Elliot, South Africa

The Malachite Manor has lots of natural light and once we opened the curtains and blinds the room was really bright. We had breakfast and packed up, on the road by 8:45.

It was supposed to a 4.5 hour drive to our next stop, but we got caught up in local traffic in towns. There were really nice views of the Drakensberg on our right as we drove.

The driving was really fun. The road didn't have a flat or straight section - I was constantly shifting gears. It's the type of road they shoot car commercials on.

At about 2:30 we were an hour out from Elliot, and I was getting physically tired from driving, what with all the changing of gears. (Unlike most driving in Canada where I eventually get mentally fatigued). We pulled into a small little bakery for a tea and snacks just outside Ugie. Their baked goods all looked very yummy. We had some scones with butter and apricot jam, and a Five Roses. (Black tea is referred to by the brand here).

I felt much better for the last stretch into Elliot. The hotel we were staying at was 20km outside Elliot, at the top of Barkly's Pass. The rock formations were amazing. Luckily there were no other cars or trucks (as there was nowhere to pass) and so it was a fun drive to the top in our little Toyota Corolla.

You would think at 1990m the temperature would be lower, but it was still 35C as we pulled into Mountain Shadow Inn. It was unusually hot.

There's no air conditioning as the issue is usually cold. But at night the temperature drops to 17C so it wasn't really needed.

The power went out around 5pm, a common occurrence at the Inn, and they were well prepared. We showered while it was still light outside, and then went to the main lodge for a drink.

The Inn has a warm British-style pub, complete with other travelers having a boisterous conversation. The ringleaders were four old friends from university that were now retired and got together once a year to adventure motorbike in different parts of the country.

We were quickly welcomed into the group and had some drinks. They were quite intrigued to find tourists in this part of the country - I guess mostly tourists hit the highlights of safaris and coast.

Dinner was excellent, South African comfort food - sliced beef, lamb chop, beets, pumpkin (which here has a tea leaf flavour when cooked), creamed beans.

The four guys had insisted we join them back in the bar area for a drink after dinner on them (or a nightcap as it's called). So we had another drink, Heather tried a amarula, a South African cream liqueur somewhat like Bailey's.

The power was still out when we went to bed, it was so dark (it was raining so there were no stars or moon) that we couldn't see our hand in front of our face.