Till Sunday 10 May 2009 - Saturday requires a mammoth shop at SPAR ready for Mondays trip to Table Mountain National Park. The only problem is the banks in town are not playing nicely or should I say, not paying nicely, trying to withdraw cash from three different banks to no avail, surely I can't be insolvent already!?! Luckily Aldo is in town and able to give me a sub. With shopping list in hand, I cruise the aisles and complete the biggest shop since arriving in SA.
Sunday and I am back on the motorbike. With an inclement start to the day, mist rolling in from the mountains, I fully appreciate the delights of biking back in the UK, with condensation furring up my visor I barely see the rural landscape, a patchwork of cropped farmland and the isolated traditional homes as we meander off road through cold and damp to Montagu. Arriving at the restaurant come farm shop and nursery on Route 62, the sun is thankfully breaking through. After a hearty breakfast overlooking the drying riverbed, the child in me squeezes my derriere into a swing inventively made out of an old tyre, unfortunately not designed for use by full grown adults it lacked the apparent legroom needed to gain any momentum. Shame!
Back at Marloth, Bens' dog Sky discovers a puff adder in his domain, the reptile must have recently shed its skin, its beautiful colouring shimmering in the sun as it slithered a hasty retreat into the under growth, obviously perturbed about the production of one hooked stick and black plastic box.
The day was completed with a walk on the mountain, through pine tree plantation, reminiscent of times spent in Yorkshires Dalby Forest, but on a grander scale. The foliage slowly changing, the forest floor covered in dense mountainous fynbos, the ferns with fronds of new growth awaiting to uncurl. The dam nearby mirroring the mountain peaks in the slight ripple of its cool waters.
