Saturday, 21 July 2018
The flight
It was a misty morning in the middle of winter in Cape Town, our bags were packed and I managed to eat half of my warm oats when Wiaan’s uncle arrived. The bags were in the boot and I was ready to go, except the men were not… Between the 10 meters from the apartment door and the car, the car key got misplaced. I imagined how we had to, torch in the one hand, feel around the pathway garden in search of the key and how we might miss our flight. They found it in the boot.
We were on time at the airport and the check-in clerk did not request our marriage certificate as we anticipated. You see, I have not gone to home affairs to change my ID yet, 3 years later may I add. This is a minor hiccup when your ID says one thing and your flight ticket another. Well, it was when we tried to fly in December, even though we did not leave the country.
The sunrise was gorgeous from the airport lounge and so was the snow on the mountains as the plane crossed Worcester. I highly recommend the muffins on the Kulula flight. Oh and strictly card only, no cash.
We arrived at O.R Tambo with no car booked. The rest of the trip, however, was booked and paid for. I might add that this is not the first time we arrive at an airport with no transport arrangements. We once flew to another country without any deposits paid for. I’ll tell you about our India trip at a later stage.
After negotiating with each car rental company (taking up some of our travel time) we went with Avis. They offered the best package in terms of lowest deposit payments. I do however wish Avis would distinguish on their website the deposit amount from the rental amount. I should also mention that if you stress easily and want an A car option (which is the most affordable), do not leave it to the last minute.
The drive
The open road was waiting and we left the airport taking the N12 onto the N4. We stopped at Ultra City, Middleburg. I loved the set-up. A curio shop, clean bathrooms and a boardroom. You have not one, but five restaurants to choose from. A Steers lunch filled our bellies and kept us going till our next stop. Milly’s of Machado is a special place to fill up on fuel (Caltex) and now that I know of it, a great and beautiful place to stay the night. We checked out the trout in the dam and sipped on our Seattle coffee.
As we entered Nelspruit we saw the Mbombela (Nelspruit’s new name) Soccer stadium. As a friend of ours is an avid soccer fan and player, we made a quick detour to take a photo of the remarkable structure. It has 18 roof supports imitating giraffes. If you know which animal the seating is patterned with let me know.
6km outside of Nelspruit we took a gravel road to our lodge for the night. It was cold but beautiful. The sunset at least.
That evening we had pies we bought from the quick shop at Milly’s. Wiaan also realised that he married MacGyver… As there was no microwave oven in the room I had to improvise. I boiled water, luckily we had a kettle, placed the pie on top of a cup filled with boiling water and steamed the pie warm.
To everyone wondering what happened to the half-eaten oats, I placed it in the fridge. Check out the next post to see if Wiaan and I reached the Kruger park gate in time.