, meant that we headed straight back to the lodge. Any plans to see more of the canyon would have to wait.

Sheri (Rod) got back to the lodge after us and seemed a little upset that we hadn't got to see anything. I explained that we had had enough for the day and gave him some money for the diesel that he had used to come out and rescue us. In the end we just had to put it down to one of those days. The lone of the car had been a bonus, even if it didn't turn out that way.

Dinner and a few glasses of wine helped to ease the disappointment of the day, as did chatting to a few of our fellow guests. Tomorrow we will be trying our luck with a tour on a couple of Sheri's very cool three-wheeled choppers!

Day 352 South Africa 20/10/2011, Sabie Backpackers, Sabie. Illness in the camp!

Maybe it was the takeaway, or maybe it was just one of those non-specific illnesses, but at 4am I woke feeling dreadful. The rest of the night became a constant run to the toilet, which left me in the morning aching and shivering.

While Debs went about her day, I spent most of it under the duvet feeling sorry for myself. I forced myself to wander into town with Debs this afternoon which probably helped a little. After another rest I got up feeling a little better and a nice dinner has worked wonders.

For her part, Debs has been busy today emailing, planning our route and checking on potential accommodation. She wisely elected to keep out of the way, as I am a notoriously bad patient!

Hopefully I will be fighting fit tomorrow as we have another steep, although this time much shorter, day ahead of us. We at least will have the beautiful scenery to keep us going which should include a stop to look at a waterfall.

Day 351 South Africa 19/10/2011, Bushpackers camp-site, Hazyview – Sabie Backpackers, Sabie. 26.59miles/42.67km, 3hr56minutes, Av 6.7mph.

Thankfully there was no repeat of the snake incident this morning, instead we were joined by a small non-threatening frog! Having guided him gently out of the tent, we breakfasted, packed up and hit the road by 7:30am.

Almost immediately we were into the hills although we weren't the only cyclists to be tackling them. Shortly after setting off we encountered two mountain bikers making their way slowly up the hills. As luck would have it they only got to see us screaming down the hill. Still I think we gave them some food for thought as they looked at us on our heavily laden bikes. Having taken our bikes through the hills to the shops yesterday, we know how much easier it is on an unladen bike!

The trade off of taking such a hilly route was the amazing scenery. Despite the effort involved there was always something to look at. Banana plantations and dense forestry were interspersed with beautiful valleys and macadamia nut orchards. It was terrain that reminded us, aside form the crop diversity, of our time in Europe and Turkey. It was definitely one of those days that reminds us why we are doing this. The only downside was the high humidity. The skies have been threatening to rain heavily for a few days, which will hopefully, when it comes, clear the air a little.

With a final push up the hill into the town of Sabie, we stopped at the tourist office to check where the hostels were located. Our plan had been to stay at Billy Bongos, but finding that it was a bit out of town led us to take a look at Sabie Backpackers. It is a bit depressing having to get back on your bike when you need food, having spent hours getting here.

Enquiring as to whether we could camp at Sabie backpackers (our books don't mention camping), we were told yes. Better still, we were then offered dorm beds in what would be a private dorm for the same price. We may like camping, but it was too good an offer to refuse, especially as we could take our bikes into the dorm with us.

The rest of the day was spent shopping, eating a huge takeaway, suffering from the huge aforementioned takeaway, having a snack dinner because of the huge takeaway and having an early night to sleep off our very full stomachs.