By Sungula Nkabinde
Today was a day of firsts. The first day of the SA Home Owner Game Lodges road trip. My first ever road trip. My first time driving a Toyota Fortuna. My amuse bouche. My first stay at Tau Game lodge. And (soon after I’m done with this post) my first sleep in a four poster bed.
Having spent at least five hours on the road getting here, the day has been somewhat uneventful. We underestimated the traffic we would encounter on the N4 and, as a result, missed our scheduled game drive, which was supposed to be at 5pm.
We arrived a little after six, and after a tame interrogation from the security/gatekeeper/game reserve official (there was no way of telling for sure what her actual designation was) we were welcomed by two semi-staunch men at the reception entrance. For a second, I felt like we had just driven into an episode of “The Wild”.
Tumi, the anchor of the lodge and Iggy, the game ranger, had been waiting to give Philile, Nic and myself a fitting welcome. And it was clear they were a little disappointed that we had not made it in time for the game-drive they had planned. But, still, it was smiles all round and they promised we be able to go on a drive tomorrow in the morning.
They carried our bags to our rooms, where we were to remain until it was time for supper. My first thought after walking into the room was, “where’s the TV?”. How typical of a city dweller, right? There was no TV. Only a large polka dot armchair, a massive four poster bed I had only seen in movies and homes I normally write about, a mahogany cabinet with kettle on it and bar fridge inside, and a matching desk with a wooden giraffe lamp on it. Minimal lighting in the room created a setting that really made me wish my girlfriend was here with me. One look at the spacious bathroom (which had a luxuriously sized in-floor bathtub and an outdoor shower with ample space) and I was already dialing my lady to tell her how much I wished she was here.
Come supper time, we were treated to a three-course meal where we were joined by Iggy who gave us details of our morning game drive. “I give you a wake-up call at 6:30am…at seven, we’ll have breakfast and go for the drive straight after,” he said. As I was calculating how many hours of sleep that amounted to, he continued to tell us more about himself and his work.
The food was divine. And when I say divine, I mean DIVINE. As an apetizer, we had brazed camembert cheese. Man did it taste great! For starters, I had salmon with cream cheese while my colleagues had beetroot soup. Options for the mains consisted of grilled west coast sole and caper sauce, mozzarella and spinach stuffed chicken wrapped in parma ham, and lamb shank with orange chocolate sauce. Naturally, being the carnivore that I am, I went with the latter. For dessert I chose lemon meringue over a pecan nut pie, cremé caramel and fruit salad option. Oooooh! To say it was was a treat for the taste buds would be a massive understatement.
And that brings me to the end of my first day and indeed this post. I’ll be sure to keep you posted on how the rest of the journey pans out.
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