When I finished typing the blog on Thursday we discussed again, going away for a few days. We decided that we would both get on the internet and if we could find something that looked appealing and could get accommodation at such a late stage we would book, pack and hit the road and this is exactly what we did.
We left home at about 3:30 and spent Thursday night at the Caledon Hotel and Spa. On Friday night we stayed at the Garden Route Game Lodge and last night and tonight we are at Gondwana Game Lodge 30km this side of Mosselbay. Nice short distances to drive and the winter rates are very good. The lodges are also very quiet this time of year with the odd overseas tourist visiting. We did a game drive at Garden Route Game Reserve where we saw Elephant, Lion, Cheetah, Hippo and various buck. We stayed in one of the bush chalets with a beautiful view over the valley. Gondwana Game Reserve is out of this world. We also booked a bush chalet here but they are busy with some winter renovations so we were very lucky to be upgraded to a luxury Bush Villa. I estimate it to be about 300 square metres with a lounge, kitchen and dining room area and a full double bedroom and on-suite bathroom on each side. It has a fire place in the lounge and in each bedroom with a huge wrap around balcony with a built in braai area. Our package is a dinner, bed and breakfast rate including a game drive once a day. The nice thing about coming to these reserves is that the rangers are so used to having to talk to foreigners that don't understand english very well that they really go overboard when they have South African visitors. Our game drive last night was 3 hours and we stopped for a lovely sundowner picnic. We had some amazing sightings, including 2 lionesses eating a kill. I have some fantastic photos of the lions with their faces full of blood. We go out again at 3:30 this afternoon and we are hoping to find the elephants and some cheetah. Jimmy and I have always discussed that we wonder what animals are watching us while the game vehicle stops for snacks and drinks and sure enough, last night we saw something moving in the distance and it was two lions walking by. They were about 600m from us. Our villa is right out in the bush with nothing and no one around us, it takes about 15 minutes to drive back to the main lodge area. The villas are also not fenced in so it is quite possible to have a visitor or two at your front door.
We really are enjoying the quiet, quality time together as this will be our last break away for some time. We will leave tomorrow in time to get to UCTPAH at 3pm when Jimmy has to have his monthly Zobone (calcium) injection, some more bloods taken and then we see Prof for the results of the bone marrow biopsy. I am sure we will also discuss the arrangements for the stem cell transplant and find out exactly when this whole process will start.
I will post some photos once we are home and also post an update of Jimmy's results either tomorrow evening or on Tuesday morning.
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