Day 10: Zebra Lodge to Oudtshoorn

It was another absolute scorcher today. I woke up in a sweat, and basically never stopped sweating profusely until the day was over. Wouna and I probably both suffered mild heat exhaustion the previous day, as we both experienced headaches and a generally nausious feeling. Luckily Wouna had the bright idea that we should freeze our waterbottles, which definitely helped for the first few kilometres.

We started the day with a nice dirt road section running parallel to the N12. This allowed us to at least get a start away from the traffic and to miss the early morning rush between George and Oudtshoorn.

Once back on the N12, progress was slow as a result of all the cars charging by - each time you have to step off the road onto the very rough shoulder where speedy progress is almost impossible.

As we were strolling along, Wouna suddenly noticed a small tortoise halfway across the road. A big truck sped by, frightening the poor animal to a stand-still, and there it sat with 3 cars coming towards us. In a total panic, we started waving at the cars and pointing at the motionless tortoise. The first two apparently understood our signals, as they swerved and missed. The third driver, however, was so stunned or confused by our antics that it ended up pulling to the side of the road to check if we were OK! At least the crises was averted and we managed to carry the tortoise across the road to safety.

En route to Oudtshoorn the road makes some grand sweeps across the mountains, which is very scenic, but not a joy to walk. Often the inside of the curve has no shoulder to walk on, while the outside feels quite risky, with passing cars often appearing not in full control of where they're going.

About 5km from town we found our first open, working farm stall, Bakenskraal, so we immediately pulled in for some cool refreshment. An icy Coke and Fanta and some friendly chatter with the shop-owner later, we were on our way again.

We spent the night at Karoo Soul, a very classy and upmarket backpackers centrally located in town - thanks for the free camping spot, Ilse! Being in the first 'big' town since the start of our trip, we made the most of our opportunities to stock up on emergency food and medical supplies.

We had a lovely cool Sauvignon Blanc (food for the soul!) with our dinner, before retiring to some much needed, but much to short, rest.

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