Blog Day 22 Sat 28th May 2011
One thing we have learnt in South Africa is that Saturday is rugby day! Whether its playing or watching! For us its watching, so we head for a bar in town called Olde’s to watch the Stormers take on the Brumbies. After breakfast and a stunning milkshake we take a short stroll back to the hostel. We wait here for a few hours before saying our goodbyes to Lendal & jumping on the Baz Bus heading off to Plettenberg Bay. The clouds roll in & we are destined for torrential rain once again. We arrive at the next hostel called Starling Village & meet Mathew & Vicky (the owners). As it’s so quite all around at the moment they are doing 20% off & we get put into a Double en-suite room instead of a sharing dorm room-SWEET!!! The rain starts absolutely pouring it down so we sit around the fire & get talking to a guy called Alan. Turns out Alan is a real special guy. He starts by talking to Dan about his rugby playing days, which consisted of him breaking his leg three times, having both knee caps replaced, and being in traction for 18months following breaking his neck. Then Alan goes on to say that he went on holiday to England and ended up joining the army. He has done 4 or 5 tours of Afghanistan where he got shot, more than once! The first time he got hit in the stomach, the bullet travelled up through his diaphragm, punctured his left lung and came out of his left bicep, and he survived that. The second time, which baffled us, he got shot in the head! The bullet hit a metal that’s in his forehead (another sports injury) travelled under his scalp and came out the back of his head!
At one point we both thought that this guy was talking out of his arse, but when he showed us the scars and the pictures, we couldn’t help but nickname him LUCKY!