Hit And Run

Last night, I was driving back from the top of Table Mountain.  I had invited my guesthouse host and his wife to join me to see the wonderful sunset from one of the 7 Natural Wonders of The World.  This time round, the sun set a lot faster and it became much colder than when I was up here 6 weeks ago.  It is coming towards the end of their Summer.  My hosts left earlier than me so I headed back to Fish Hoek later, arriving around 11pm.  I noticed a man lying dead on the side of the road, covered with a blood splattered white sheet, and further along the road a white plastic bag with his belongs in it.  There were a few police cars around.  I asked one policeman what had happened and he said that it was a hit and run.  The deceased man was 33 years old.  Nothing like this happens in this sleepy little coastal village/town.  The only incidents of people being killed in this place is when they are attacked by Great Whites while swimming. 

Close Brush With Death : Face to Face With Cobra

Two days ago, I went for a drive up to Ceres and the surrounding areas, 90 minutes drive north of Cape Town.  Ceres is a cute little town with a lot of fruit farms surrounding it as well as mountain ranges and rivers.

I find out about a little isolated restaurant outside of Ceres called Toll Huis in a valley with mountains on both sides.  After a nice meal, I had a chat with the owner who was a pleasant Afrikaans man.  I asked him what he advised me to do after my lunch as I had a few hours left until the sun went down and I headed back to Cape Town.  He suggested going for a hike along an unused railway line 60 meters up the mountain behind his restaurant.  The views were supposed to be very good. 

Me:  Is there anything dangerous up there?
Restaurant Owner (RO):  Be careful of the baboons, but they are scared of men so will run away.

Me: That's it ?

RO:  And the cheetahs, but they are small so not to worry about them.

Me: How about snakes?

RO:  Well, it's Africa so there will be snakes but don't worry.  At this time of day they shouldn't be around much.
Me:  What type of snakes?

RO:  Cobra snakes.

Me:  They are lethal, aren't they?
RO:  Well, if they bite you, you will live for 10 minutes.  Just look out for anything moving or making a noise.

Me:  Is there a hospital nearby?

RO:  Yes, but we are closing the restaurant now, but here is the number for the emergency services should you need to call them from up there:  10111.

The path to the disused railway line was overgrown with plants and very rocky.  It was difficult to see what was in the undergrowth.  I walk a part of the way and then questioned myself on what I was about to do.  Part of me thought it was foolish and risky and another part of me was not going to let fear overcome me.  I said a prayer and decided to continue up.

At the top, the view was lovely and the railway line was overgrown with bushes on the side.  I decided to walk away from Ceres and see where I got to.  After walking some minutes, I passed a small bush to my right, on the outside of the railway track.  As I passed, I heard something move less than a meter away.  I walked about 2 meters more, stopped and looked around and there I saw it, a cobra snake lifting its head and the upper portion of its body out of the bush, with its head spread out.  It turned and looked at me with its long tongue sticking out.  Then it turned its head the other way and proceeded to come out of the bush and slide in the other direction along the rocks on the side of the track.

Fear gripped me, but instead of doing what a normal person would do, I unzipped my camera case and took out my camera.  I managed to take a photo of it, before running past it back to where I had met the railway line.  I must have broken the world record for the 100m dash.  Too bad no one was there to record the time.  Looking down the trail that would take me back to the locked up restaurant, I wondered if any of the cousins of this snake were waiting for me.  I just ran down the hill as fast as I could and gave a sigh of relief when I reached my parked car. 

Thankful that I was still alive, but with adrenaline pumping around me very fast, I decided to carry on with my journey.

Bain's Kloof Pass

I had heard that Bain's Kloof Pass was a beautiful winding road going through the mountains and a gorge.  It was down further along the route R301 towards Wellington.  As I drove there were some turn-offs but the signs were a bit confusing so I carried on driving.  Along the way, I noticed a pickup van along the side of the road so I stopped and asked the friendly black guy if I was on route R301 to Wellington.  He looked at the map, smiled, and assured me that I was.  I noticed that he had crates of fruit at the back of his pickup so I asked him how much an apple was.  He said 1 Rand so I paid him and he came back with a nice apple, a pear, and the largest plum I have seen in my life.  I thanked him and carried on.  After 20 kms, I arrived in a town called Tulbagh.  I had in fact gone the opposite direction to where I needed to go, not on Route R301, but route R46.  I had to turn and go back 20 kms.  The guy who sold me the fruits had been telling me utter rubbish  Arrrrrrggggghhhhhh  !!!!!  Still, his fruits were nice.

