Off we go to find the Garden Route

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Leaving Kwa Madwala

The bleep of Annabel’s wristwatch alarm heralded the start of a gruelling day of travelling: we rose and packed promptly and loaded our stuff into the game vehicle where it waited until we had finished breakfast and checked out. Manyatta rock camp was a beautiful place with friendly staff, and we were sad to leave when the transfer car arrived. Today was still not a money-back day though - armies of impala still bade farewell as we left the park and travelled to Nelspruit airport.

Check-in and boarding were straightforward, and the flight on the SAA’s clockwork Jetstream aircraft back to Jo’burg was fairly painless since we are now used to the buffeting and turbulence that a smaller plane can be vulnerable to. We also managed to cadge four packets of cream biscuits (short- flight substitute for in-flight meals, thank God).

Mr Transfer Agent (forget his name, but a nice bloke) met us at Jo’burg with the rest of our baggage and we proceeded to check in again ready for the Port Elizabeth flight. This was a relief, since the logistics of splitting luggage to accommodate small flight weight restrictions had been playing on our minds. Visions of half of our luggage bobbing around Africa as it lagged a flight behind us had been plaguing Mark’s nightmares!

Anyhow, we killed time in the airport and endured an unremarkable flight to Port Elizabeth, just a little less whee-thump that the previous flight. The Europcar rep wasn’t waiting for us as promised at the airport, so we had to endure hire car and SatNav hire beaurocracy before piling into the agreed Toyota Verso. It was a little too small for all of us and our luggage (a special challenge for Mark), but by then we were too tired to care. The SatNav has also proved less capable than Twiki, whom we now recall with affection. We’ve named this one Berk, due to its less able features and reduced ‘personality’. Eventually we made our way onto the N2 (via a housing estate - eh?) and Annabel settled in for the 220km journey that ultimately took us three hours to drive. This was quite uneventful (the necessary familiarisation process permitting) apart from our first encounter with South African road works (hand operated traffic lights and a twenty minute wait in the dark on a motorway grade road - ulp!), an inadvertent game of chicken and a toll gate.

Eventually we saw the ‘Hog Hollow’ sign (just east of Plettenberg Bay) and turned down the lane to our home for the next two nights. Initial impressions were very good, earthy African decor, milk and gingerbread men for the kids , a plethora of towels all nicely tied up in bundles and bed time stories for adults and children alike. As it was now after nine pm we decided to skip eating and head straight for bed. The kids had a choice of sofa beds in the sitting room downstairs and the adults were safely ensconced upstairs in a luxurious bedroom.

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