African Safari - 03/25, PT. 5

Just before 8am, we are all up, but barely. Sore and stiff muscles and joints made it a struggle to even walk around our lodge. Today is our last day, and we need to be packed up and out before 10am. We drove for a good part of the day, stopping several times during our journey. First thing was driving out to the usual hunting lodge that Christo normally hunts out of, but for this hunt it was full up of utility workers who were building powerline towers through the African bush. Nobody was there though, being a Sunday, and Christo gave me a full tour of the hunting lodge. Many beautiful animals lined the walls of the lodge. Christo also took us out to the meat processing area, where my animals were tagged and put in salt. It was also at this time, Christo took a few portions of meat from my impala, springbok, blesbok, and ostrich – afterall, I didn’t come all this way to not at least try some of the meat that I had harvested.

The normal lodge we would have stayed at. Christo in the middle, Arno at the right.

Sometime later, after trying and failing to talk Christo into letting me drive one of the right-hand drive trucks (if only for a photo OP), we hit the road again and headed towards civilization. I was able to meet Christo’s friend Rosaline, then later Arno’s girlfriend. We had to pick up bedding in Uitenhage before finally arriving at Van Stadens river mouth resort. Check-in was after 2pm, so keeping busy throughout the day was beneficial for us. After we had gotten settled and unloaded our belongings from the truck, Arno and I walked down to the water to watch the surf, and Arno ran into one of his primary school teachers and chatted for a bit.

After we had come back, Christo put some impala backstrap on the braai, and cooked us up a little feed. It was absolutely delicious, and reminded me very much of American deer meat, but with a slightly different gaminess to it. Gaminess is not something I’ve ever really minded, so I found it incredibly tasty. We sat by the fire for a bit, until Christo had finished making us curry chicken for dinner. By this time, I had swiped one of the chili peppers that christo had brought, as apparently I had some sort of allergy to something there at the river mouth, and to combat the extreme congestion and sneezing I would take a bite every half hour or so, just so I could breathe normally. After dinner, we were treated to malfa pudding with a milk-tart topping, which was absolutely fantastic as well. Afterwards, we sat by the fire for a bit, but we packed in early.

Malfa and milk-tart.

Christo (left) and Arno (Right).

Sunset at Van Stadens