The Bains Klook Pass was probably the most beautiful pass that I had driven on in South Africa.  It was unbelievably beautiful, especially in the glow on the golden sunset.  I could hear the sound of the river down below as I drove along the gorge with towering mountains on either side of me.

VIP Tour of Robben Island

Robben Island

I was invited, together with a guest, to visit Robben Island.  The guesthouse owner, Delgun, and I were met by the senior manager of operations at the boat terminal at the V&A Waterfront.  At the island, the senior manager drove us around in a private airconditioned people carrier (the tourist buses are cramped and have no a/c).  I was there as a guest an also as an informal consultant to help them with ideas on how to improve their tours.

We were shown areas of the island that were not accessible to the general public including the lime quarry where Nelson Mandela used to break lime rocks during his 18 years of hard labour on Robben Island.  There was also a cave which we went inside, which was used as shelter and rest, as well as a place to go to the toilet.  The educated prisoners like Mandela would also undertake to teach the uneducated prisoners in that cave, away from the watchful eye of the prison guards.  The phrase 'Each One, Teach One' was coined.
 

Nelson Mandela Cell

We also had the rare privilege of entering the cell of Nelson Mandela and holding the key.  Only a few hundred people out of the millions of visitors have been invited to enter his cell, which was a real honour.  It was so small inside that I couldn't have survived for more than a couple of days, let alone 18 years.

Cederberg Mountain and Rooibos Factory

A day or so after my visit to Robben Island, I decided to drive up to the Cederberg Mountains as I had heard that they were quite scenic.  I drove up there but was not that impressed.  However, I did visit the Rooibos Ltd company and was given a screening of how they grow and cultivate Rooibos tea, which is only grown in this part of the world.  It is a very healthy and tasty drink, high in antioxidants, and which they export around the world.  I drove from Clanwilliam where the factory was to the coast along route R364 and down to Elands Bay.  What a spectacular route !  I highly recommend it, although there is a patch that is not paved, but they are working on it.

Seal Island and The Great White

Speedboat To Seal Island

A couple of days ago, I went to Simon's Town with a German guy who was staying at the same guesthouse as me.  We boarded a RIB (rapid inflatable boat) which speed off towards Seal Island, half an hour away in False Bay.  The boat was almost flying, it was going so fast.  It was going around 70mph.  We were airbourne a number of times and I was holding on to dear life.  As we approached Seal Island, it was strange that it was so black.  Approaching it closer, I noticed that the blackness of the island was due to the seals there.  The skipper of the boat was that at any one time, there were 70,000 seals on that island.  National Geographic have filmed that island many times and it is the most famous place on earth for watching seals.  The seals were having a great time, playing in the surf and jumping in and out of the water.  It felt like a waterpark for seals.

The Great White

The Great White sharks come to these waters in droves because they consider this area an abundant feeding ground.   With 70,000 seals, there is plenty for the sharks to eat.  There was a cage diving expedition nearby, with people watching the Greate White from an underwater cage.  They had a bait which they threw from the boat to lure the shark closer.  It was amazing to see the Great White lunging at this bate and circling the boat with its fin cutting through the water.

Hermanus

Hermanus, a small, quaint coastal village on the other side of the bay from Fish Hoek, Muizenberg, and Simon's Town.  It took me a couple of hours to reach it, along route R44, which is the coastal road.  The view was breathtaking along the winding road next to the sea.  During winter months one can see plenty of whales and Hermanus itself is a world famous location for spotting whales very close to the shore.

West Coast

I did a day trip up along the coast from Cape Town to Langebaan, Saldanha, and Paternoster.  These are very small towns along the coast.  I preferred Paternoster the most, with its whitewashed buildings and long beach.  This village has expanded rapidly in the past 16 years or so, with Capetonians building weekend retreats and guesthouses.

Oudtshoorn & Cango Caves

 Oudtshoorn

I arrived in this very pleasant looking chilled out town called Oudtshoorn, inhabited by 80,000 people and famous for being the home to the world's largest Ostrich population with a number of specialized ostrich breeding farms. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the town saw a large Ostrich boom as their feathers became extremely popular as fashion accessories.  This made the town very rich and the Ostrich farmers very wealthy.  However, by 1914 the boom ended.

