Out and about in Hell

We woke up late, again, this is turning into a habit I could get used to.  After a lazy breakfast of scrambled eggs on toast with a trio of Southern BouBou's in attendance, one brave enough to jump on the arm of Caron's chair, we headed up to the shop to pay for accommodation, firewood and some treats to take back with us.  Caron was quite taken with a litter of kittens and spent ages talking to Annetjie who is one of the few people that actually live in the valley.

The below is a "helpmytrap" which made me think of Caron's dad to restore it and Jason who just sort of needs some help.

It was about 11:30 before we took a drive to the other end of the valley where Bo Plaas is and went past many restored original cottages.  When the road was built in the sixties, within about 20 years most of the inhabitants had moved out and their land sold to cape nature except for the two remaining properties.

The campsite at Bo Plaas looks very nice, compared with the eastern end of the valley, with green lawn but limited shade.  If you are the only person or one of only two, it would be great but any more and you would be cooking inside your tent.  Protection from wind is also much better on the eastern end of the valley.  Comparison of the ablutions I think the west end wins but the east is satisfactory but only just.

We had yet another gloriously lazy afternoon spent relaxing, reading and trying Caron's hammock out.  A very successful trial I must say, I think that she is going to be using it more often.  This afternoon was not interrupted by thundershowers which made for a pleasant change.

While we were relazing we were visited again by the Southern BouBou's and then by a trio of mongooses. Very cute but utterly unafraid of us and would walk right up to us within arms length and stand on their hind legs as if to say 'Please sir, can I have some more' but we were strong and didn't give them anything.  We could hear them going through the tent looking for anything edible and even saw them climbing up into the chassis of the car; I don't know what they expect to find there though.

The ablutions at our campsite were a little different because they are held together with mud and a bit of cement based plaster.  It looks like all the houses are build that way here but it doesn't give one a great feeling being inside a mud and rock construction.

I think I must be starting to relax at last because I am starting to have inane thoughts like whether or not there are mortality tables for insects during natural disasters like a thunderstorm.  Are they different for different species,  I can just imagine the conversation.  "So junior, what happened to uncle bob?", "Not sure dad, I think a raindrop got him but nobody saw it happen so maybe it was a bird"  and so on ...