Day by Day Travels

Today – the 4th of July, we awoke to another sunny day.  We were up and packing and then a 9am breakfast call.  Alex and Anne made us the most amazing crepes for breakfast.  Then we packed up and hit the road- on our way to Thanda Safari lodge for a 1pm check in.  We stopped at Hluhluwe as Alex said that we had to try the biltong at Allen’s butcher shop- we found the place and ordered up some of the best biltong I’ve ever had!  Next door was a delightful coffee shop, so we had a latte and snacks and then were back on the N2 North to Thanda.  We turned off the road onto the orange dirt road and in 5km were at the gate.  Our driver was not there yet, so we parked the car and waited for him to arrive.  Within 15 minutes the land ranger arrived and Themba, our driver for the next few days showed up.  He drove us the 15 minutes to the lodge and we were on the lookout the entire way for game.  We did see some Eland and that was about all.  We knew this place was spectacular, but truly not how spectacular until we arrived at our bungalow – #4.  Wow, this place is huge, the girls have twin beds set up in the living room, our king size bed will do just fine; then there is the lookout deck with a huge round bed to lay on and look at the reserve below; the plunge pool seems a little cold, but we might risk going in- we were warned that we should not sleep outside as the animals could come up to the deck; lastly the bathroom is to die for- I see a bath in my future.

We are not allowed to walk back to our rooms by ourselves as this area is not wired off the animals can roam free- including up to the rooms.  So Sipho walked us back to freshen up before dinner.  Dinner was amazing- the girls started with a vegetable soup with blue cheese “Delaney said- ew it’s like I just ate barf!” But they ate up- we had a smoked salmon salad followed by a Blesbok steak on squash and a side of polenta – wow!!  Malva pudding ended a perfect day.