Didn't sleep too much last night worrying about our trip out of Semenkong. Guess I am just a worry wart because we made it to Matatiele to the tire shop and purchased a new tire. All is well now and my stomach has returned to a less knotted state. The tire guy was aghast that the tire had been fixed with a plug and was surprised we had made it. The drive down the new highway was great but very slow. I continue to be amazed at the little villages on the mountain s...

Both Jean and I had a good sleep. The weather had changed this morning to a cloudy blustery day. We showered, had breakfast, and then I went to deal with the car rental company regarding the tire. Jonathan, the owner here and I both agreed it was probably better to travel with the bad tire with the spare available if necessary. ( cross my fingers). The rental company was hopeless and said to just buy a tire and keep the bill. So, we searched the net for tire comp...

We had a HUGE breakfast. Fruit, muesli, yoghurt fruit juice and then porridge. I was feeling quite full when our hostess brought out bacon, 2 eggs, 2 kinds of sausage, baked beans and tomato. I was totally bloated after eating 1/2 of it! I cannot believe how much South Africans eat for breakfast. We started our journey at about 8:45 as we had a fair distance to go. We chose to drive a 90km dirt road which was more direct and saved us about 50km. At first it was a...

Our hostess served a delicious breakfast and then, prior to leaving, we had a long chat with Greg , the owner of our B&B about life in Canada versus life in South Africa. The reason they live in Graaff Reinet is because it is one of the safest towns in South Africa. He said one can go out at night and not be worried about safety. We showed him some photos of our house and he exclaimed "oh, no walls or wire fences!" Our trip to Bethulie was a long drive and af...

Well, I think I finally got the spelling right for this town! We got up early this morning and did the dawn game drive at 6am. We were very successful as we saw several elephants, Cape buffalo, warthogs, kudu, a tortoise, and the red hartebeest. After showering at our chalet and eating some breakfast, we started on the drive through the Karoo to Graaff Reinet. The Karoo was magnificent and got even better as we got to Graaff Reinet. We arrived around lunchtime an...