I found a lovely hostel on top of a hill in a large Tudor style house.  The interior was immaculate with lovely furniture and beds.  The name of this place was Karoo Soul.  The resident owner, Ilse, a warm and bubbly young lady, always loved this house since she was a child.  She managed to earn and save a tidy sum of money, mostly through tips, working 16-20 hour days on a US cruise ship for a couple of years as a waitress. One day she saw that the house was up for sale and bought it and then converted it into an upmarket hostel.

Cango Caves

The Cango Caves are 30 kms north of Oudtshoorn.  They are 5 kms long and have spectacular formations of stalactites and stalagmites.  Known as South Africa's largest cave system, they are thought to have started forming about 750 million years ago.

I decided to do the Adventure tour which involves crawling in tunnels and up very narrow holes inside the caves.  This is not something for claustrophobic people.  I happened to have been put into a group full of American college students, mostly girls, who had come to Cape Town University for a term/semester.  For some reason the girls had thought that wearing flip flops was going to be just fine, until they started crawling and climbing etc.  Their flip flops just disintegrated and a number of them ended up walking barefoot the rest of the way.  One or two got stuck in the tight holes and had to be pulled out.  A couple kept falling and one almost hit her head on a stalagmite. Our tour guide, a coloured guy in his late 20s/early 30s was as camp as can be.  So, it was all very bewildering and amusing to be a part of.

 Swartberg Pass

After the Cango Caves, I continued up route R326 towards the Swartberg Pass.  It was a steep climb up the mountain on gravel road.  A car broke down in front of me on this narrow pass on the edge of the mountain.  Soon, there were many cars waiting behind it.  It took some minutes before a rescue truck was able to load the car onto its rear and soon the traffic started moving.  Once back down the mountain with the amazing views, I started driving down a gorge that had a river running down it.  The steep walls of the gorge and the trees and bushes going down it were a beautiful site to see.  The gorge walls were red and there was the deep blue sky and the green vegetation so a lovely mixture of colours.   I stopped once in a while next to the stream and listened to the wonderful sound of the crystal-clear water flowing.

 Prince Albert and the Traffic Cops

When I cleared the gorge, I took the wrong turn and ended up in this small mountain town called Prince Albert.  It was from another age.  I drove through and then didn't know if I was headed in the right direction.  I was looking for the R407 back to Oudtshoorn which passed the Meiringspoort Waterfall.  I tried to wave passing cars to stop so that I could ask them for directions but some didn't stop and others stopped only after several meters so I kept driving on.  I noticed a police van approaching me from behind and it turned on its siren.  I pulled to the side and a policeman and policewoman came over.  The guy said that he had been contacted by a colleague that a guy in a car was waving motorists to stop and asked me what the problem was.  I told him that I couldn't find the waterfall.  He told me I was heading in the wrong direction and that I should turn around and head down the R407 and then the N12 South.

Meiringspoort Waterfall

After driving around 60 kms I reached the waterfall which was a 5 minute walk from the narrow road going through yet another gorge.  The waterfall was not large but it was gorgeous.  It was flowing down into a deep pool of water and was surrounded by a canyon.  There were signs to the waterfall warning of snakes but thankfully I didn't see any.  I couldn't resist the urge to jump into the pool so stripped to my underpants and dove in.  The water was freezing but exhilarating.  I managed to swim to the waterfall and then back again, pulling myself out onto the rocks.  Here is a YouTube clip that somebody posted so I have copied the link on here, although there was a lot more water flowing when I visited: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4mHzj21oZA

Road To Addo Elephant Nature Reserve

 

 
Guy Lying On The Road

I was driving back to the Armagh guesthouse on my final night in Storms River when I noticed something on the road.  I slowly drove closer and noticed a black guy with just his pants on lying in the middle of the road.  Another car approached from the opposite direction in this village.  It was a good thing that it was not daytime and I was not distracted by views around me.  Otherwise I may have run the guy over.  I had come to a complete stop and the guy was illuminated in my car headlights.  As the other car approached, it became clear that it was a police van with 2 cops inside.  They both got out and approached the man.  One of the policemen nudged the guy with his foot and the man moved slightly.  They realised that he was drunk so pulled him off the ground and walked him to the back of the van and dumped him inside.


