About this blog
I'm Audrey, and I write about riding the back roads of South Africa, living on a modest budget, and the small practical decisions that make daily life easier. This is not a polished travel magazine. It's a record of gravel passes, farm stall coffee, breakdowns fixed with borrowed tools, and the ordinary rhythm of a life split between Johannesburg and the KwaZulu-Natal coast.
If you ride a motorcycle in South Africa and prefer the route less travelled, you'll find notes on fuel stops, overnight stays, and what to carry when the nearest town is a hundred kilometres away. If you're new to the country or just curious about how people actually live here, the posts about moving, remote work, and keeping a small home in order might feel familiar.
I write for the person who wants honest detail, not a highlight reel. You won't find sponsored itineraries or promises of perfect sunsets. You will find realistic distances, prices that match what I paid, and the occasional lesson learned the hard way.
The core of this blog is simple: travel and daily life don't need to be complicated or expensive to be worth your time. A two-week ride on a 250cc through Mpumalanga taught me more about patience than any long-distance tour ever did. A move from a two-bedroom flat to a one-room studio in Melville showed me how little I actually need to feel settled.
I value direct language, practical advice, and stories that don't pretend everything went smoothly. When I recommend a guesthouse or a coffee shop, it's because I stayed there or sat at that counter myself, not because I was paid to mention it.
Most posts start as handwritten notes taken at a petrol station or a roadside table. I type them up later, often weeks after the trip, and I don't edit out the rough edges. Sentences stay short. Descriptions stay concrete. If a route was boring or a meal was disappointing, I say so. The tone is the same whether I'm writing about a chain that snapped outside Dullstroom or the logistics of moving house with a motorcycle as the only vehicle.
You'll find practical categories here: route notes with kilometre counts and fuel stops, food guides from the Midlands Meander, and lifestyle posts about downsizing and remote work. There's no single formula. Each entry follows the shape of the experience itself.
A short timeline of the decisions, breakdowns, and detours that turned a spare notebook into a regular riding journal.
Early 2021
A weekend loop through the Free State on a friend's old dual-sport. I kept a paper log of fuel stops and guesthouse prices, mostly because I kept forgetting them. That notebook became the starting point for everything later.
Mid 2022
Downsizing from a two-bedroom place forced me to sort through years of accumulated stuff. Selling furniture and learning to live with less gave me the budget for my own motorcycle, which changed how I planned trips.
Spring 2023
After a two-week ride through Mpumalanga, I had enough notes for several posts. The first articles focused on gravel routes and basic maintenance, written for people who ride small bikes and prefer quiet towns over highways.
Early 2024
Readers kept asking about the non-riding parts of my life, so I added posts about remote work, budgeting for travel, and setting up a small home. The site became less of a pure travel diary and more of a record of a simpler routine.
Now
Most months bring one or two new posts, usually tied to a recent ride or a lesson learned at home. The focus stays on honest accounts of the road, useful details for other riders, and the quiet satisfaction of a well-organised day.
What started as a personal notebook for a few motorcycle trips slowly turned into a place where I keep the practical side of life in South Africa. No big launch, no grand plan. Just a series of decisions made on the road and at a small desk in Melville.
2019
I bought a second-hand 250cc and rode from Johannesburg to the KwaZulu-Natal coast. I kept a paper diary of fuel stops, guesthouse prices, and the people I met. That notebook sat in a drawer for months before I thought about sharing it.
2021
After a few friends asked for route notes and budget breakdowns, I started publishing short posts. The rule was simple: write about what actually happened, including the breakdowns and the bad coffee. No polished travel magazine tone.
2022
Downsizing from a two-bedroom flat to a studio in Melville changed how I thought about the blog too. I began writing about budgeting, remote work, and setting up a home with less. The travel notes stayed, but the scope widened to everyday practicality.
2023
Emails started arriving with questions about specific routes and bike maintenance. I answered each one and turned the most common topics into posts. That feedback loop shaped the content more than any editorial calendar could have.
2024
I stopped trying to cover everything and focused on what I know: secondary routes, small-town stops, and honest notes on costs. The blog became a reference for riders who want the same kind of detail I used to search for myself.
Now
The site remains a personal archive of trips, moves, and small decisions. It grows when I have something useful to share, not on a fixed schedule. That keeps it honest and gives each post a reason to exist.
A blog about back roads only works when the people along them share their time. These are the guesthouses, mechanics, farm stalls, and local businesses that have hosted me, pointed me down a better gravel road, or simply let me charge my phone and drink coffee while I waited out an afternoon storm.
Midlands Meander
A network of farm stalls and studios between Pietermaritzburg and Underberg. Their coffee stops have become my default rest points on long rides through KZN.
Dullstroom Motor Works
The mechanic who helped me fix a snapped chain outside Dullstroom. He showed me more about basic bike maintenance in one afternoon than I had learned in months of solo riding.
Badplaas Country Lodge
A simple guesthouse that lets riders park under cover and dry wet gear in the boiler room. The kind of place that understands what a long day on the road feels like.
Chrissiesmeer Farm Stall
A tiny roadside table selling homemade rusks and fresh eggs. They let me fill my water bottles and gave directions that actually made sense for a motorcycle.
Melville Secondhand Store
Where I found most of the furniture for my studio in Johannesburg. They deliver for a small fee and don't mind if you take an hour to decide on a chair.
Underberg Cycle Works
A small shop that stocks basic spares and will order anything else within a week. Their owner keeps a notebook of good routes through the southern Drakensberg.
I don't take payment for mentions and I don't do sponsored stops. These are simply the places and people I keep returning to, and the ones I'd point a friend toward before they set off on their own trip.