Ntsiri - June 2016

Some time in May my son approached me and said he would like to borrow our 4x4 for a trip to a game farm. I said that would be fine.

Some time later he asked whether I would like to join him on this trip. It sounded interesting so I agreed. This was something like a blind date for me because I did not know the host.

This was a boys only affair and anyway Sylvia is not allowed to go to a malaria area and she was happy for me to go without her. (People who know me will understand.)

The departure time was set for nine in the morning. I thought this might have been a bit late but I was the invitee so did not really comment a lot. Closer to the departure date the time was reset to six in the morning. (In my opinion this was a much better idea as it would take a few hours to reach pour destination.) On the appointed morning I threw the last few bits into the 4x4 and reversed up the driveway. Here Sylvia pointed out that there was a severe shortage of tail lights. Brake lights yes - normal lights no. There would be about fifty minutes before the sun rose after the departure time. This was worrying so on arrival at the sons home from where the other passengers would also alight I attempted to find the cause of the lack of light. Age does not assist sight in the darkness and after much scratching around we achieved nothing.

On time we set off - four guys looking forward to the weekend.

Soon after leaving a call was made for a smoke break! Good grief - how often could this happen? (Well I opposed each stop and the others cheered in favour of opening the doors as often as they could get me to stop.)

Breakfast was held at Milly's on the way to Machadodorp. Here I was accosted by someone who recognised me from a previous trip and noticed my lack of wife. (It can be impossible to go anywhere unrecognised these days.) The potholes from here to Hoedspruit were very bad and many were large enough to damage a vehicle.

By midday we arrived at Hoedspruit where we stopped to take on supplies. (A little food and lots of alcohol. Before we stopped here I had enough alcohol in the 4x4 to last me and Sylvia for an extended three week trip.)

From there it was just over an hour's drive to our destination.

On arrival we were met by our host who showed us our lovely bedroom where we placed our goods.

Soon after we were on our first game drive.

Our gracious host made sure that we had a lovely dinner and we sat around a lovely bush television set.

The next day we also enjoyed the bush driving around and watching the animals from the house.

In the evening our host pointed out star features using a laser pointer.

On the last day we decided to have lunch in Hoedspruit on the way home.

This time we decided to take the Belfast route and the road was in much better condition.

As we approached Belfast my generous passengers offered to buy me a cold drink and when I politely declined their offer I was begged to stop for a nicotine intake.

Darkness fell just after Witbank and again the lack of rear lights worried me. As we came into Benoni suddenly there was a traffic police vehicle in front of me. I slowed down so as not to pass it and naturally it slowed down too so we both crawled on until it turned off. On the way home one of my kind passengers lit my rear from my sons drop off to our home.

Thank you to our host for going out of his way to make our visit enjoyable and memorable.

The link below contains some of the pictures I took to remind us of the wonderful time we had.

https://picasaweb.google.com/105203493367845189954/6294198388157829201?authkey=Gv1sRgCJvk04_A86qt3AE