From Storms River to Addo Elephant Park

I was driving along route N2 from Storms River to Port Elizabeth, which is just south of Addo Elephant Nature Reserve.  Just before reaching Port Elizabeth, the speed limit signs on the highway told us to slow down from 120 km/hr to 80 km/hr to 60 and then there was a police road block with a dozen police cars and around 40 police officers.  The first officer who spoke to me through my car window said they were stopping cars for drugs and weapons searches.  I was told to drive to a spot in the grass where 3 police men and women would search my car.  So, as I tried to park my car, a large black policeman told me that the car was fine where it was.  I asked him if he could wash my car.  He didn't like my sense of humour so I told him it was a joke.  He then asked me for my driving licence so I opened the boot to get it out of my small zip bag. Unfortunately, I had missplaced the key so was frantically looking for it at the back of the car, throwing underpants, socks, t-shirts, and shoes around.  The policeman and 2 police women were looking in bewilderment.  The policeman said not to worry and to proceed.  I told him that I was adament to find my keys and kept looking.  Then I found them and got my licence out.  He didn't know what to make of the old UK drivers licence with no photo on it and the pink and green colour.  I was getting bored as well so told him that tomorrow is my birthday and that he and the other 2 ladies should sing happy birthday to me.  The two policewomen were not interesting in the slightest in singing but the policeman did say happy birthday.  I told him to give me a bear hug which he did and then I got into my car and carried on driving.

Addo

I arrived at Addo village which is near the Elephant National Park.  A Swiss man and his French wife were running a bed & breakfast.  I managed to haggle with Swiss man to get the price down a bit but he was a bit inflexible.  They are not the best people to haggle with.  And the French lady kept saying 'My Engleeesh eess not so guuud' and sighing.  She had been living in South Africa for 3 years. 

Birthday With The Elephants

I drove into the park with my hire car full of optimism of seeing the Big 5 - Elephants, Lions, Leopards, Buffalos, and Rhinos.  They advertise the park as having all of these animals, although the majority are elephants.  It is 444,700 acres and takes an hour to drive from one end to another.  I drove non-stop for 7 hours and clocked up 130 kms.  For the first 3 hours I didn't see a fly.  I was mainly in the northern part and then headed south.  I stopped a guy and asked him if he had seen any animals and he said that they are all in the south so I carried on south.  Then I came across herds of elephants going towards watering holes that were created by the park for them.  Had it not rained a couple of days earlier, more of them would have come out from the bushes to the watering holes, instead of drinking the rain water in the bushes.  It was wonderful to see the mothers and the fathers and the baby elephants going on an outing together.  They are so communal and family oriented.

I also saw some zebras and large turtles, and well as buffalos.  However, I didn't see any lions or leopards, or rhinos.  When I asked where the rhinos were, the park officials said they couldn't tell anyone because of the problem with poaching.   Since the beginning of this year, 45 rhinos have been poached in South Africa. The horns are sold for many thousands of Pounds.  The horns are crushed for use in chinese 'medicine' according to various sources.

For my 2nd night I stayed at a wonderful B&B down the road called Rosedale:  http://www.rosedalebnb.co.za/
The owners, Keith and Nondumiso, are a lovely couple who are very welcoming and down to earth.  The rooms are very clean and comfortable, and the breakfast is delicious organic food, nearly all from their beautiful farm.  You should try the scrambled eggs and homemade bread....mmmm !!

Panic !!

I made a call to my carhire company in Cape Town to ask if I could extend my carhire by a few days so that I could drive back to Cape Town in a leisurely pace.  They told me that it would cost me more than double to extend my contract because there was a sudden great demand on their cars and their prices had shot up.  I Skyped the carhire brokers who told me that their rates had gone up for my car as well.  It seems like the stock market, with prices going up and down on an hourly basis.  So, you need to lock into a deal at a certain price for a certain period of time.

So, I had 3 days to get back to Cape Town, just under 800 kms.  So, I headed back down to Port Elizabeth, which everyone I have met says is a dive of a place, then along route N2 towards Plettenberg Bay, staying one night, then over to George and up the N12 to Oudtshoorn.  From Plettenberg Bay, the police had closed off part of the N2 westwards because of trouble in that township just outside of Plettenberg Bay that I had experienced a few days before.  It had escalated and apparently the locals were throwing rocks onto the busy motorway at cars and also throwing blazing tyres onto it as well.  All the traffic was diverted for around 10 miles around this township through dusty roads up in the hills.  It was a crazy site.

