We left our ecotourism resort in Lesotho very early in order to reach our beach destination before dark. This being winter, the days are not very long to begin with. The drive was quite beautiful through mostly barren grazing land reminiscent of the southwestern U.S.
Along the route we stopped at a shopping mall in a small town to shop for dinner and buy our lunches. One of my fellow travellers succumbed to an ATM scam (again!) and had about $1000 stolen out of his Canadian account. That is 2 out of 6 of us who have been ripped off. You need to be very vigilant around here with ATMs because the thieves are very slick. They alter the machines to jam your card and then try to assist you in getting your card back – duping you into revealing your PIN number to them (by watching over your shoulder while “helping” you). Then they steal the card out of the machine while you are distracted and quickly run to another machine to try and empty as much as they can out of your account. Morale of the story is to keep everyone at a distance when using an ATM and only choose those manned by security guards inside banks.
Anyway, we finally arrived as a beautiful beach resort backpackers place for a two night stay. Most homes around here are awfully wealthy so you have to wonder how they got their hands on this property!