Flying Adventure: Indian Ocean Coast – Day 11 (FAVG – FABE – FAEL):

Fortunately the weather looks much better this morning, and we are on our way after breakfast. It should be a beautiful flight along the South Coast and the rugged Wild Coast.

As we have spent two extra nights in Umhlanga we are getting a bit time constraint and are compelled to skip our intended stay on the Wild Coast. We aim to be back in Pretoria by the 29th of December, giving us 1 spare day in case the weather does not permit us to get there on the 29th.

We are therefore considering a stop at Gariep Dam. That is back on the interior plateau, where the weather is generally a bit more stable this time of the year. However, after calling all the places we could find on Google, we can only secure accommodation for one night and not two as we had liked to.

We decide to take that one night, and then see later what we are going to do tomorrow.

Durban Virginia to Bhisho

It is after all the rain and clouds of the previous days a beautiful day today. The weather radar shows clear skies all along the coast as well as the interior.

Our first stop will be Bhisho in the Eastern Cape, where we pick up an additional companion who will join us for the remainder of our tour back to Gauteng.

After take off, we route along the holiday beaches of the South Coast and further to the Wild Coast in the Eastern Cape. The rugged Wild Coast is always an amazingly scenic stretch of coastline to fly along.

We pass the town of Port St. Johns, the famous “Hole in the Wall” and Mazeppa Bay. Abeam Wavecrest we start routing inland towards Bhisho, where we land to pick up our young companion.

Bhisho airport is a very lonely place, more so on a Christmas day. Apart from 2 Security guards there is no human soul anywhere close by.

To his knowledge there are no scheduled flights flying into this airport. That would not even be feasible, as the terminal building is not equipped to check in passengers, or handle any luggage. It is just an empty building. But it has a humongous 2500m long and 60m wide runway.

All that for some training flights from Port Alfred, and the odd stranger like him? It does not sound like the most glorious investment of the Eastern Cape government. Well, the province is not really famous for high return investments into public services or infrastructure.

But setting these aspects aside, it remains one of his favorite provinces in the country. There is a reason why it is commonly referred to as “The Adventure Province”. That should explain why it ranks high on his list of favorite places.

It is a pity that we cannot spend a couple days on the Wild Coast. But that is a reason to plan another trip down here and to look forward to.

Change in plans

Whilst waiting for our companion, he noted some cloud formations along the mountains to the interior plateau. That is not really what the weather forecasts and data were indicating earlier, and those mountains are on our route to Gariep Dam.

The weather has been very unusual for this time of the year, and weather forecasts have been very unreliable. Isolated afternoon thunderstorms are quite common across the interior during the summer months. But this year, there have been large widespread weather fronts which passed across the central, eastern and south eastern parts of the country, bringing intense rainfall. An isolated thunderstorm is easy to circumnavigate, but fronts of several 100km are not.

As we were flying down to Bhisho, a large weather system with heavy rains built up around the towns of De Aar and Kimberley. That weather is moving into a south easterly direction towards Gariep Dam. It looked way to large to circumnavigate. And we would not have had enough fuel to make substantial de tours anyway.

It is therefore safer to fly down to East London for the night and see how the situation looks like tomorrow. As a pilot you should make rational decisions and not be emotionally guided. It is about what you can safely achieve towards your objective on the basis of the available facts and circumstances. Trying to push through what you want against all odds, is not a responsible approach. There are enough insane people on the ground, the skies are not for them.

After landing and refueling in East London we are off to a drink at the KEG Spitfire pub in the terminal building where we organize accommodation and transport.

It is high season and most places are fully booked. But we find a place to sleep at the Southern Sun Hemingways, where we head to for the night.