Of Time and Money, though Space can wait

Time is a sadly precious commodity. A friend of Maaret's has a theory that when you travel, time and money total 100, a constant number that can never be exceeded. Within that total, time and money are flexible: You can have a 50-50 split; You can have lots of money but little time; Or little money but lots of time. It's not a bad theory, although in our case it was more a case of having little money or time, and the remainder of the the 100 being debts and bosses insisting that you should have been back in the office 9months ago. OK, I admit, I might be a little late returning to work. But so what....?

Just what you expect to see on the top of a hill in a remote part of South Africa: An old passenger jet and 4 ex-London double decker buses

But limited time and money mean't that we had to pass through the Wild Coast in a couple of days, instead of being able to spend a week or two savouring it. Rugged coastal scenery, interspersed with occasional empty golden bays and beaches. Inland, more mountainous landscapes prevail, with twisting often tortuous roads, but – weather allowing, even though it rarely did for us – often wonderful vista's opening out in front of you. It is somewhere i would love to cycle or hike through for 2 or 3 weeks, although that is rapidly becoming a constant wish on this trip, and in South Africa. Even though I have only seen a smidgen of the country, I know I could spend a few weeks around the Wild Coast, a few in the Karoo and a few in the Drakensberg. And with large swathes of the country still to go, that probably means I'm going to need at least 6months, a car and a bicycle for my next visit here.

Traveling is frustrating sometimes: The more you see and the more places you visit, the more you realise what is out there and the more places you need to return to, spend more time in, or discover to add to your list.

Images from the Wild Coast