Knysna To Storms River

 HSBC Nightmare

I got a call from one of the managers of the supermarket where the ATM had eaten my card.  He said that the ABSA woman was there, opening the ATM.  So, I arrived there within 5 minutes and saw a blond woman kneeling at the opened machine and between me and her was a guy with a bullet-proof jacket, a pistol and a machine gun, ready to shoot anyone who stole any milk or bread.  In all seriousness, he was with the lady from the bank.  As I approached, he spoke to me in Afrikaans so I told him I didn't understand.  He said in English to stand back.  The lady showed me my card and the date had expired at the end of Jan.  I couldn't believe my eyes.  How could I have overlooked this?  I usually get a card automatically a couple of months before an existing one expires.  In fact, I had told HSBC that I was coming here and they didn't issue one for me before coming, and I forgot about the date of the card.  So, it was a total mess-up!  Anyway, this lady told me that she had to destroy my card because it had expired.  I told her not to do it because I still needed the card to refer to when contacting HSBC.  She said she would take it to the nearest bank branch and it would be up to them to decide if it should be destroyed.  So, I headed to the bank and asked to speak to the bank manager.  The bank manager ushered me into her office and I explained my situation.  She asked for my passport and went away and came back with my card, asked for a release signature and let me have it, untouched.  I ended up speaking to her for an hour about life, her involvement in her local community through her church, and many other interesting things.

I managed to find an internet place and Skyped HSBC and they at first said they would not send a card to me in South Africa so I reminded them that they had let me down.  My relationship manager agreed to send it to an address that I was staying at in Cape Town so when I return there, the card should have arrived.

Hostel Nightmare

I was staying at a hostel off the main road in Knysna for a couple of nights.  At the same time as my arrival, 3 German lads arrived and were in my room, as well as an Australian girl and her guy cousin, an Israeli guy called Lior, and a German beauty called Steff.  They were all in their early to mid 20s.  One of the German lads, Basti, the Israeli guy, and the Australian guy, Mike, were all trying to get the attention of Steff.  She was loving the limelight.  The Australian girl, Ashleigh, was making a move on Basti, the German.  Then Susan, another German girl arrived and Lior made a move on her.  Another Australian girl made a bee-line for Mike, the Australian guy.  It was all a soap opera.

At 3.30am I was woken up by a bunch of people laughing and talking loudly outside my window.  They were clearly drunk.  I couldn't believe my ears.  The person talking and laughing the loudest was the hostel manager. I got up to go out and have it out with them when I saw the hostel manager come inside to use the toilet.  I asked him to turn it down and he apologized, but after 10 minutes of quiet talk, the noise level went back to what it was.  At 4.30 they all decided to call it a night, so I thought that silence had finally arrived.  Next thing, Ashlee, the Australian girl came into the room and straight into the bed with Basti, the German lad.  But I was determined not to be distracted from my sleep so proceeded to sleep.  But, the American guy across the way in another lower bunk started snoring his head off.  I tugged at his pillow and he stopped.  Then he started again until I tugged his pillow once again.  I fell asleep, but was awoken by his loud snoring again.  I turned to tug his pillow but instead of seeing his head, I saw his feet.  I guess he must have manoeuvred himself so that I wouldn't be able to tug his pillow anymore.  So, I hardly slept that night, and in the morning, I got out of there as soon as I could, vowing not to stay in another hostel for as long as I could.

Crazy Drive to Storms River

Just before Plettenburg, I passed a township which was next to the main N2 highway.  There was a mini riot going on, and some people had set fire to tyres and had thrown them into the highway so the police had closed the road and created a detour.  I drove through Plettenburg and somehow back onto the N2 again.  The weather was non-stop rain and low cloud, so bad visibility.  I arrived at the tolls and had to pay 35 Rand which is GBP 3 or US$ 4.50. 

Highest Bungee Jump In The World

On the way, I stopped at the Bloukrans Bungee Jump which at 216 meters high, is apparently the highest in the world, off this bridge called Bloukrans.  The owner there makes GBP 4.5 million per year from lunatics throwing themselves off this bridge and paying around GBP 90 for the jump and a dvd.  I asked one of the people working there how much it would cost to jump without a rope.  He said it would be free.  But I guess if you don't like it, you can't get your money back.

Storms River

This hamlet is surrounded by beautiful a forest called Tsitsikamma.  I am staying in a wonderful guesthouse called Armagh, named after the birthplace of the co-owner.  She and her husband built this place in 1994 and have added a nice touch to it.  I was determined to have a couple of good nights of peaceful rest, away from the hectic hostel mayhem.  I was thinking for some reason that I was one of the first people from my part of the world to have stumbled across this area.  In the dining room of this guesthouse, there are hundreds of business cards stuck to the walls.  I had a quick browse at some of them and was really surprised to see one from someone working for Barclays in The City in London, another working for American Airlines at Gatwick, another from a guy who works for my local VW garage in Hammersmith, and most surprising of all, the Assistant Press Officer for Prince Charles and The Duchess of Cornwall, at Clarence House.

