The sense of achievement we felt on finishing the long ride to Williston was soon replaced by the realization that we have still got a long way to go before we are back in good shape again.  It took us most of the first day in Williston to feel half human.  An tomorrow we have got to get up and do it again.  It's about a hundred and twenty kilometers to Calvinia and the wather might not be on our side.  In particular, it could be a lot hotter with a head wind in the afternoon.  We plan to rest there for a few days before carrying on.

Our hosts at Annie's Inn, Deon and Anna-Marie, are a dear old Afrikaaner couple approaching eighty.  Deon still runs a farm out of town and despite no training is the de facto point of veterinary advice in town while Anna-Marie keeps herself busy running her small campsite and three rooms that she lets out.  They are at an age that it is unrealistic to expect that they have adjusted completely to changing attitudes in South Africa but it doesn't prevent them from being kind and gentle folk.

The contrast between Williston and Carnarvon, two similar sized towns in the same region, is striking.  Williston is clean, neat and as close to fully functional as a rural South African town can be.  The air of desperation that choked us in Carnarvon was gone.  People in the streets seemed friendly and relaxed and there seems to be busyness that was missing in Carnarvon.  As in Carnarvon the demographics of the town are far more representative of the general population of the Northern Cape and the small township of Amandelsboom (Almond Tree) next to the town proper seems small in comparison to many other towns. 

The weather is hotting up so we have to adjust our plans to suit it.  In particular we will need to keep our distances short enough so that we can reach our targeted destination before it gets to the hottest part of the day.  The holiday season has also started so finding accommodation is going to get more difficult.