Johannesburg to KwaZulu-Natal – Sasolberg and surrounds

Next stop, Sasolberg. Hmmm, not really a stop though…there’s not much more to it than, well, Sasol, and its employees’ houses. Correct me if I’m wrong, please, but a sign saying “CBD” sets the expectation that there will be, at the very least, a double-storey building or two, some sort of bank posing on the corner of Main and Church Street, and, who knows, maybe even a petrol station! Nope! They either don’t believe in selling the petrol they make, or they don’t like making it easy to find anything, other than the very impressive refinery that is this town. Impressive because, not only does it look like a space station with flames and pipes, but it is the home of the craft brew for SA’s cars (more on craft brews shortly), keeping us all proudly fulfilling our right to explore our country.

Is it possible to find CBD? I doubt it. Perhaps that non-existent GPS would’ve come in handy after all. Actually, make that times two; at 11pm last night you would’ve found us tyre deep in New Doornfontein. That’s a balaclava throw from Hillbrow and it is as hectic as it sounds. Did I mention my cellphone battery went pap? Worth wiping your brow now. Anyway, why not make this a game, why don’t you go to Sasolburg and see if you can find it? I’ll buy you a beer.

For your trip down, it’s worth mentioning that there is a lot of odd stuff to see on these roads, and more still when heading to the Vaal Dam. Stand-alone gates, potholes, moon craters, cows, herds of them, in the road (where they belong, obviously), and half a Martian flying machine in a truck stop. One can find peculiar things in a truck stop, but I wouldn’t go looking too deep.

The drive through the fields towards the dam is beautiful, only accentuated by the twilit sky. When you then see the water, you’re going to want to see what’s keeping it all there, so pop into Deneysville. This little town, which is right against the Vaal Dam wall, has the apt title of being the ‘inland water mecca of South Africa’. With all this dam around it, it does a pretty good job at hosting popular water sports like boating, sailing, fishing and skiing.

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