A One-Night-Cat!

The old station, perfectly restored. and turned into self-catering accommodation now. There are classic and vintage cars displayed all around the village. These can be hired, with a chauffeur to ferry you the four kilometers around the village 

Old petrol bowsers/pumps in front of the building where we had lunch. This used to be the old post office at Thomas River Village

In March, while we were touring South Africa on our motorbike, Grant and I spent a day and a night at a Historical Village in the Eastern Cape.  I'd read about this village in a magazine while visiting friends in the Western Cape. It had been a railway station in the late nineteenth century until mid-twentieth century. It became disused in 1948 (when a new line opened in another area)  and all but forgotten for the next five decades. In 2003,  the village was acquired by Jeff and Ann Samson and since then they have spent the intervening years painstakingly restoring the village. You can read more about this beautiful place here.

This village is situated on one of the really scenic routes on our way home and that's what we decided to do. We phoned and booked our accommodation in the Station Master's House, for the night. We spent a day (after a delicious lunch in the pub, which used to be the old post office) wandering around the conservancy. There is a beautiful old stone church and farmers' hall (exactly like the one where I grew up and like the one in the area where Grant's granddad had a farm - oh the nostalgia!) which is used for weddings and other functions.

OK, I've chosen you!

As we were returning to our accommodation, a ginger cat walked up and joined us. He entered the house with us, had dinner and then slept at the foot of our bed!

Thanks for dinner. Where's my bed?

He spent the night at the foot of our bed (The accommodation was furnished in the retro style of South Africa in the Sixties)

So long!

Early next morning after he'd drunk a bowl of milk we put down for him, he padded down the long passage,  walked out of the front door and into the garden... That was the last we saw of him!

For more on pets around the world, click here