It's late and I'm tired but my summary for today is, that the earlier info reported seems the most reliable, i.e, that he never intended returning to the St Nicholas beach and said to his party that he was heading back to their residence, either directly or not. After all, when he failed to return the first place they looked was the cliff path from the beach to Pedi, and then the main route you'd expect someone sensible to take. It was only the cctv footage that prompted the mountain search. He clearly hadnt informed anyone of his intentions of taking a 4 mile hike around the peninsula. Foolish in hindsight unless he didnt want to be found. And irresponsible for such an educated man. That's the unfathomable thing in all of this. With no mobile phone you wouldn't set off on a long hike in a foreign land without telling anyone roughly where you were going. We've probably all wandered off on holiday, but maybe only to a shop or somewhere inland, not up a freakin mountain in 40 degree heat at an age approaching 70.
I guess we'll see what tomorrow brings but unless he got a boat to somewhere with provisions then it's unlikely to be good. Or if I was a betting person, I'd say we will still be none the wiser.
As for comparisons with NB, that was on UK soil, this isn't. Plus nobody seems to be suspecting any foul play here, its a case of man goes on walk somewhere a little sketchy and comes unstuck. But that really doesn't wash and a strange eventuality seems more and more likely with time.