South Africa #46

Oh.....we are are on our way to our final stop, which is the Aan de Vliet Lodge in Hazyview, another beautiful spot. When we arrived we all hardly even checked out our rooms before jumping in the pool. There were two pools, a shallower “soaker” pool and the large one that everyone ended up in. I think this is the first time that everyone was at the pool at the same time. It was just so hot. We have been incredibly lucky with crowds at hotels, meaning that there haven't been any at all. Pools, restaurants, bars, seating areas and so forth have all been virtually empty. Traveling during the shoulder season is the best. Weather is still good, crowds are at a minimum and children are elsewhere and the rainy season hasn’t quite started. 

After a cooling soak, I checked out my room. It’s awesome, but very strange. There is a small table with a couple of chairs directly inside the front door, and then, just beyond that is the kitchen with no table, but 2 really high beds on cement pedestals. Very odd, but excellent for putting my suitcase on for re-packing. Then there was a huge bathroom and a whole separate bedroom. (Almost all the doors are the half-barn door style....excellent for forgetting and banging your hip bones on. I have bruises in places where I’ve never had a bruise before.)

The rooms are individual little round buildings. This is the 3rd or 4th place like this, I just love them! It’s very Hobbit-ish, especially with the thatched roofs.



Dinner was a buffet style again, and it was almost as if it was set up for a wedding, very elegant. 

The only thing about dining al fresco is the unexpected dinner guests. He (she? It?) was about 3 inches long. Not sure what it is, but it seemed harmless. 

Early to bed tonight as we are leaving for Kruger at 4:30 AM, to beat the heat. Lots of croaking frogs here, we are near the river (with more “Beware of Hippo” warnings). I keep seeing giant frogs outside my door, I’m not sure if they want in or not, but they are so big that they sort of make me nervous. One of the women had one in her shower. Yikes!