I felt complete . Mike was also satisfied . He had come a long way with me and now , we knew what lay ahead . The gravel road could be anticipated . The roadworks would challenge us again , but first we would stop for the night . An ice-cold beer had been earned .
Just fifteen minutes back up the road , with the river now to our right , we took a turn towards the water . Immediately the road dropped in front of us and brought us down from the higher road , to one that tugged at the riverbank . A few more terraced drops and a last bend , then we reached the punt . For many years this is how people crossed to reach Witsand and Port Beaufort . The newly built barge can hold about a dozen cars and now cuts over the river without the old cable system . Unfortunately , the new punt had run into some teething problems and was out of commission . People were furious about this . It must have cost millions to have the big boat constructed and after just a couple of trips over , it had already encountered problems . This was just before the holiday season . Tourists would not easily be able to reach the western embankment . The gravel road had led us to roadworks and now a broken-down barge . The operators were scrambling unsuccessfully to fix the issues .
We idled the last minute from the punt to the Malagas Hotel , our overnight stop . The place looked a little like a ghost town . Houses to each side of the large establishment were all locked up and deserted . The hotel itself looked a little tired and dated . This could not have been more untrue though .
As soon as we entered the reception area , we were greeted by a very bubbly team of receptionists . They were so positive and could not wait to welcome us . We filled in some paperwork and were ushered to our twin room . On opening the door , it did seem a little musky . Like it had not been opened for months . I figured that thanks to Covid , this may well have been the case .
The odour did not linger for long . By the time our hosts arrived with some ice-cold water for us , we had all the windows open and our gear spawled out everywhere . Mike and I were both laying back on our beds feeling a tad exhausted . We gulped down the cold water and decided to have a little nap before dinner . It did
not even take a minute for me to be fast asleep dreaming about those old ships from years ago .
We woke around 4pm when my phone rang . Just as well , or we may have slept on and totally missed dinner . The light wind had now totally dropped and the late afternoon sun was beating down on us . We strolled to the punt , taking a sheltered route from the sun under the big blue gum trees as much as possible . Mike and I imagined what
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