In some ways it feels like a long time since our January Namibia trip but in others it feels like only the other day. It was only 2 months ago so you might be surprised that we are ‘on holiday’ again (my Dad asked me ‘How much leave do you get?’ with a surprise in his voice when I told him we were heading off on a road trip today). This was a long time planned road trip with our friends – B & S and J & R. We also have a new addition – A & O – that have joined us for this trip. They thanked us for inviting them at dinner tonight and I replied ‘You better wait to the end of the trip to make that judgement’.
We left Cape Town this morning at 8am heading for Prince Albert which is our first night stopover. J & R had their Toyota Fortuner stolen some time ago so they are sharing a ride in our cars for this road trip. It is only just over a 4-hour drive to Prince Albert and so we weren’t under any time pressure so we took it relatively easily including a couple of toilet stops to get rid of the morning coffee(s).
The weather got progressively warmer as we drove and by the time we arrived in Prince Albert (around 1pm) it was in the high 20s (C) already. We are staying at Karoo Lodge and our host graciously let us check in early. After check in we headed to the Lazy Lizard for lunch (recommended by our host). We were impressed by the quality of the lunch (and generous portions). Some people wanted to take on a horizontal pose after lunch and the others of us just enjoyed the clean air and gardens. A&O only arrived at 4pm because they couldn’t leave earlier from Cape Town. After they arrived we headed for a bird walk through the town. We didn’t see anything special but added to our trip list. Slowish start on the trip list – I am on 19 and some of the others are on 20 – the one bird advantage is the benefit of not driving and rather being a passenger.
Drinks at the Gin Bar after the walk followed by dinner at Karoo Kombuis (recommended by A as they had eaten there before). At Karoo Kombuis you could get chicken pie, babotie (google it if you don’t know what it is) and roast karoo lamb. You can choose all of them, one of them or two of them. Desert was a steamed lemon desert or malva pudding. Genuinely nice, simple and straight forward dinner complimented by our own wine. We were finished dinner by 8:30pm.
It is 9:30pm and we are all already in our rooms and heading to go to sleep. Loadshedding starts at 10pm so basically nothing to do from that point onwards anyway. I am typing furiously to ensure I finish before it goes dark!
Until tomorrow
P, H (just because she is my wife), B (because we drank his wine and he paid for drinks this evening), S (by virtue of the fact that she is tied to B), A (good recommendation on restaurant for tonight), R (for photo below from his drone), J (for her choc chip cookies) & O (she has some work to do)
