We haven’t been on school visits since the Covid-19 outbreak and this was our very first visit
specifically to the OR Tambo and Alfred Nzo Districts in the Eastern Cape. A few days before we were to embark on our trip, our direct flight to East London was cancelled (Comair/Kulula suffered the same fate as previously did SAA & Mango). We were forced to settle for an afternoon Safair flight out of Cape Town to Port Elizabeth, where we picked up our hired car, drove to Uitenhage and was able to spend some 45min at Solomon Mahlangu High School. At about 4pm we took to the road for the 3+hr drive to East London, arriving at our accommodation just after 7pm. Our day two stop over would be in Umtata – also a 3+hr drive from East London. The trip proved to be quite an eye-opener in terms of relying on Google when assessing travel distances and times – we totally underestimated conditions of the roads and the amount of cautious driving the trip would entail. Potholes, cattle blocking the roads, long-haul trucks either speeding up behind you or crawling along the steeper stretches, added hours to our travel time. Much to our dismay, we unfortunately had to be constantly vigilant of the time we allowed ourselves to spend at each of the schools we visited.
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