17 August 2009 – Monday
We were up early so we could finish packing for our trip to couples conference. The time seemed to fly by and it was soon time to leave for the Nissan agency where we were to drop off our car to have its brakes serviced. The Bart’s picked us up there and we headed off to the petrol stop on the N2 where we were to meet the rest of the group coming up from Durban.
When we arrived one van load was there and soon after President Mann came with the other. The trip to the Tembe lodge was on good roads. One of the amazing things about the road is that on some sections of this road that runs basically through an open country side there are long concrete walk ways and in some areas there are almost new, wide sidewalks with curbs and gutters. It is a strange contrast to see these modern sidewalks and curbs running through an area where the houses are often made of waddle and rocks with mud plaster. There are few places in modern, well to do Richards Bay that have sidewalks. It is a strange country at times.
The lasts 14 kilometers to the lodge was worse than any part of the Port Durnford road. Except in a couple of sections that obviously had been re-surfaced, there were pot holes that often went all the way across the road. Once again there seemed to be no reason for those sections that were re-surfaced. They would start at one point in the pot hole riddled road and then a couple of kilometers later they would end and the pot holes would resume.
Since we have 12 couples – including the Manns – we were able to reserve the whole lodge for the conference. So we were well taken care of. To keep things short after we arrived we signed a paper releasing the lodge for any accident or injury we might incur – such as being eaten by lions or stepped on by an elephant. Then we were shown to out ‘tent.’ This turned out to be about 20’ x 30’ raised tent with shower, toilet, and beds with electric blankets. Talk about roughing it!
Almost as soon as we got settled we had lunch and then we went on our first of four game drives. To keep this simple on the drives over the next three days we got to see elephants, lions, giraffes, zebras, rhinos, and enough impalas and nyalas that we stopped taking pictures of them.
When we got back from the drive we had time to freshen up before having dinner. Dinner included impala steaks. This was a first for all of us and I must say it was pretty good. It was tender and had no gamey taste.
After dinner we gathered for a short introduction session and then we gathered around the campfire to roast marsh mellows. Sister Mann thinks of almost everything but she did not bring long sticks so people were using wooden skewers to roast the marsh mellows. (As I was typing this at 10:20 on Tuesday night a monkey just ran across our roof. At least I hope it was a monkey.) I saw the problem and walked over to a nearby bush and broke off a longer thin branch and solved the problem of getting your fingers roasted along with the marsh mellows.