Thursday eventually dawned, bright and sunny, and I was ready to roll at six am, but as Irma, who thought me stark raving mad, had decided that I had to be watched, and her friend Hannes had decided to join me, I almost ruined my liver from all the coffees I downed before they would arrive. At last we were seated and ready to go, Hannes behind the steering wheel of my little Uno, Irma next to him, and me in the back. I was going to drive, but on seeing Hannes's face when he realised that he would be driven by a lady, and that lady twelve years his senior, I, no a very perverse person, told him that he could do the honours. We were not even half way up the Outeniqua pass when I started sweating! Not from the heat, but from bally fear, as I soon realised that Hannes knew only one way of driving, and that is' voet innie hoek', meaning his foot was flat on the petrol, never to be lifted until we reached our destination, and my poor little Uno was hurtling up the steep pass like a demented dung beetle with a too big dungball, revving to high heavens and gulping now and then from sheer fright, I think! When we reached Knolls Halt and stopped for refreshments and the loo, I could hardly get out of the car as my poor body had gone into one big spasm! My legs felt like two jelly sticks, but I managed to reach the loo, a very pale Irma at my side, and after scrubbing the seat vigorously I sat down, something I just don't do, but my legs were not in a state to support me on the very riggity seat. Almost had another spasm when, on washing my hands, I caught sight of self in the cracked mirror! My face was deathly white with a blue tinge around my mouth, and I was sure a heart attack was not far off. I pinched my cheeks for some colour, regretting seriously the present I made Elisabeth of my make-up! Irma did not look much better! But after I had put some fluids back into my dried out body with a bottle of litchi flavoured water, and replaced the salts with a packet of vinegar chips, I felt a lot better, and if not with enthusiasm, I at least got into the back seat again. Not long into the second leg we encountered another pass, and I made a halfhearted attempt to let Hannes go slow on the petrol and use the gears, but he either did not hear me, or did not know how, so I just closed my eyes and prayed! At last we reached the turn-off to Haarlem, and I forgot all my misgivings at the beauty that unfolded before us. The mountains that surrounded Haarlem was just lovely, with different greens and the browns of ploughed land, and little houses dotted all over. The cloud that shrouded the top of the highest mountain threw a shadow over part of the landscape, transforming it into an almost unreal sight. But I was brought back to earth when we drove into the little village, and the first sight to meet the eye was a few unkempt houses, just about falling apart, with unkempt people gaping at us from where they were loitering in the sun on their varandas. I was ready to call it a day and make a run for it, but I had promised the agent that I would not drop her, as she had to drive about sixty kilometres.