 Walk To The Waterfall

I drove a few miles down the road and entered Tsitkikamma National Park and parked my car, then proceeded to walk across to the waterfall.  The sign did say that the walk is difficult, and at first it was lovely and green and full of vegetation.  But then it became very rocky and full of jagged boulders that were steep at the edges and difficult to cross.  To my amazement, this couple passed me with a 6 month old baby that the man was holding in his arms.  Either they were acrobats in the circus and were good at juggling and balancing, or they were just nuts.  Not sure how the baby survived that ordeal.

800 Year Old Yellow Wood Tree

Just down the road from here is an enormous tree and is 800 years old.  It is just mesmerizing to look at.  I highly recommend seeing it if you are here.

Cape Town To Knysna

Carhire Nightmare

I was trying to hire a car with comprehensive insurance cover but the companies here would not offer it and neither would the brokers.  I was spending a considerable amount of time and money calling various companies and reading their small prints.  I even tried to ask the representatives of the companies to explain their complex terms but most of them didn't know what they meant either.  I finally contacted a UK carhire broker called Travel Jigsaw/Carhire 3000 and a very helpful guy at the other end, based in Manchester, UK, answered all my questions, and arranged for me to pick my car up from Thrifty at Cape Town airport, with full insurance cover.  When I arrived, I got a free upgrade and was on my way.

Garden Route

The drive from Cape Town along N2 highway is quite dramatic, with lots of mountainous terrain and valleys.  Rather arid though but quite scenic.  The drivers are quite courteous.  They pull to the side, in the UK well call it the hard shoulder, and let you pass.  In the UK and elsewhere, you would have a battle on your hands to get past anyone, but not here.

The Southernmost tip of Africa, where 2 Oceans Meet (Atlantic and Indian)

Cape Agulhas is quite a unique part of the world, and the views of the oceans are quite spectacular.   Near land, the water is light blue or emerald colour and further out they become darker blue.  There is a lighthouse at Cape Agulhas which you can climb up.  The panoramic view is absolutely breathtaking.  The hostel/backpackers was really nice and chilled out.  It has a pool in the courtyard and a nice lounge and bar area and cool music.  The main benefit of staying in hostels/backpackers is socialising and meeting people.  I visited a very down to earth restaurant by the water called The Pelican and had a very tasty fish called Cob (not Cod).  I highly recommend it.

Mossel Bay

The drive from Cape Agulhas to Mossel Bay was quite an adventure and the vista around was awesome.  The heat was quite strong, so I was glad to have airconditioning in the car.  At Mossel Bay, I saw a sign for a backpackers and turned up.  The guy managing it showed me around and what an incredible place.  It was a Victorian style mansion with beautiful wooden floors.  The garden had lots of plants and water fountains.  Some had large fish in them.  The only problem was trying to sleep at night with all the noise being made by croaking frogs outside.  There was a fish restaurant called Kingfisher by the harbour.  I had a fish called Kingklip, which was a chunky white fleshed fish similar to Cod but more delicious.   It was incredible!

Knysna

This little town is quaint and laidback place, full of good restaurants and cafes.  Knysna has a harbour and has hills surrounding it.  I arrived here 3 days ago and the weather turned for the worst.  It has been raining continuously since then and the temperature has cooled considerably.  I was in another hostel the first night, but it was dirty and they had crammed as many beds into dorm rooms as they could.  The people running it were very friendly though.  I am now in a better hostel.  I decided to buy my own pillow so I visited the nearby shopping centre and bought a down + duck feather pillow, which feels great.  Only problem is, not sure how I am going to take it back to the UK with me. 

ATM Ate My Card

Yesterday, I was trying to take money out of an ABSA bank ATM machine inside a supermarket here in Knysna, and for some unknown reason, the machine ate my card.  This is the first time this has happened to me overseas so I was not too happy.  I called the number on the ATM and this lady called Denise said that they couldn't let me have my card back until today, in the afternoon.  I told her that I needed the card sooner but she said that the person who is responsible for accessing their machines was in another coastal town and would not be back in Knysna until later today.  Thankfully, I have a backup debit card which I used to take money out from another ATM machine.  I have learned from my previous trip to Thailand that having only one debit card is risky.