Our Arrival!

Waiting for a holiday has to be the nicest "anticipation!" What a pity time flies by so quickly and before you know it, you're home and back in routine! Packed and ready to leave, we hit the road on Sunday at about 10h00. We'd been to a 21st the night before, and hadn't got to bed too early! We stopped off at Milly's which is just outside Machadadorp for lunch. It's one of my favourite places. Machadadorp is known for its trout farms and Milly's sell the most delicious trout products. We bought some smoked trout (to have with scrambled egg for breakfast - yum!), some roulade and some trout with macadamian nuts to take on our picnics to the park. It was quite chilly and I had to ask P to fetch a jacket from the car! Last time I wore that jacket - we arrived at Ngwenya Lodge at around 16h00 - it was 32 degrees C (about 89.6 degrees F).

We didn't get a river front lodge, but our little lodge overlooked the prettiest lake which was filled with "wild" life - ducks and fish, frogs (by the hundred!) and two HUGE Likkewaans, who P thought had their nest in the bushes next to our lodge. They ambled along into the water every morning, and ambled back every sunset!

Our little lodge!

We unpacked and took a walk down to the restaurant/bar area, which was a deck overlooking the Crocodile River. They had had rain for days before we arrived and the river was flowing hectically. We were told that the Crocodile River entrance to the Kruger Park had been washed away and we would have to drive to Malalane to get into the Park which was about 40 k's away. The view from the deck was spectacular! We settled down to some icy cocktails and began to unwind - staring over the horizon in the hopes of seeing some animals!

Side view from the deck

We saw some Waterbuck (who stayed there for the rest of the week!), some impala and two hippos, who were out of the water and grazing on the sweet grass. As the sun set over the Kruger we began to unwind, chatting to the locals about what they had seen and what we should look out for.

Sunset over Kruger National Park

We went back up to our lodge and had a tasty dinner of cheese and biscuits, with preserves, pickled onions and trout pate. P opened an ice-cold Zewenwacht Sauvignon Blanc for me. We sat quietly and drank in the sounds and welcomed the little bat who lived under the eaves of our thatch who brought her baby home to sleep every night! That was our first day ... there was plenty more to come.