A day of driving and rain

It started early....we woke to blue skies and the washing I had on the line overnight was almost dry. We finished packing, cleaned, stripped our beds etc and Nell had just gone to the bins with a sackful of rubbish when the rain started. When rain comes out here, itreally falls heavily...,no half measures out here.

It was fitting that we left Beautiful agate in the rain as we arrived with it too...

Several people came to say goodbye and we left about 9 and headed straight to kick for life for breakfast at their restaurant.

Nothing happens fast in Africa so about an hour later we left and steve started heading towards the border, in totally the wrong directions. The sat nav was quite determined to take us a different way. Anyway, with  the help of that old fashioned concept of a map, we finally got on the right road and we headed north inside Lesotho, through mountains, farm land  and easy roads up to the crossing right up at the top of Lesotho. The crossing was easy compared to Maseru bridge and before we knew it we were heading into Clarens.

Clarens is a very European little town built around a village square. The grassy park at the centre is surrounded by little craft boutiques and restaurants many of which were open today which was unexpected. In Africa most things close n a Sunday which is really good, unless you are a tourist like us! We had a little mooch around and then the the Bader and lightning started, and huge drops of rain fell.  Fortunately I remembered the location f the brewery so we made a dash and spent a relaxed couple of hours eating a cheese platter and sampling the local kraft creations. The torrential rain eventually stopped but we had to walk back to our B and B in the rain.

We have a lovely place to stay, run by British ex pats, although I have only met the gentleman as yet. We have 2 rooms in the garden which are very quaint, full of paintings by the lady owner.

We went out to eat about 6 and had a big choice of places but we had been recommended the best restaurant in town so despite being dressed in tshirts and shorts we ventured in and enjoyed a really lovely 3 course meal for a lot less than we would pay in England.

Having got back home we sat under a half rondeval and chatted for a short while before crashing into bed. We are all quite tired and have another long drive tomorrow, the sun is certainly hiding today but I hope the clouds lift tomorrow sothat we can enjoy a scenic drive.

It has been good today to rehabilitate into reality......life has been a little unreal for the last 3 weeks.

I am falling asleep as I write this so I am gong to sign off now and allow myself to sleep.

Much love from us all,,,

Jenny xxx