Day 11

Day eleven
Monday 27th January 2020
Current position
Aloe Villa
91 Baron Van Reede Street Oudtshoorn
6620
South Africa
S 33°35.02434'
E 22°12.25224'

We left the bed & breakfast this morning glad to leave their pillows behind as they were like bags of cement and as hard as concrete. Otherwise the little room which was converted from one half of their double garage was fine.
This morning we were getting a boat ride up the Blue Lagoon. We parked up in the shopping centre car park and as we walked passed a lady in a small brick kiosk she asked if we would like to join other passengers on the Black Pearl at ten. To save any messing about we said yes as the boat was an old sailing ship similar but a lot smaller than the boat we sailed on around the Whitsunday Islands in Australia. As it was just after ten she radioed the boat and asked for  it to wait for us. We quickly made our way to the quay and hopped aboard. The skipper was an elderly man who left a young chap to deal with the few passengers two Chinese couples a German Couple and us.
The young very suntanned lad gave us a running commentary starting with the history of the varnished wooden boat which was just over sixty years old. During its life it had travelled halfway round the World passing close to South America. It still had its original engine that sounded as sweet as a nut.
We motored towards the small inlet out to sea where the water became quite rough with the little boat pitching and turning as it hit the waves. This was the scare the tourist part of the trip but no sooner had we hit the rough water than the skipper turned around and headed back to calmer water. Fifteen minutes later the jib sail was raised and the engine switched off and further headway was made in silence.
Just under ninety minutes is not a long time when you are enjoying yourself and soon the young lad was jumping ashore and making fast the line. We said our goodbyes and went off for morning coffee and a chunk of carrot cake. We stopped at a supermarket to buy lunch and ended up with sputnick and chips. The strangely named sputnik was a coarse cut frankfurter wrapped in a pastry spiral. Not bad but we woundn't queue to buy another. The rest of the days journey took us along the start of Route 62 to Oudtshoorn where we are staying for a couple of nights. This took us along a pass through the Outeniqua Mountains  in the South and the Swartberg Mountains to the North. Nearing the end of our journey I spotted an old bright red American car sitting outside what looked like a café. We pulled in and sure enough it was a Dodge delivery van and parked behind it was a bright red mini from the seventies. There were also a collection of VW beetles and camper vans. Inside there were a selection of easy rider motorcycles. We had an enjoyable time or at least I did looking at this memorabilia while we had a cup of tea and shared a thick slice of lemon meringue pie with ice cream.
We arrived up at our overnight stay at five and our host made us most welcome. We are the only guests in his property which he lets but lives elsewhere so we have the run of the place. He recommended that we eat at a restaurant called Nostalgie which serves traditional South Africa dishes. This we did and Ros had Ostrich pie while I had Ostrich steak. The ostrich steak was very tender with not a single molecule of fat.
So tonight I ate an ostrich tomorrow with a bit of luck I'm gonna ride one.