Today we said goodbye to 11 new friends,
Valmae & John
Catherine & John
Rosemary & John
Yang & Tobias
Judy
Alexandra
Benjamin
Arriving here on Friday afternoon after a long drive, everyone was relieved to be shown to bright, airy, spacious, air conditioned rooms in the bush. Laying down ‘just to relax’ on our beds is impossible as the comfort lures you into sleep, as several of our new friends found out.
But soon everyone was up and about and itching to stretch their legs on the trail walk before they joined their guide DJ on the top deck of the lapa for sundowners. It has fast become one of his favourite spots to watch the sunset and he makes sure that not one of his group misses the opportunity.
Our lapa is the perfect place to swap stories
Dinner the first night was;
Butternut and feta spring rolls
served with sweet chilli dipping sauce
***
Impala Potjie
served with pap or rice
OR
Lemon Chicken
served with rice
***
Moist Chocolate Cake
served with creamy vanilla custard
On Saturday morning (armed with their packed breakfasts) our new friends went on a game drive to Hluhluwe-Imfolozi game reserve and were even lucky enough to see a Lion! They were happy to see four of the ‘big 5′ – Elephant, Buffalo, Rhino, Lion (just missing the Leopard) – and a couple even preferred Hluhluwe-Imfolozi to the Kruger Park due to its amazing scenery and the view from Hilltop Camp.
On returning from their game drive the braver of our guests decided that they wanted to venture into our snake room to take a peek at Antons little ‘hobby’ – meaning of course his vast collection of highly venomous snakes, scorpions, spiders and frogs.
Little did our guests know that they would get the opportunity to stroke a puff adder – how many people can say that?!
Puff Adders don't feel how you'd expect them too
We even found a jumping spider at the lappa that was larger than any the guests had seen before.
Just when you thought you had seen everything, there is always something new
Dinner the second night was:
Butternut soup
served with breadrolls
***
Chicken Schnitzel
OR
Fillet of Hake
both served with mashed potato / vegetables
***
Apple Crumble
served with cream or icecream
Fresh Hake served on a bed on mashed potato with a side order of vegetables
As is always the case during the Rugby World Cup, gentle mocking and banter about rugby teams is always present, started by the guests of course! So in return we served up the new SA Rugby wine on Saturday to our Australian guests- they even wanted to keep the bottles!
So there we were on Sunday morning, all crowded around the television in Anton and Emma’s house. Australians, South Africans, Germans and other nationalities all glued to the television in the first half and shouting abuse at the referee in the second. Some of our non-Australian guests also joined in the spirit of the game by wearing Springbok jerseys, this resulted in one of the Johns who had forgotten his Wallabies shirt being surrounded by a sea of green Springbok shirts. But despite all our cheering (even for the Aussies on occasion) the wallabies won by 2 points in the 2011 Rugby World Cup knocking out the springboks in the semi-finals.
Then it was time for our new friends to move onto the rest of their holidays. But as they reluctantly left our lodge we could still hear the friendly banter continuing as they drove out of the gates.
Come back soon!!
