Sometimes you end up in a place where you can just relax and have a really good time. For us Buccaneers has been just such a place. We have joined in with as many of the free activities that we could and I have even become respectable at volleyball. There have been no more prizes of free dinner though. Having said that we have been more than willing to help drink the free wine.
Of the people we have met, special mention has to go to John and his son Alex who we joined for a lovely meal at a a nearby restaurant. They have been very good company even if playing table tennis against Alex proved that it is not just volleyball that I am poor at!
We also have to say a big thank you to the staff and especially to Lucy who has organised most of the activities. Being South African holiday season means that there have been less backpackers and more families staying. Getting participants for the activities has been a bit of a struggle, as it seems that most South Africans just do their own thing while they are here. I think the staff have quite enjoyed having us around, especially as they think we are mad to have cycled here!
Talking of mad, to the sound of much hilarity from the staff I signed us up for a three hour mountain bike tour. The first part involved meeting the completely bonkers, 92 year old, Mama Tofo. The lovely local woman explained to us about Xhosa culture and showed us around her home. We may have only understood about half of what she said, but it was both interesting and hilarious at the same time.
The mountain bike part of the tour turned out to be a bit of a disaster. The main problem was that the bikes were rubbish. Mine was stuck in about 20th gear, Debs chain continually slipped and our guide had forgotten his tools so our seats were at the wrong height. Better still when one of the group got a puncture, I had to take the wheel from the guide as he was trying to put the badly repaired inner tube back in with a pair of scissors! These were the same scissors that earlier he had attempted to undo the hex bolts that held my seat in place with. He was obviously unsuccessful!
We all managed to lose the guide as he showed no real desire to keep up, and had to find our own way back to camp. Arriving back at the camp we left the bikes and eventually our guide turned up, having got a lift from the transfer guy who had taken us out to the village. He claimed that he had a puncture and had told one of our group to go on without him; which is a lie as there were only five of us and no one had seen spoken to him since the ill-fated puncture repair moment. It looks like in typical African fashion he just didn't want to go to the effort of actually riding. Despite all the disasters, we actually had a pretty good time. Even though the bikes we were on were rubbish, it still reminded me how nice it is to ride an unladen bike. The stupid thing is that we could probably have taken our own bikes with us.
Sleeping in a tent, normally ensures an early start to the day, so we haven't spent too much time in the bar during the evenings. As this is our last night and we don't have too far to go tomorrow, we will have to make a bit of an effort. Before that though we are heading into the village across the way to meet up with Christine and Jesse who we met in Graskop. They had offered their lawn to camp in, but we have become pretty settled here. It will be very nice to catch up with them though.
Our afternoon meet up over a few drinks, set us up well for the rest of the day. There was no volleyball, which was probably a good thing as I pretty much ache all over. Instead we were roped into helping Lucy decorate the bar with Christmas decorations; the payment being more free wine!
Our planned big last night never really came off, as everyone in the bar was treated to probably the two most awful alternative folk singers that we have ever encountered. Considering that they have struggled to get people to come to the bar, booking the spectacularly dreary duo to play can only be described as a mistake. Clearly some people must have enjoyed their music, but from the expressions on most of the people we have met over the last few days, it wasn't very many!
Back on the road tomorrow for the short ride to East London.
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