It was really nice to wake up in a warm room knowing that we’d be able to have a comfortable shower. It was gray and overcast but had not yet begun to rain. Our Guest House did not offer breakfast, which was fine with us. We were ready for something different.
I ordered an Italiano, aka eggs in purgatory, basically Italian Shakshuka. This one included eggplant - it hit the spot perfectly.
I usd the ladies after breakfast.
No, they didn’t offer paper towels or a hand driver.
We wandered through the gardens. There was a light drizzle but we had our raincoats.
This is protea season but we really haven’t come across many outside of the two Botanical Gardens we visited. They always remind me of Colleen and Alex’s wedding ❤️
Just about the time we were ready to leave, it began to shower. Great timing on our part.
The Guest House allowed us to check out at our leisure which was great until it was time to leave. Almost every house has a large wall or fence around it with a locked gate. Then, there are locked doors into the house and into your rooms. There may even be other locked doors as you move through the house. We used the key fob to get out of the driveway but couldn’t figure out how to close the gate behind us. I had been communicating with our host with WhatsApp but she wasn’t responding and not answering the voice calls. We couldn’t leave the house unsecured. Finally, I found a doorbell outside the gate and, much like with“Ring,” she was able to answer and remotely close the gate. Whew!
We found gas, the car rental return, and the airport. I had intentions to take photos of the car before we left it, but it was raining. Apparently, one scam is to charge you for “damages.” Fingers crossed. We’d also been told by a neighbor of Denis’s sister, to have our luggage wrapped before we checked it. We even planned for this last night when we packed our backpacks - but we were in auto mode and didn’t see it and were more interested in getting to the other side of security. Fingers crossed, that wasn’t a second mistake. I’ll let you know.
Later: Our flight was unremarkable and our luggage arrived just fine. We had used a travel agency, Into Africa, to help arrange the inter-Africa flights since I had been having trouble making connections. I think there was some magic involved in their knowing when a flight became available. One minute there were no flights from George and we'd need to fly from Port Elizabeth, then into Livingstone instead of Victoria Falls, etc. In the end we got the flights we'd pretty much been hoping for. We are spending a night in Johannesburg at one of the airport hotels. We got in about 5 and told there was no need to leave the hotel since the sun went down shortly after 6 and everyone cautions not to go out in Jo'burg after dark.
That's fine. We ate at the Cafe. We ordered a City Shisa Nyama, which is translated from Zulu as burnt meat aka bar-b-que. It came with boerewors (a local sausage), pap (a kind of polenta cake), chakalaka (a spicy chutney-type condiments), chicken, sparerib, and chunks of beef - easily enough for two.
