MMMtata
Trip Start
Sep 13, 2010
1
30
34
Trip End
Nov 26, 2010
Umtata, Eastern Cape, South Africa
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
First stop Umtata. Around a six hour drive from Durban, Umtata is known as the capital of the Transkei area (the largest of the black homelands brought about during Apartheid) and the busiest town that we stumbled on since departing.
The Transkei is hilly and green and scattered with sprawling townships that are made up of a mixture of small brick buildings and tin shacks. There were barely any cars on the roads for the whole trip but plenty of hitch hikers or people waiting on the edges of the towns for one of the white van taxis that usually squeeze in around thirty people despite their fifteen person capacity.
We were definitely the minority in Umtata which, I have to say, was more uncomfortable than I thought it would be initially.
We ate some surprisingly good food considering it was in the smoking area of a restaurant that has the history of its burgers illustrated on the table mats for you. After food we braved the local bar for a few Savannah Dry's.
In the morning, we drove through more Transkei for another six hours or so to our next stopover.
