When we checked in yesterday at Keloe Safari Lodge, they told us breakfast would be from 9am. We went, oh no, 7am for breakfast please. We definitely didn’t want breakfast at 9am when we had an 8 hour drive ahead of us. I don’t think they could fathom that we wouldn’t want to sleep in on a Sunday am. Of course they did accommodate our 7am request. And then they continued to try very hard over breakfast. “Would you like cereal?” ‘No thanks’ “Why? Aren’t you hungry?” ‘No we just can’t eat all all of what you are offering us.’ “What about some fruit? And Yogurt?” and so it went. I think they seriously couldn’t understand why we wouldn’t want everything. We were clearly confusing them. H and I both had an omelette and it had the most amount of cheese I have ever seen in an omelette. In fact it was cheese with an incidental omelette. We did finally get on the road at 8am but not before H told the staff they could do find better employment and she would give them a reference if they wanted it.

The drive was straight down the N1 heading south taking us to Pretoria (and right past where I grew up until I was 14 years old), Centurion and Johannesburg. You then cross the Vaal River and into Free State. Our 7th province of the trip – the only two we haven’t visited are Kwazulu-Natal and Eastern Cape. The Free State is farming heartland of SA. Maize fields were looking really impressive and stretched for as far as the eye could see. Unfortunately after Johannesburg the traffic especially of trucks picked up a lot and that meant a lot of braking, passing, braking, passing etc. And of course you get the stupid drivers – one truck trying to pass another one on the uphill on a non-passing line; a BMW driver trying to overtake cars who were overtaking by using the verge on the right side as an extra lane, an Audi driver weaving his way between the traffic and lanes. What is it about BMW and Audi drivers (yes I know a few of reading this are BMW and Audi drivers so I hope you don’t drive like them!)?!

We did a brief detour into Bloemfontein to buy some healthier lunch of fruit, salad, sushi and chicken kebabs from the Woolworths and then back on the road again to our overnight stop of Tzamenkomst River Lodge. We have stayed here before and it is our definite preference to stop over here. It is right off the N1 that you find it and about 5 kms from their gate to the lodge. The lodge is right on the Orange River. Their food is straightforward (tonight we chose deboned lamb shanks) but always tasty. Alcohol is reasonably priced and the service is always good. It is just a nice place to have your last night before reality sets back in. Nothing like sitting on the side of the river sipping your drink and watching the sunset over the Orange River.

At dinner we were entertained by two other tables of guests. They got speaking to each other and soon found that they had people in common including their son having stayed at the other people’s house. H and I didn’t need to say a thing, we just listened in and enjoyed their conversation. It was quite entertaining. We discovered about where they actually live, where each set was continuing onto (including the exact stops and accommodation), medical issues, children and grandchildren, retirement etc. It really was highly entertaining. Who needs TV when you can listen in to someone else’s real lives.

As H and I have built in alarm clock that wakes us up now at 5am, we expect tomorrow will be another early morning. So I need to go to sleep now as pretty fatigued from driving most the day.

Until tomorrow … P & H