Day 350 South Africa 18/10/2011, Bushpackers camp-site, Hazyview. Aaargh snake! and a rather less stressful shopping trip.

Considering it is the first time we have used the tent for a while, we slept pretty well. We woke to a light rain this morning and had an unexpected encounter with a sheltering snake. Once again it was me who moved a bag and practically gave myself a heart attack. The snake was only a baby about 30cm long, but that was plenty big enough to cause me to squeal like a girl. Or at least that is what Debs claimed I sounded like! All I could think of was that I had read somewhere that all brown coloured snakes in Africa are venomous. Here I was suddenly confronted by a small brown coloured snake.

I told Debs to stay in the inner tent, while I set about trying to usher it outside. This would have been much easier if we had two working doors. Eventually it rather slowly slithered out and into the undergrowth. It wasn't at all aggressive and had I known that it was harmless I would happily of picked it up, but as yet I still don't know what kind of snake it was.

Panic over, we headed to the kitchen to make breakfast and then rode into the town to get some food for the road. Taking the bikes to a shopping mall in South Africa was a bit of a problem. It seems that no-one rides a bike here so there is nowhere to secure them safely. When we tried to lock them to a post we were told that we couldn't leave them there and were directed to the motorbike parking area. As this was just an open bit of concrete we weren't overly keen to leave them locked and leaning against a dustbin. The security guards assured us that they would look after them, so other than leaving empty handed we had no choice but to trust them.

Walking round a shopping mall that contained three supermarkets is taking some getting used to. It is great being able to buy food, but is just too easy to get carried away. Showing remarkable restraint, we left with full bags of food that we actually needed and left the exotic treats behind.

Back at the bikes the security guard had been true to his word and everything was still there. We gave a small tip and guess this is what we will have to do when we stop anywhere with the bikes. Security of our possessions is not something we have had to worry about too much prior to now.

There was no mad partying at the camp-site tonight, instead it was an early dinner followed by an early night. We have a bit of climbing to do tomorrow and it has been a while since we have been seriously in the hills. Let's hopes our legs hold out!