The Albatross
Sunday 20 August 2023
Off on our morning Safari. There is bugger all wildlife, I really mean virtually nothing compared to normal. A few springbok, some wilder beast and the odd rhino and elephant, but compared to other days virtually nothing. A tad disappointing for our last trip out, oh well, we’d done very well on other days.
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Back up the steps for the last time, big breaky as we planned to skip lunch, pack our bags and head down by 11:00. But wait big news, a pride of lions had moved into our waterhole, one of the other guests had spotted them from her balcony. So our transfer to our car left at another lodge became one of the highlights of our trip. A small pride of lions a few metres from our car, Woo Hoo!
Pack our bags into the car and cruise into Pretoria to our apartment to wash our dusty durps, and get things organised was the plan, simple right. Not so fast there tiger, we received a phone call saying our apartment had been cancelled due to “damage”, and they will find us another one. I said yes, and gave them requirements that it must be similar, have a decent kitchen and a washing machine. He said he found one, and reserved it for us with a discount but we need to actually book it.
The problem is we don’t have roaming data, so I used Maps.Me to find a McDonalds down the road. That done and once we finally hooked in to Maccas dropping in and out wifi, we decide the place was acceptable and booked it.
Off again, on the way. We were on a toll way, and we thought the car had an E-Tag. It didn’t work and I was down to my last 10 Rand as the teller before we hit the park were down. Fee 26 Rand. Tuna tried to pay with credit card, but they didn’t take it. We just didn’t have the cash, so what else could we do. Eventually he just accepted the 10 Rand and let us through. Maybe he felt sorry for us or if Tuna played up dumb tourist enough. I found a petrol station a few kms up the road and we swerved into that town. It was in a small strip mall. The first ATM was out of cash, the second one had crashed completely, the third had a broken keypad, finally number 4 delivered some sweet, sweet cash. Off again, gleefully paying our tolls.
Getting near our accommodation, we detoured to another Maccas, hoping check-in instructions had arrived. They had, rapture!! Found the place, but on closer inspection we were given instructions for two apartment. The nice security manager sorted that out. The bad news, no washing machine as advertised, there is a communal pay one, so that will get the job done. By this time no shits were given. We found an open supermarket, bought some provisions and headed home and somewhat collapsed.