Middle-aged flash packers

Last night, we went to the Blue Olive for dinner.

Candy, who is the manager here, told us it’s safe to walk in and out of Wilderness town from Moon Tide so we set off, only to find that none of the keys we were given fitted into the main gate lock. This gave us quite a problem as the gate is locked from 6pm each night and Candy and Maureen go home. Guests are given a key to let themselves in and out.

Luckily for us, one of the guests (there’s not many of us staying here) arrived back as we were struggling with the key, and was able to let us out. Meanwhile, I had popped back to the room so that I could get the emergency number to phone Candy to say our key didn’t work.

After all this, we were going to be late for our restaurant reservation, but as luck would have it, a local guy on his way to the pub to watch the England/South Africa rugby match gave us lift.

The food at the Blue Olive was fine but the rugby match which was being shown on tv in the restaurant, was not. England was absolutely smashed, just like the last time we saw them play against SA in 2019, also sat in a bar/restaurant, that time in Myanmar.

Meanwhile Candy contacted us with the news that she’d messed up because the lock had been changed and she’d forgotten to get a new key cut for our room , but now she had another set of keys for us.

Now, just consider for a moment the absolute paranoia and fear everywhere in South Africa. Homes are ring fenced by razor wire and electrified fences. Everyone has cctv and many people do not go out after dark. Well, I love Wilderness because Candy didn’t come and meet us and physically hand the keys over, she left them in a flowerpot outside the gate!

When we got in, our room door was open. I’d not shut it properly in my rush to get Candy’s phone number. What a bunch of dopes. But all was well. I’m not saying people aren’t scared for a reason but there do seem to be areas where things are a bit more relaxed.

Today we hiked the Kingfisher Trail. Only 10 minutes drive away, it’s a 10k track through woodlands, along a river, all the way to a waterfall. The bird life is great. Within 10 minutes, we’d already seen a loerie bird and heard a choristor robin.

On the way, we had to cross the river on a pontoon. Harder than it looks but good fun.

The waterfall actually had some water in it and there was a nice pool to swim in.

On the way back, S was deep into his bird watching and I could hear a bird really squawking. When I looked round, there was a very long bright green snake with a dark underbelly crossing the path, inches away from S. I didn’t know whether to shout or not, in case I made him jump and he trod on it! As it was, even though the snake was very long, it was quick to get across. S saw the tail disappear into the undergrowth and commented it was only a small snake! The national park ranger said it was probably a boomslang. I googled it and they grow up to 2 metres long so you only saw the “tail end” Steve! They are also very venomous apparently. There’s some wildlife I could do without seeing – hippos and boomslangs are currently top of the list.

Once home, we had a cup of tea and a sunbathe then later we drove over to the boardwalk we can see on the other side of the lagoon from us. We were hoping to see a kingfisher from it but no luck unfortunately.

The late evening sun is shining on the far side of the lagoon as I write; this really is a very lovely place.